In a message dated 3/29/2002 2:55:52 PM Eastern Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

>  Freedom achieved its paramount
>  position as a core western value out of the experience of people "in their
>  roles as masters, slaves, and nonslaves."

Professor Hardwick:
While slavery and its aftermath threads through the societal and political
history of the United States, my comment intended that you (and several other
posts) justify the claim summarized by your reference to the above quote.
Historical analysis does not support an assertion that to the values of 18th
century colonial America, based on the evolution of English law and thought
and the philosophes of the Enlightenment, we can also add the social dynamics
of slavery. But more to the point of my challenge is the fact that Jefferson
owned slaves does not add support to the claim that one of his slaves was his
concubine. It is not a permissible assumption that whatever is discovered
about the Virginia master/female slave relationship implicates Jefferson. We
hear a great deal today, and mostly from the academic community, about the
fallacy of stereotypes (profiling?),  yet that same community applies it
without a blush to Jefferson.
____________________________________________________________________
Richard E. Dixon
Attorney at Law
4122 Leonard Drive
Fairfax, VA 22030
703-691-0770 fax 703-691-0978
____________________________________________________________________

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