The following seems new and pertinent and it's already prepared.  Sorry about post-length, Brent, but _"did not"_ isn't adequate for the harsh and unjustified accusations; I will do better in future :

In response to a recent posting that was very disdainful toward Thomas Jefferson's treatment of his wife ("he killed her by excessive child-bearing"), about his failure to provide for his daughters' education, failure to consider them as equal human beings and more, I offer the following contradicting records and commentary:
... from Library of Congress web site:
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"Time wastes too fast" 
Laurence Sterne (1713-1768) was one of Thomas Jefferson's favorite 'popular' authors (my emphasis.) As his wife lay dying in September 1782, Jefferson and Martha copied these lines from Tristram Shandy: 

[written by Martha] Time wastes too fast: every letter / I trace tells me with what rapidity life follows my pen. The days and hours / of it are flying over our heads like clouds of a windy day never to return.../ 

[and written by Thomas] and every time I kiss thy hand to bid adieu, every absence which / follows it, are preludes to the eternal separation which we are shortly to make! 

For the remainder of his life, Jefferson kept this paper with a lock of Martha's hair entwined around it. (View it at website.)

(Personal note: My wife and I shared this over a glass of wine on Valentine's Day, 2007, thinking we should live every day as our last, with regard to our treatment and feelings for one another.  A copy has hung on our fridge ever since, alongside grand-kids' papers.)  But this adage is nothing new, some say it should be read each day by subscribers before opening or responding to their va-hist mail. 

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The following from LOC as well:
Thomas Jefferson was devastated by the death of his wife Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson who died after giving birth to their sixth child, Lucy Elizabeth (1782-1784). Jefferson wrote little about his wife's death, making this entry into his account book on September 6, 1782: "My dear wife died this day at 11H -45' A.M." More than two months later he haltingly wrote to a French officer and friend, Marquis de Chastellux (1734-1788), that he was... "emerging from the stupor of mind which had rendered me as dead to the world as [she] was whose . . . loss occasioned it." 

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Before she died, Martha, Jefferson's wife, asked Thomas not to remarry and he was a single parent and widower thereafter.  

Martha, Jefferson's daughter, was quoted as saying, "I was his constant companion, a witness to many a violent outburst of grief." 

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Jefferson's education plan 
for his daughters 
After the death of his wife, Jefferson carefully planned the education and training of his daughters, Martha (1772-1836), Maria (1778-1804), and Lucy #2 (1782-1784). In this letter, he laid out a plan of study for his daughter Martha, so that she would be able to fulfill the social role of plantation mistress. Learning the social graces of music, dancing, letter writing, as well as knowledge of literature and language ability were skills that he considered essential. 

(Note: His two living daughters were with Jefferson while he was US minister to France c1789.  However, plans for education levels similar to their mother, originally of Williamsburg area, would have been problematic for their daughters in the remote Monticello area.  The separation of boarding them in Williamsburg after Martha's death may have been a sacrifice none wished to experience...?)

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Note: _The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman_ is an influential comic novel of 9 volumes written during 1759-67.  Google this to obtain further inferences about married intimacies of Thomas and Martha.

Or, simply try: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Life_and_Opinions_of_Tristram_Shandy,_Gentleman

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Further info from a Google or Yahoo searches:  

Martha Jefferson, wife of Thomas, is believed (by some) to have suffered from diabetes (no sources for this belief were provided), possibly attributing to her childbearing problems. However, Martha's mother died at age 36, just two weeks after giving birth to Martha, suggesting to me a possible genetic problem for Martha who died at age 33 after birthing Lucy (#2.) Furthermore, while Jefferson served as Governor of Virginia (1779-1781) during the American Revolution, Martha Jefferson briefly joined him in Richmond, where he had moved the capital city from Williamsburg, which was then more vulnerable to British attack by sea. Martha Jefferson's health began to rapidly deteriorate about this time.  The British invasion of Virginia under Lord Cornwallis in 1781 forced her to flee Monticello for their more isolated Bedford County home, "Poplar Forest," and this weakened her 16-month old daughter, Lucy (#1), who died a few weeks later. All of this likely weakened Martha as well although not enough to deter plans for Lucy #2.  Jefferson shortly thereafter resigned his position as governor and promised Martha that he would refuse any more political posts. Thus Jefferson turned down an important diplomatic mission to Europe. 

Throughout their 10-year marriage, they appear to have been wholly devoted to each other and wanted children.  Martha Jefferson was, according to her daughter and to eyewitness accounts (the French delegation), musical and highly educated, a constant reader, with the greatest fund of good nature, a vivacious temper which might sometimes border on tartness but which was subdued toward her husband by her affection for him. She was a little over five feet tall, with a lithe figure, luxuriant auburn hair and hazel eyes. She played the keyboard and the guitar (Thomas often joining with violin), and was an accomplished needlewoman. Her music book and several examples of her embroidery survive.

Martha Jefferson ran the plantation life of Monticello (the home and its affairs), a considerable responsibility involving personal skills of math, accounting, food prep/preservation and medicinal preparations/treatments to name a few.  In addition, a precise ledger of the plantation's main cash crop, tobacco, also survives in Martha's handwriting, suggesting (my emphasis) **she worked with Jefferson more as a full partner in this aspect of life at Monticello than would be otherwise usual,** (It was rare for women to be considered equal to men in those times but Martha's surviving record indicates Thomas must have encouraged and appreciated her contributions to their team effort.  (She had experience performing such accounting work with her father.)  

Neil McDonald






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