Mr. Corneliussen you are so right about why this controversy matters and
should be played out...in my opinion it is such a vast conspiracy that all
should hear. It is true that none of us know for sure the correct answer and
if we did we wouldn't be taking our time posting remarks. Mr Jefferson
denied to two members of his cabinet that ALL rumors with exception of the
Walker association, were false and he didn't have time to deny every charge
that was published in the papers. The same is true today with false and
unproved statements by authors mentioned on this web page.
Professor Hardwick is applying a fair and understanding stance on the
controversy and has changed his thoughts on this. I believe that any well
informed and unbiased historian should consider this. Professor Forrest
McDonald, University of Alabama, member of the Scholars Commission (13
prominent scholars), had a much different opinion of Mr. Jefferson until he
had the full facts and research information at which point he completely
reversed his thoughts and now does NOT believe TJ fathered slave children.
Prof. Hardwick possibly you may recognize Prof McDonald and the other twelve
first rate professors on the SC (www.tjheritage.org).
Herb Barger
Jefferson Family Historian
-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of S. Corneliussen
Sent: Saturday, November 01, 2008 9:22 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [VA-HIST] Why Hemings-TJ matters
(I changed the subject line -- and I join many other forum members in
asking, pleading, that lobbers of the same old Hemings-TJ bombs lob not.)
History professor Kevin Hardwick, after noting that he had shifted from
Hemings-TJ paternity belief to paternity agnosticism -- an interesting datum
for those who persist in asserting, without benefit of any actual survey,
that "most historians" believe the paternity thesis -- wrote concerning the
paternity question:
> But suppose we did know. What difference
> would it make for the way we commemorate
> [TJ] in our public history? ... And if in fact it
> does not make any difference, why are we
> spending so much time talking about this?
(Please forgive my ruthless excerpting.)
The Hemings-TJ question matters because the truth matters.
It also matters because people across the country and around the world judge
that it matters. It comes up from time to time in Nature, the most important
forum for the international science enterprise. I remember learning in 2002
of a heated commentary about the question in the South China Morning Post. A
few days ago, a BBC report featured the question and confidently misreported
that "DNA evidence establishes beyond doubt that Jefferson fathered Sally's
children." ("Jefferson's hidden slave legacy," Allan Little, BBC News,
apparently reporting from Monticello:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/americas/us_elections_2008/76897
34.stm )
The Hemings-TJ question matters because people incorporate it in various
ways into their thinking. It matters because people are engaged with, and
are nowhere near through with, a centuries-long, continually evolving
assessment of the slave era in light of the principles Jefferson led in
articulating -- and because people intend to compare what Jefferson
articulated with what Jefferson actually did.
It matters because one of those ways involves the admirable impulse -- maybe
only a beau geste -- retrospectively to confer a bit of dignity, if
possible, on those from whom the grotesque, perverted system of slavery
stole dignity and much else.
It matters because that admirable impulse appears also in discussions like
the one in this forum about the nature of the society that evolved from
Jamestown, and like the one about the degree of personal agency in the
actions of the Fort Monroe Contrabands.
It matters because liberty and dignity and race and women's rights and human
rights all matter.
It matters because personal honor matters, which means it matters whether TJ
was something equivalent to, or even remotely akin to, a statutory rapist or
a rapist outright, and whether he lied about it.
And it matters because love matters, which means it matters whether Sally
Hemings and TJ had some measure of hidden happiness heretofore mostly
unimagined.
I'll bet there's a lot more, but I'll just add this: it matters, and is
going to continue to matter, even if members of this forum are
understandably tired of the bomb-lobbing.
And this, which may sound partisan, and may sound political, but is
absolutely not, though it's most definitely corny: it's likely going to
matter even more starting next Wednesday, when Americans are likely going to
wake up into a changed American context, and are going to begin
constructively revisiting -- and constructively revising -- understanding of
American history, and indeed history itself, in ways that we haven't even
started to think about.
Thanks.
Steve Corneliussen
Poquoson, Virginia
______________________________________
To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe please see the instructions at
http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html
______________________________________
To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe please see the instructions at
http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html
|
