This will reply to both Henry Wiencek and Paul Finkleman. Henry: TJ in a
letter to Thomas Mann Randolph, Jr, on Feb 29, 1796 (4 months after
Harriet I's birth) references Adrian Petit, Mr Page, Mr. Robertson and a
wedding. This is in the Edgehill Papers. Does this mean that Adrian is
STILL awound Monticello?
Paul: Herb's theory isn't simply that it's anyone but TJ. NO, Herb's
RESEARCH, not theory, indicates that TJ is NOT a father of any of
Sally's children.
-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of [log in to unmask]
Sent: Thursday, July 17, 2008 2:09 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] Mr. Jefferson's Women
I think the point is the exact opposite. Why are academic types
insistent
on proving that a founding father had sex with some Black female. I
think the
interracial sex aspect must titillate you all. What you write here is
standard TJ information that hundreds of othjer authors have written.
You do not address the "nuts and bolts" of the DNA Study which I
participated in. There is NO proof that TJ's wife and Sally were
half-sisters..........do a little research in the Dr. and Mrs. James
McMurry book, "Anatomy of a Scandal." Have you not read the Scholars
Commission Report (www.tjheritage.org), (13 prominent top drawer
scholars, white, black and female), who found NO proof of the charges
that TJ fathered slave children.
Herb leaves his feely good politically correct feelings at the research
door and does try to "let the chips fall where they may." Paul, read
your own biased statement: "why would we expect anything else from a
slave holding widower....... Do we think TJ became a monk?"
Herb Barger
In a message dated 7/17/2008 9:24:08 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:
Ins't Herb's "theory" simply that it was anyone but Jefferson? The
logic
escapes me.
Jefferson was a man with normal, even high level, sex drive. As young
man he
propositioned his neighbor's wife; his own wife was constantly
pregnant.
When she died Sally was soon available. Sally was his wife's
half-sister and
probably looked somewhat (much) like his late wife. Jefferson lived in
a
culture where slaveowning men had free and easy access to their slave
women.
Elite slaveowners, like Jefferson, lived in a culture where sex with
slaves was
common and unexceptional. As a widower Jefferson was not even subject
to
raise eyebrows for cheating on his wfe. While some modern scholars are
shocked
at the olded Jefferson having a relationship with the teenaged Sally,
this
was not shocking at the time. Madison was courting a girl in her early
teens
when he was in his late 20s or early 30s and no one thought anything of
it.
President Tyler married a much much younger woman after his first wife
died.
This was not uncommon. Nor were most of the Founders "prudes" or
"Victorians" about sex (John Adams and perhaps John Jay are notable
exceptions).
So, the real issue is why are people like Herb so invested in asserting
that
TJ could not, would not, did not, have sex with Sally, when all the
evidence
(timing of her the birth of her children, access, etc.) was there
before the
DNA came along? Why would we expect anything else from a slaveholding
widower isolated on his mountain top? Do we think Jefferson in his 40s
became a
monk?
Paul Finkelman
President William McKinley Distinguished Professor of Law
and Public Policy
Albany Law School
80 New Scotland Avenue
Albany, New York 12208-3494
518-445-3386
[log in to unmask]
>>> Henry Wiencek <[log in to unmask]> 07/17/08 9:05 AM >>>
Unless I am mistaken, Herb's theory (and this is a new theory) that the
French servant Adrien Petit fathered children with Sally Hemings at
Monticello does not hold water. Adrien Petit worked for Jefferson in
Philadelphia and he returned to France in January 1794, a year before
Sally Hemings conceived Harriet 1, who was born in October 1795. Petit
was across the sea when Hemings conceived children at Monticello. If
there is a record that states otherwise I will be glad to see it.
Henry Wiencek
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