This rehashing of the Jefferson-Hemmings issue has caused me to wonder about social changes.  In early Virginia, it was not uncommon for whites and people of color to have relationships which resulted in children.  Miscengenation included mixing of white with black and indian.

One of my aunts in the 1770's had a relationship with one of her father's slaves.  We don't know if the person was black or indian.  She stayed at home and raised her children.  When her father died and she attempted to recieve her inheritance one of her brothers took her to court to block the inheritance on the basis of having two children whose color was an insult to the family.  Her daughter married white, her son married into another mixed family.  By 1800 she could have had children that were 1/8 black/indian (octoroon) descendants.  By Virginia Law, the 1/8 black was considered white.

By 1800 many slave owners would be owning white men and women.  I wonder if that sudden awarness that their slaves were white could have changed the attitude from general tolerance or recognition that miscengenation existed and was part of social makeup to one of aborence and denial that it existed or was accepted as part of life.  
Deborah Byrd 

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