Well, my intention really was to comment on the larger issue of Thomas Jefferson and slavery, which I think risks being obscured by what I find as the (relatively speaking) uninteresting question of whether or not Jefferson had sex with one of his slaves. The sensationalism of the allegations distracts from the larger issue, which was that Jefferson lived his entire life as a master of slaves, a position which he eloquently and accurately characterized as inducing "the most unremitting despotism" in the "manners" of the slave owner. Jefferson, the man who condemned slavery because it made tyrants out of slave owners, and hence corrupted the public life of the American republic, made no serious effort to live by his own principles. He did not even have the honesty to acknowledge, as did Patrick Henry, that "however culpable my conduct, I will so far pray my devoir to virtue, as to own the excellence and rectitude of her precepts, and lament my want of conformity to them." Jefferson's record as a slaveowner, as Lucia Stanton, Jack Rakove, Jan Lewis, Rhys Isaac, and numerous others have documented, was fairly typical of his generation. It most definitely did include the use of coercive force to keep his "people" at their work. Jefferson built and rebuilt his mansion, lived a life of eight course dinners and fine wine, all the while sinking deeper and deeper in debt. He knew full well (and if he did not know, it was only by the most heraculean efforts of self deception) that when he died his slaves would have to be sold, and the plantation "family" he paternalistically conceived as being under his care and protection would be separated, in order to cover his extravagent debts. Contrast Jefferson's irresponsibility with Washington's frugality, and consequent ability to free his slaves, and tell me who you think was the more humane and principled man. Jefferson was by far the greater writer and rhetoritician, and left a larger, in the best possible sense, ideological legacy. But as a man, Washington was the more admirable of the two. Roger Wilkens has written a truly fine meditition on the meaning of the founding and its compromise with slavery in his book JEFFERSON'S PILLOW, which I think gets at the larger issues in a more meaningful and useful fashion than the narrow literature regarding Jefferson and Hemings. I would hope that no one here would want to go so far today as William Lloyd Garrison did a century and a half ago, and suggest that the values of the founding are irrevocably corrupted by the fact that a good many of the founders owned slaves. For Wilkens, it is precisely the values of the Virginia founders which provide the intellectual armature for the public principles to which he has devoted his life work. While some here might (possibly) disagree with Wilken's means, I rather doubt that many will quarrel with his quite Jeffersonian goals. And yet, as a 69 year old black man, Wilkens has lived through a period of American history in which some Americans, including a good many Virginians, denied his capacity to act as a responsible citizen because of the color of his skin. I am really at a loss to know how to respond to anyone who dismisses these issues as "foolery." They strike me as going right to the heart of Virginia's contribution to the ideals which define public life in our country today. They strike me as important and worthy of discussion, precisely because, as Edmund Morgan noted almost thirty years ago, the development of "liberty and equality in America had been accompanied by the rise of slavery." As Morgan wrote, "the paradox is American, and it behooves Americans to understand it if they would understand themselves." I don't think we have seen the end of that discussion, by any means. But I do think Wilkens takes us a step in the right direction, and I do hope we will continue to discuss these issues, as historians, as Virginians, and as Americans. Best, Kevin --On Thursday, March 28, 2002 5:05 PM -0500 Ray Bonis <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Enough of this foolery! Please no more of Sally and Thomas. We've heard > enough. > ~~~ > Ray Bonis > Special Collections and Archives > James Branch Cabell Library > 901 Park Ave. VCU Box 842033 > Richmond, VA 23284-2033 > > Phone: (804) 828-1108 > Email: [log in to unmask] > Web: www.library.vcu.edu/jbc/speccoll/speccoll.html > ~~~~ > > To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions > at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html -- Kevin R. Hardwick, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Department of History, MSC 2001 James Madison University Harrisonburg VA 22807 Phone: 540/568-6306 Email: [log in to unmask] To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html