Before the fabled DNA tests, we had all sorts of discussion about who
did what, and with whom and when, ad nauseam for most of us. Now that
the DNA tests have been completed, we have the same round of
discussion with a little bit more conclusive but not definitive enough
information. None of it is able to demonstrate, or prove, conclusively
or otherwise that TJ did or did not father children with Sally Hemings
or anyone else for that matter. What we do have partisans of a
literary bent using the evidence for their own purposes when the
scientific evidence cannot be made to fit the proposition. The DNA
shows that someone in the male Jefferson line fathered one child with
a person of African-American heritage. The argument then moves to
which male Jefferson did so. One did so, that much is proven.
The current thrust from the literary types has narrowed from the
broader did/didn't/wouldn't paradigm to which male Jefferson did the
deed(s). As is usual from people without a scientific background, they
have used the very same evidence to step off the proverbial
interpretative cliff. The DNA test does not say that TJ did so, nor
does it say, because neither position is provable from the evidence,
that he did not. The two positions are: that Saint TJ would not have
done this or that with the other side arguing that the only too human
(or exploitive or whatever pejorative) TJ did this or that. Partisans
on both sides have erected their artillery and are bombarding their
respective opposite sides. The noise and constant explosions are
tiresome.
Verbiage is not going to change the argument. Drowning everyone in
verbiage is certainly not going to change the argument.
If more definitive answers are sought, then TJ's teeth probably have
DNA that will suffice. Randolph's teeth will show whether his male
line was responsible but that will not stop the diehards on either
side of the actual TJ argument. So, it's time to decide whether more
bloviating is the name of the game or whether it is important enough
to go to the source to determine the actual answers. Arguments can be
made on both sides about whether TJ's chompers ought to be tested.
But if you seek answers to the question of whether TJ and Sally
produced offspring, then test the chompers. TJ championed scientific
enquiry, enlightenment, reason, etc. after all.
Lyle Browning
On Sep 24, 2008, at 10:05 AM, Herbert Barger wrote:
> Professor Henriques I have not said that the three mentioned
> professors
> are not some of America's finest professors. All I know about these
> are
> that they and others, including Monticello, write unproven and
> accusatory statements on subjects (DNA Study) of which they are not
> proficient or qualified to comment on in such strong terms on.
>
> Herb Barger
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Peter Henriques
> Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2008 11:57 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] Annette Gordon-Reed praised by Edmund Morgan
>
> Edmund Morgan, Joseph Ellis, and Peter Onuf are three of America's
> finest
> historians. Mr. Barger, IMHO, has let his obsession with proving
> Jefferson did
> not father children by Sally Hemings make him into a poster child of
> how
> a
> strong predisposition to a certain view can keep a person from being
> objective.
>
> Peter Henriques, Professor of History, Emeritus, George Mason
> University
> and
> author of
> Realistic Visionary: A Portrait of George Washington.
>
>
> In a message dated 9/23/2008 5:34:53 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
> [log in to unmask] writes:
>
> We all may remember that she wrote another book in which she
> "twisted"
> into another meaning of an Ellen Randolph Coolidge letter to her
> husband. In that same book she also said that the DNA test DID NOT
> prove
> that TJ was the father of the Eston Hemings descendant. Keeping
> this in
> mind let's move to her present book as reviewed by a friend and
> frequent
> forum associate, Edmund S. Morgan and for good measure she calls upon
> another writer and self stated LIAR, as exposed by the Boston Globe,
> Professor Joseph J. Ellis, to write a blurb for her book cover. Let
> us
> not overlook Peter Onuf,(book cover statement: "Jefferson's
> Virginia---and Jefferson himself---will never look the same." The
> public
> could rightly reply: not if you had your way! These people, who are
> sponsored and supported by certain foundations, and above all
> Monticello, where many readers probably think their donations and
> gifts
> are used to honor Mr. Jefferson. They did remove, MEMORIAL from their
> title, who are they now memorializing? "Forget it", these and other
> like
> authors (one being the bearer of the news of Prof. Morgan's NYT
> article), and a few others discussed on these pages weeks earlier,
> use
> their classrooms and books to "badmouth" a founding father who DID
> NOT
> father slave children that my long research reveals. They all DO
> have a
> deep and resounding agenda. Mrs Gordon-Reed's book is FULL of
> misstatements and outright distortions of the truth. One example: On
> dust cover: "....Sally, who bore seven children by Jefferson over the
> course of their thirty-eight year liaison." WHY hasn't she made
> headlines when she found this to be truth....Monticello, myself and
> the
> world have been waiting for this factual evidence, where did you find
> it
> Annette under a rock on Fawn Brodie's property? The author is pulling
> out all stops to convince all readers to political correctness and
> historical revisionism. Is this the work of a responsible
> professional
> professor or does it fit the mold of Prof. Joseph Ellis who was
> relieved
> from teaching assignments for one year for lying to his students, as
> exposed in the Boston Globe? Let the reader decide!
>
> Herbert Barger
> Jefferson Family Historian
> www.tjheritage.org
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Jon Kukla
> Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2008 7:49 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [VA-HIST] Annette Gordon-Reed praised by Edmund Morgan
>
> Posted at History News Network, Monday, September 22, 2008 Annette
> Gordon-Reed : Edmund Morgan calls her one of the best historians of
> her
> generation <http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/54782.html>
>
> Source: *Marie Morgan and Edmund S. Morgan in the New York Review of
> Books
> in the course of a review of Annette Gordon-Reed's new book, The
> Hemingses
> of
> Monticello*<http://www.nybooks.com/articles/21855?utm_medium=email&utm_s
> ource=Campaign+Monitor&utm_content=91964597&utm_campaign=Joseph
> +Lelyveld
> +on+John+%26+Sarah%2c+Michael+Chabon+on+Obama&utm_term=Jefferson
> %26%2382
> 17%3bs+Concubine>(10-9-08)
>
> The Hemingses of Monticello is a brilliant book. It marks the author
> as
> one
> of the most astute, insightful, and forthright historians of this
> generation. Not least of Annette Gordon-Reed's achievements is her
> ability
> to bring fresh perspectives to the life of a man whose personality
> and
> character have been scrutinized, explained, and justified by a host
> of
> historians and biographers. They have struggled to illuminate, and
> sometimes
> to gloss over, the dark places in his life. Like many upright public
> figures
> who know they are pure and their enemies vile, he was capable of
> deviousness
> and treachery. He instigated the savage attacks by the anti-
> Federalist
> National Gazette editor Philip Freneau on John Adams, once his fast
> friend,
> and was flummoxed rather than ashamed at being caught out paying
> Freneau
> to
> be his mouthpiece. Such actions gave rise in Jefferson biographies to
> characterizations like "enigma" and "sphinx."
>
> The full review is at http://www.nybooks.com/articles/21855?email
>
> --
> Jon Kukla
> www.JonKukla.com
>
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