Herbert you commit two sin in your post.

First of all, you insist that it is possible for a son of Sandy to have been 
the father of Sally Hemings. Inasmuch as Sandy would have had a black 
mother, he would have carried more dark color than is evident from the 
eyewitness descriptions of Sally's children. Therefore, your Sandy theory is 
down the tubes, even if you can prove that the Sandy listed in the Farm Book 
did indeed have red or reddish hair. Just because sometimes slaves with red 
hair were named Sandy does not lead to the conclusion that ANY slave named 
Sandy MUST have had red hair.

The second is to assume that based on the DNA tests that the father of Eston 
was Jefferson's brother. All the test did was establish that Eston was in 
the Jefferson line. It could be that Eston was fathered by Thomas and the 
oral history used a different definition for "uncle" than you are assuming. 
So, that contention has not been "proven" as you suggest. It is still as 
much in the air as are all the other contentions.

What I find hard to swallow in your assumptions and conclusions is that 
Jefferson freed only specific slaves - only the Hemings, including Sally 
(who was given her time because of her age), and Sally's children. Do you 
think Jefferson made this decision on a whim? Do you think he randomly chose 
the Hemings for freedom among the 200 slaves he owned? If not, we must 
assume that Jefferson had a reason he chose not to divulge to the ages. Is 
it more logical that his reason was his own paternity of these children, or 
the paternity of his brother? In all your esteemed knowledge of Jefferson, 
which choice makes most seense to you?

Anne



Anne Pemberton
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http://www.erols.com/apembert
http://www.educationalsynthesis.org 

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