> The state has an obligation to provide as full an account
> of the past as is appropriate to the age group of the students.

I once phoned Cathy Lewis's Norfolk NPR "HearSay" talk show and asked 
Professor Carol Sheriff herself a version of this question:  Should 
schoolkids of any age be taught anything about Sally Hemings, and if so, 
what should they be taught? (She ran for the hills, by the way, and I didn't 
really blame her.)

Forum moderator, if you judge that you must leave this message 
undistributed, I'll understand -- though I note that the Smithsonian's truly 
marvelous "Jefferson and slavery" exhibit is engaging and challenging 
visitors concerning the need to remember the enslaved as individuals with 
dignity, and that this has meant that that institution has had to answer a 
version of my question. If you do leave the message undistributed, I hope 
you'll e-mail me to say you've done so.

I would add, "Fellow forum participants, please don't take this as the 
starting gun of another of those Hemings brawls that led to forum moderation 
in the first place." But in fact, I'm not sure that Americans can answer 
this particular question without at least a hint of raised voices. Too bad, 
too. For a paternity agnostic, it's all so bizarre. Everybody's so confident 
about a two-century-old sex mystery that has only wispy evidence for either 
side.

Steven T. Corneliussen
Poquoson 

______________________________________
To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe please see the instructions at
http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html