My apologies, Mr. Dixon -- I did not intend to apply my critique to your
description of Sally Hemings as "semi-fictional" -- I quite agree with
it and do not see it in any way as desrespectful of her -- she has been
rather pulled this way and that by romanticizers and by over-zealous
Jefferson defenders who would defame her to save him; my remarks were
actually directed at what I understood to be your _defense_ of another
poster's derogatory description of Hemings as "skanky" and of such a
promiscuous character that she could keep strigh the parentage of her
children.  It was those remarks which I thought (and still do )  unkind
and ill-mannered.  But I am sorry if I have misrepresented your remarks
or position.

David Kiracofe

David Kiracofe
History
Tidewater Community College
Chesapeake Campus
1428 Cedar Road
Chesapeake, Virginia 23322
757-822-5136
>>> "[log in to unmask]" <[log in to unmask]>
05/17/08 10:17 AM >>>
We do not know if Sally Hemings was kind, patient, literate, a good
mother,
industrious, honest, or any of the other personality and character
traits
that define a person.  Those who begin with the proposition that she was
the mother of Thomas JeffersonÆs children and the half-sister to
JeffersonÆs wife find it necessary to suppose these traits. So, we have
a
spate of novels, plays, and Jefferson historical works that present us
with
an imagined person. There is speculation on the patient Hemings at
Monticello waiting for Jefferson to return, and when he does, he is
excited
by the visage of his long dead wife.  She is said to be fluent in
French,
mistress of Monticello, or in the case of one movie, a stop on the
Underground Railroad.  I commented in a previous post that she was a  
ôsemi-fictional character.ö  David Kiracofe observed that since we don't
ôknowö Sally Hemings, this description of her (which he apparently
agrees
with) was ôill mannered.ö Odd.

Richard E. Dixon
Editor, Jefferson Notes
Thomas Jefferson Heritage Society
4122 Leonard Drive
Fairfax, Va 22030
703-691-0770 fax 703-691-0978


> [Original Message]
> From: David Kiracofe <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: 5/16/2008 7:23:33 PM
> Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] Language
>
> I think what is upsetting here for some folks is that while Sally
Hemings
may loom larger in the imagination -- even to the point of being
"semi-fictional" as you say -- than the hard historical record warrants,
there was, in fact, such a living person: she lived as a slave at
Monticello, a woman, and apparently had a number of children, she was a
mother.    We know little about her beyond that that everyone on the
list
could agree on, but I for one consider it uncharitable and ill-mannered
to
describe someone who I don't know with such perjorative and even cruel
terminology.
>
> David Kiracofe
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