As a historian, It never ceases to amaze me that some of those in the field
and the public at large are confounded when our "great men" turn out to be
flesh-and-blood human beings with all the foibles that accompany that
condition.

As a collateral descendent of Jefferson, I do not think I could care less
about whether or not he enjoyed a sexual relationship with Sally Hemmings.
While it might make him a hypocrite in some sense, it certainly does not
detract from his other enormous accomplishments.

On a lighter note, as the grandson of the man, Virginius Dabney, who wrote
the last "defense" of Jefferson, _The Jefferson Scandals_, I suspect that if
there is an afterlife, my grandfather and Dumas Malone, among others, are
dogging Mr. Jefferson, and asking some very pointed questions.

Jim Watkinson


James D. Watkinson, Ph.D.
Library of Virginia
History Department, Randolph-Macon College

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