Dear Mr. Dixon,

  This may be difficult to conceive, but there are professions
besides that of lawyer.  Indeed, the law came rather late in
Western education:  perhaps two centuries behind theology and at
least seventy five years before medicine in British North America.
  Everything you have written seems anchored, if not cemented in
the professional education for the law.  This is not, in itself, a bad
thing.  But it is not axiomatically applicable to the study of history.
  I had observed several days ago, that legal cases have the
advantaged of compulsory testimony and prosecution for perjury.
The evidence for history is of a rather different type.
  I also observed, as you may remember, that in this profession
one may not assume that Jefferson did not impregnate one or more
of his bond women, in the absence of what you have called (but
never fully defined) as "proof."  Thomas Jefferson owned
somewhere around 100 women at any given time in his adult life.
He could command them in ways that no one else in Virginia
could, due to the fact of ownership.  What you refuse to come to
grips with, as far as I can see, are the implications of these facts.
  Even Mary Chestnut, in a memorable aside in her diary, opined
that everyone in the South can name the fathers of all the
"bastards" on the county plantations save for their own.  Now, that
was a very prominent southern belle writing.  For those who cant
see as deeply into slavery as the wife of a governor of South
Carolina,I think I can offer no hope of understanding this history at
all.

Date sent:              Tue, 02 Apr 2002 14:11:10 -0500 (EST)
From:                   "Richard E. Dixon" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:                Re: "high crimes and misdemeanors"
To:                     [log in to unmask]
Send reply to:          Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history
        <[log in to unmask]>

> In a message dated 4/2/02 12:08:02 PM Eastern Standard Time,
> [log in to unmask] writes:
>
> << you have
>  spent ...too little
>  time reading history and imagining the past based on its records. >>
> Professor Forsythe:
>  No, I don't spend time imagining the past, and in the case of the alleged
> paternity of Jefferson, I wish that history professors would not also.
> Aside from that, I am not sure what point Professor Hardwick intended to
> make that spurred you to become his defense counsel.
> _____________________________________________________________________
> Richard E. Dixon Attorney at Law 4122 Leonard Drive Fairfax, VA 22030
> 703-691-0770 fax 703-691-0978
> ______________________________________________________________________
>
> To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions
> at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html


Harold S. Forsythe
Assistant Professor History
Director:  Black Studies
Fairfield University
Fairfield, CT 06430-5195
(203) 254-4000  x2379

To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions
at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html