We do not know if Sally Hemings was kind, patient, literate, a good mother,
industrious, honest, or any of the other personality and character traits
that define a person.  Those who begin with the proposition that she was
the mother of Thomas Jefferson’s children and the half-sister to
Jefferson’s wife find it necessary to suppose these traits. So, we have a
spate of novels, plays, and Jefferson historical works that present us with
an imagined person. There is speculation on the patient Hemings at
Monticello waiting for Jefferson to return, and when he does, he is excited
by the visage of his long dead wife.  She is said to be fluent in French,
mistress of Monticello, or in the case of one movie, a stop on the
Underground Railroad.  I commented in a previous post that she was a  
“semi-fictional character.”  David Kiracofe observed that since we don't
“know” Sally Hemings, this description of her (which he apparently agrees
with) was “ill mannered.” Odd.

Richard E. Dixon
Editor, Jefferson Notes
Thomas Jefferson Heritage Society
4122 Leonard Drive
Fairfax, Va 22030
703-691-0770 fax 703-691-0978


> [Original Message]
> From: David Kiracofe <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: 5/16/2008 7:23:33 PM
> Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] Language
>
> I think what is upsetting here for some folks is that while Sally Hemings
may loom larger in the imagination -- even to the point of being
"semi-fictional" as you say -- than the hard historical record warrants,
there was, in fact, such a living person: she lived as a slave at
Monticello, a woman, and apparently had a number of children, she was a
mother.    We know little about her beyond that that everyone on the list
could agree on, but I for one consider it uncharitable and ill-mannered to
describe someone who I don't know with such perjorative and even cruel
terminology.
>
> David Kiracofe
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