Has anyone come across any documentation about Sally Hemings' personal hygiene? If not, then all this speculation is not worth the trouble to discuss. Citing perceived notions of a group's hygiene or lack thereof hardly counts as evience as it applies to a specific individual in any time period or place.
Edward Truslow
Williamsburg, VA
>From: Melinda Skinner <[log in to unmask]>
>Date: 2008/05/16 Fri AM 07:15:12 CDT
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] NY Times essay and Gen John Hartwell Cocke
>That is a non-argument. Unless Jefferson (and Franklin) were OCD, I doubt they would be bothered by cleanliness when looking to hook up. How many cultured, powdered and wigged men consorted with pretty unkempt/unclean women of the night everywhere in the "civilized" world?
>
>--
>Melinda C. P. Skinner
>Richmond, VA
>
>
> -------------- Original message ----------------------
>From: [log in to unmask]
>> Exactly, and to suppose that an educated, cultured and abnormally hygienic
>> man of Jefferson's stature hung out in the slave quarters to satisfy some
>> middle-aged sexual urge is ridiculous on its face, at least to another educated,
>> cultured, middle-aged hygienic man.
>>
>> J.D. Southmayd
>> _www.southmayd.net_ (http://www.southmayd.net) is my web site.
>>
>>
>>
>> In a message dated 5/15/2008 3:39:03 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
>> [log in to unmask] writes:
>>
>> Jeffrey --
>>
>> I am well aware of the appalling hygiene and diseases of slaves in
>> the 18th century, but that is hardly the limit. As I have written
>> elsewhere I think one of the things that brought Franklin and
>> Jefferson together was their personal cleanliness, which was notable
>> in an age when even the wealthy stank. Going to a gathering even of
>> the mighty must have been like sticking one's head in the laundry of
>> a basketball team after the game. Franklin who, to me, is the most
>> interesting of all the Founders was, at one point reputed to be the
>> only man in Philadelphia who bathed daily, and certainly one of the
>> very few who actually had a purpose built bathtub. Slaves, being at
>> the bottom of the social hierarchy naturally got the least, and
>> suffered the most. But disease and death were commonplace whatever
>> one's rank. Just look at the number of 18th century planters who had
>> multiple wives, because so many women died in childbirth. The common
>> state of hygiene in the colonies was far worse, and the medical
>> options less, than would have been found in a comparable setting in
>> the Roman empire.
>>
>> -- Stephan
>>
>>
>> On 15 May 2008, at 13:41, [log in to unmask] wrote:
>>
>> > Stephan;
>> >
>> > I am not sure that you found offensive about my post. Perhaps you
>> > should
>> > read the following on slave hygiene to get a better feel for my
>> > point vis-a-vis
>> > Mr. Jefferson and Ms. Hemmings:
>> >
>> >
>> > The Health of Slaves on Southern Plantations (Louisiana State
>> > University
>> > studies) by William Dosite Postell; and
>> >
>> >
>> > (http://www.amazon.com/This-Species-Property-Culture-Galaxy/dp/
>> > 0195022459/ref=sr_1_31?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1210873126&sr=8-31) This
>> > Species of Property:
>> > Slave Life and Culture in the Old South (Galaxy Books) by Leslie
>> > Howard Owens;
>> > and
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > Medicine and Slavery: The Diseases and Health Care of Blacks in
>> > Antebellum
>> > Virginia (Blacks in the New World) by Todd L. Savitt.
>> >
>> >
>> > J.D. Southmayd
>> > a/k/a J South
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > **************Wondering what's for Dinner Tonight? Get new twists
>> > on family
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>> >
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>>
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