Steven,

I appreciate your solicitation to assauge my supposed "white guilt" by 
inviting me to honor those slave who self-emancipated via Fort Monroe. 
Unfortunately, no matter how brave those self-emancipators were, I am still 
concerned about the failure to honor those slaves who bore children who were 
half-white or more, and should have, by a reasonable standards have been 
freed, even if not claimed by their fathers. I am not willing to kick Sally 
Hemings under the rug of "oh, well, we can't prove a thing!" and run to 
champion some others.

I have a great deal of respect for the women in bondage, and the especially 
demeaning circumstances they were placed in. I am so much of a fan of 
Harriet Tubman, that there are three stories about her on my (omigosh, date 
I say it) website! I especially enjoyed reading about Ona Judge in An 
Imperfect God and learning that "cannot tell a lie" George Washington 
deliberately lied to try to retrieve "his property" when she 
self-emancipated. I also celebrate such people as Frederick Douglass and the 
many others who made it to freedom via the Underground Railroad.

I am currently reading a recommended book called "Slavery Counterpoint", 
which makes a general statement that more slaves escaped (or attempted) from 
the lowcountry in the Carolinas than from Virginia even tho Virginia was 
closer to freedom.

Steven, I would like to be part of an effort to show the depth of the human 
desire for freedom exhibited in those held in bondage, but I am not in a 
position to provide any funding. If there is something else I can do, let me 
know.

Anne

Anne Pemberton
[log in to unmask]
http://www.erols.com/apembert
http://www.educationalsynthesis.org 

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