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Subject:	Balloon ascents in Virginia, 1820s-1840s
From:	[log in to unmask]
Reply To:	Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history <[log in to unmask]>
Date:	Fri, 10 Dec 2004 10:40:16 -0500
Content-Type:	text/plain
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Does anyone know of sources about the history of balloon ascents in Virginia?

I'm at work on a book about Jefferson and his slaves, and I'm trying to
track down information about a balloon ascent in Petersburg mentioned in a
memoir by Isaac Jefferson, former slave of TJ.  Isaac stated in 1847:

"Sally [Hemings] had a son named Madison, who learned to be a great
fiddler.  He has been in Petersburg twice: was here when the balloon went
up--the balloon that Beverly sent off."

Isaac Jefferson was in the Richmond/Petersburg area beginning in the mid
1820s.  In her book on TJ and Hemings, Annette Gordon-Reed writes that a
balloon ascent took place in Petersburg July 4, 1834, citing "The Eagle
Aloft : Two Centuries of the Balloon in America" by Tom Crouch (1983).
I'm wondering if there are other sources.

Many thanks,
Henry Wiencek
Charlottesville

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