Professor Finkelman seems to have an answer for everything, especially
Thomas Jefferson. "Jefferson had children with Sally", crows Prof.
Finkelman. Now you know that would be great news IF it were true. Prof.
Finkelman, Monticello and Annette Gordon-Reed do NOT have the slightest
proof or even a good guess that Thomas Jefferson fathered Sally's children.
I personally assisted Dr Foster with the DNA tests and he tested a KNOWN
carrier of both Jefferson and Eston Hemings DNA without informing Nature as
I had highly recommended and worked closely with them to draft a FALSE
headline, "Jefferson fathers slave's last child." The Eston Hemings family
claimed that their ancestor was "A Jefferson uncle or nephew", a reference
to the President's much younger brother, Randolph, and sons. That situation,
arranged by Dr Foster, would INSURE a match, but NOT Thomas.
I founded the Thomas Jefferson Heritage Society AFTER Monticello sued us in
Charlottesville Court for our previous name, The Thomas Jefferson
Foundation, and then they DROPPED the word, Memorial, from their long held
name. Another group was needed to get the truth to the public. There have
been some great books referenced exposing this on our web pages and another
will be released in October 2011, the long awaited revealing book by 13
prominent scholars (black, white and female), "The Jefferson-Hemings
Controversy: Report of the Scholars Commission", with many updates. It can
be early ordered now.
Herbert Barger
Founder, Thomas Jefferson Heritage Society
-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Finkelman, Paul
<[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, June 30, 2011 1:28 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] Jefferson and sexuality
We should remember that the Founders were not a generation of up-tight
Victorians (except for maybe John Adams perhaps, who would have been a
proto-Victorian). Franklin had an out of wed lock child and wrote some
pretty racy things; Jefferson had children with Sally; Hamilton probably had
an affair with his sister-in-law; numerous lesser southern founders (than
Jefferson) had sex and children with their slaves; some scholars have
suggested that the signs all over New England that "Washington slept here
may have a double meaning; pornography was not unknown; this was the age of
Tom Jones and Fanny Hill after all. English gentlemen notoriously had
mistresses (there is a wonderful half-nude of one in Yale museum of British
art). So, why should we be shocked by Jefferson's poetry or his
relationships to women?
*************************************************
Paul Finkelman, Ph.D.
President William McKinley Distinguished Professor of Law
Albany Law School
80 New Scotland Avenue
Albany, NY 12208
518-445-3386 (p)
518-445-3363 (f)
[log in to unmask]
www.paulfinkelman.com
*************************************************
________________________________________
From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history
[[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Terry Meyers [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Thursday, June 30, 2011 10:17 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [VA-HIST] Jefferson and sexuality
I happened across a note (April 17, 1769, in Bear and Stanton,
Jefferson's Memorandum Books [1997]) by Jefferson about a poem, "The
Keekeiad," toward the publication of which in Williamsburg he recorded
contributing 2/6 --he said of it that it was a "poem I never saw nor ever
wish to see."
That struck me as peculiar--why would someone contribute towards
publishing a poem he had never seen and never wanted to see? Turns out the
poem is a lascivious one (so much so that I had to seek permission from the
state of Virginia to read it when it popped onto my state-owned-computer
screen!).
Is this an example of Jefferson's support for freedom of the press,
even in subjects bordering (or more) on pornography?
And another question: I also noticed in Jefferson's accounts
several entries coded by him in shorthand, read by the editors as "Sukey" at
"Smith" or "Stifth" (October 14, 28; 1770; April 16, 1771). Sukey was,
seemingly, a slave, and the name in the context suggests she received a
payment.
LIke John Kukla who mentions these and payments to a married woman,
Molly Dudley, in Mr. Jefferson's Women, I tend to suspect some kind of
hanky-panky when I see coded entries in accounts.
Is there general acquiescence as to Jefferson's seemingly sexual
escapades in these instances?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------
Terry L.. Meyers, Chancellor Professor of English, College of William and
Mary, Williamsburg Virginia 23187 757-221-3932
http://wmpeople.wm.edu/site/page/tlmeye/
http://www.ecologyfund.com/ecology/_ecology.html
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Have we got a college? Have we got a football team?....Well, we can't
afford both. Tomorrow we start tearing down the college.
--Groucho Marx, in "Horse Feathers."
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