I'm not sure what family tree you're referring to, but it seems to me that your depiction of scholarship with which you disagree as lies misses the whole point of the writing of history. Of course, one is free to disagree and propose their own alternatives -- indeed, this process of agreeing and disagreeing and building on others' work is the what the historical profession is all about. No credible scholar to my knowledge has claimed to have produced the unalterable truth about Thomas Jefferson; they have merely accumulated a series of facts, analyzed them in reasonable ways, and presented an interpretation that builds upon that analysis. Any reader is free to disagree, dispute a writer's facts as stated, and question the reasonableness of an interpretation, but please, to label such work as "lies" suggests dishonesty. And I consider such an attack on someone's ethics to be uncivil and a disservice to all of the members of the list.
David Kiracofe
David KIRACOFE
History
Tidewater Community College
Chesapeake Campus
1428 Cedar Road
CHESAPEAKE, Virginia 23322
757-822-5136
>>> Adrian Zolkover <[log in to unmask]> 02/26/09 6:16 PM >>>
Hello David,
I agree that in some instances your analysis of calling those who may have
some observances and opinions other that mine liars, is well stated.
However, there are those prominent writers and those in positions of
historical and academic authority that insist in writing, even in hard cover
linings that show a family tree where they proclaim that Thomas Jefferson IS
the father of all of Sally's children. This to me is a lying.
Adrian Zolkover
----- Original Message -----
From: "David Kiracofe" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, February 26, 2009 12:11 PM
Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] THOMAS JEFFERSON'S LIFE HISTORY
Let me first say that I admire the wise prudence of Brent Tarter in
requesting that the dead horse of the Jefferson-Hemings dispute be left in
peace! The paternity of Sally Hemings's children is [probably] never going
to be proven by DNA : science doth make 'agnostics' of us all -- and so we
are left with the historical evidence which we have to analyze and interpret
and we should be honest as we do so. But I cannot see the good in ceding
this forum to posts such as the lengthy one from Adrian Zolkover. I must
observe here (as I believe I did the last time Ms. Zolkover posted this same
information) that few of these facts are relevant to the question of
Jefferson's paternity of Hemings' children. Indeed, many of them make no
sense in the issue at hand at all. Ms. Zolkover prefaces her post as being
a service to new members of the list, but by insisting that these bits of
information support her pre-conceived conclusion that Jefferson could not be
the father of the Hemings children (or any of them) and that to suggest
otherwise is somehow to tell lies and to defame Jefferson ("raping his
legacy?"), she actively seeks to limit the inquiry she claims to champion.
Thus, I believe, she does a disservice to this list.
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