Henry-
    I've deleted your original post, but if you're working from TJ's
accounts in the Bear/Stanton edition (what a WONDERFUL contribution to
scholarship !!!), depending on the years for the purchases that caught
your eye, wouldn't it be interesting if the widower TJ were buying
commodities for which MWSJ and the slave workforce under her direction
had been responsible prior to her death?

Jon

> {snip}                   The soap sale caught my eye because it was
> probably not a one-time thing.  Jenny may have been "in the business" of
> making soap in quantity for sale or exchange in the slave quarter, and
> when
> Jefferson ran short he bought some.

Dr. Jon Kukla, Executive Vice-President
Red Hill - The Patrick Henry National Memorial
1250 Red Hill Road
Brookneal, Virginia 24528
www.redhill.org