Henry,
Thanks for adding the web page of my very exciting interview with Mr.
Francis (Frank) Berkley. As explained in the interview, he was VERY
knowledgeable about Virginia and the people in it. He was a walking and
talking historian and very passionate about his work.
I can not think of a better interview I have done and place it on the
level as that of my interview with Mrs. Winifred Bennett of Arlington,
Va. who originated the idea to have a DNA Study. She died not long ago,
broken hearted that Dr. Eugene Foster had "jerked the rug out from under
her" in the name of "fame" as she said. Dr. Foster would give the story
to Nature rather than to her for her Jefferson book in progress. She
said she asked him, Gene what is it you want, and his reply.....FAME. It
was sad and disheartening for me and my wife to sit and listen to this
sad story.
Even though Frank thought possibly that the half-sister claim may have
been true we now have a later version researched after his earlier
research period, after hard and long research by the McMurrys in,
Anatomy of a Scandal and they are quiet persuasive in their findings
that there is no proof that it is true.
Herb Barger
-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Henry Wiencek
Sent: Thursday, May 08, 2008 10:20 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] The Wayles/Hemings miscegenation "rumor"
In response to Ronald Seagrave:
The legal status and the movements of Isaac Jefferson are something of a
puzzle. At age 71 and still working, he was interviewed by Charles W.
Campbell in Petersburg in 1847; the manuscript of the memoir was not
discovered until a century later and was first published 1951, reissued
1967
by James Bear as "Jefferson at Monticello," along with the memoir of
Edmund
Bacon, the overseer, with Bear's scholarly apparatus. Campbell's
manuscript
typesetting copy is at UVA Special Collections and is online. See also a
very valuable discussion on Herb Barger's site:
http://www.tjheritage.org/Berkleyinterview.html
We don't quite know how Isaac got to Petersburg. In his memoir Isaac
states,
"Isaac left Monticello four years before Mr. Jefferson died." He says
that
Thomas Mann Randolph wanted him to build a threshing machine at Varina.
{Bear, pp. 18, 22.} Isaac said he lived with Thomas Mann Randolph and
his
wife 26 or 27 years. {Bear, p. 15-16.} An endnote by Campbell says that
Isaac was married and had two children. Bear says that they were all
deeded
to one of Jefferson's daughters in 1797, but that the next year Isaac
went
to live with Martha and Thomas Mann Randolph.
Cinder Stanton writes in "Free Some Day," pp. 51, 24: "Some time in the
1820s Isaac Jefferson made his way to Richmond and then to Petersburg,
Virginia, evidently as a free man. . . . Thomas Mann Randolph may have
manumitted him or he may have purchased his own freedom." Perhaps Isaac
became quasi-free in the same manner as Jupiter's son Phil Evans. In
his
memoir TJ Randolph wrote that Evans "hired himself from me at a nominal
hire." Perhaps Isaac Jefferson was allowed to do the same thing.
Actually, Jefferson did record the deaths and the transfers/sales of
many of
his slaves. See the Plantation Database at Monticello.org, and the Farm
Book, which is online in a magnificent, searchable transcription at the
Mass. Historical Society site.
Isaac does make some errors, noted by Bear, but nothing that completely
discredits his account. He describes Sally Hemings and her family but
says
nothing whatever on the Hemings/Jefferson question. His account is one
of
the most important sources we have for life at Monticello.
Henry Wiencek
______________________________________
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
|
