In a message dated 12/5/05 3:38:27 PM, [log in to unmask] writes:
> There is at least one other possibility to consider, to
> further muddy the waters.
>
> There is no especial reason to believe that all of Thomas
> Jefferson's paternal cousins were white. Given the prevalence
> of sexual exploitation of female slaves by male masters, it is
> certainly within the realm of possibility that Jefferson had
> slave cousins. The DNA evidence proves that someone descended
> from Jefferson's paternal grandfather had children by Sally
> Hemings.
>
> It does not seem to me that we have progressed very far beyond
> where we were before the DNA controversy began. We know that
> at least one of the Hemings children was not Jefferson's. The
> weight of the circumstantial evidence suggests that Jefferson
> was the father of at least some of the other children. But I
> don't see how we can say that that has been scientifically
> confirmed.
>
> And, as Professor Finkelman suggests, I am not sure it matters
> all that much. However you slice the evidence, Jefferson was
> still a slave owner, with all that that implied. If we agree
> that slavery is criminal and evil, Jefferson was as thoroughly
> implicated in it as it is possible to be. No one suggests
> that he was a James Henry Hammond. But he *was* a slave
> owner. And from his own writings, we know that he recognized
> with some clarity why slavery was ethically wrong.
>
> Every time Jefferson sat down to an eight course dinner at
> Monticello, drinking his imported French wine, he was making a
> decision. Every time he rebuilt a portion of the house, or
> bought books for its library, he made a decision. "Live a
> life of luxury and refinement? Or free myself of debt so I
> can free my slaves?" We know the choice he made.
>
> Best,
> Kevin
> Kevin R. Hardwick, Ph.D.
> Department of History
> James Madison University
>
>
Dear Kevin:
I have been reading the interesting exchange about TJ, Sally Hemings et
family, slavery, etc with interest. I am not an academician but have been a
student of history since childhood and a learned student of human behavior for the
last 30 years. I think TJ was very much an extremely talented, smart,
confident man who was also heavily conflicted with his feelings/actions about
slavery and the black people who provided him with economic and emotional
sustenance. His clause condemning slavery that was struck out of the Declaration of
Independence, his comment equating slavery with holding a wolf by the ears
are in contrast with some of his other writings endorsing it. One reason TJ
was unable to free his slaves unlike GW was the fact that he was a spendthrift
and a poor businessman. Remodeling one's house constantly over a generation,
funding a new university from the ground up and entertaining lavishly is not
a good way to spend one's money when one is trying to run a large plantation
profitably. He couldn't even if he had wanted to, free large numbers of his
slaves...he would have bankrupted his heirs. As it turned out, he went
bankrupt at the end anyway. The Hemings family were the only slaves that he freed
of all the slaves that he owned. GW provided for the freedom of his slaves
at his wife's death primarily because he was an efficient modern farmer who
took care of the business at hand. With regard that TJ's paternal ancestor may
have been of some other race (black or Indian) is very plausible. Based on
my own geneaology ( I am a black Eggleston family descendant with acknowledging
white cousins ;-)) and unofficial surveys of my patients, it is my belief
that most "white" Americans whose ancestors predate 1800 probably do have some
black or Indian ancestry in their background. Not all interracial sexual
liasions were forced, especially during the 17th and 18th century where there
white indentured servants living in close proximity to both free and enslaved
blacks. Men being men and women being women, things happened in a lot of
instances in a consensual way. The book "We Were Always Free" by a Mr. Madden who
was descended from an female, Irish indentured servant and a black male slave
is an example. Of course slave owners took those liberties with their
slaves whether they wanted to or not. If it is true that Sally Hemings tended
TJ's grave after his death for a number of years, that would speak volumes of
some emotional connection that transcended the rigid roles of owner and slave.
I am of the belief that TJ did father at least some of Sally Hemings'
children based primarily on the oral history of the family with whom I am acquainted,
the circumstantial timing of her children's births and his visits and the DNA
which is suggestive of Jefferson's paternity. I know there are those of you
who discount oral history but my own family oral history has led me on a 40
year plus quest which I have verified with historical and scientific fact, has
led to the reconnection after 150 years to the white side of the family and
has yielded access to family documents, slave lists, photos and drawings of VA
and MS plantation homes, family photos (there is definitely a family
resemblance!) and history. It has been as rewarding for me as it has for my white
cousins who also feel some sense of coming full circle in finding out what
happened to those were enslaved under their ancestors and who also happen to be
relatives! It also helped that my two white cousins were amateur geneaologists
and CW buffs like myself -my cousin Bryan contacted me on the internet! So
please don't totally discount a well research oral history as evidence in this
type of geneaological conumdrum. This has been a very interesting and
stimulating discussion.
Anita L. Henderson, MD
Dermatology and Dermatologic Surgery
Columbia, MD
CW Living Historian Atlantic Guard Soldiers Aid Society
Eggleston Family descendant
Researching Maria Lewis, black female trooper of the 8th NY Cavalry
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