Henry, Thanks for adding the web page of my very exciting interview with Mr. Francis (Frank) Berkley. As explained in the interview, he was VERY knowledgeable about Virginia and the people in it. He was a walking and talking historian and very passionate about his work. I can not think of a better interview I have done and place it on the level as that of my interview with Mrs. Winifred Bennett of Arlington, Va. who originated the idea to have a DNA Study. She died not long ago, broken hearted that Dr. Eugene Foster had "jerked the rug out from under her" in the name of "fame" as she said. Dr. Foster would give the story to Nature rather than to her for her Jefferson book in progress. She said she asked him, Gene what is it you want, and his reply.....FAME. It was sad and disheartening for me and my wife to sit and listen to this sad story. Even though Frank thought possibly that the half-sister claim may have been true we now have a later version researched after his earlier research period, after hard and long research by the McMurrys in, Anatomy of a Scandal and they are quiet persuasive in their findings that there is no proof that it is true. Herb Barger -----Original Message----- From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Henry Wiencek Sent: Thursday, May 08, 2008 10:20 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [VA-HIST] The Wayles/Hemings miscegenation "rumor" In response to Ronald Seagrave: The legal status and the movements of Isaac Jefferson are something of a puzzle. At age 71 and still working, he was interviewed by Charles W. Campbell in Petersburg in 1847; the manuscript of the memoir was not discovered until a century later and was first published 1951, reissued 1967 by James Bear as "Jefferson at Monticello," along with the memoir of Edmund Bacon, the overseer, with Bear's scholarly apparatus. Campbell's manuscript typesetting copy is at UVA Special Collections and is online. See also a very valuable discussion on Herb Barger's site: http://www.tjheritage.org/Berkleyinterview.html We don't quite know how Isaac got to Petersburg. In his memoir Isaac states, "Isaac left Monticello four years before Mr. Jefferson died." He says that Thomas Mann Randolph wanted him to build a threshing machine at Varina. {Bear, pp. 18, 22.} Isaac said he lived with Thomas Mann Randolph and his wife 26 or 27 years. {Bear, p. 15-16.} An endnote by Campbell says that Isaac was married and had two children. Bear says that they were all deeded to one of Jefferson's daughters in 1797, but that the next year Isaac went to live with Martha and Thomas Mann Randolph. Cinder Stanton writes in "Free Some Day," pp. 51, 24: "Some time in the 1820s Isaac Jefferson made his way to Richmond and then to Petersburg, Virginia, evidently as a free man. . . . Thomas Mann Randolph may have manumitted him or he may have purchased his own freedom." Perhaps Isaac became quasi-free in the same manner as Jupiter's son Phil Evans. In his memoir TJ Randolph wrote that Evans "hired himself from me at a nominal hire." Perhaps Isaac Jefferson was allowed to do the same thing. Actually, Jefferson did record the deaths and the transfers/sales of many of his slaves. See the Plantation Database at Monticello.org, and the Farm Book, which is online in a magnificent, searchable transcription at the Mass. Historical Society site. Isaac does make some errors, noted by Bear, but nothing that completely discredits his account. He describes Sally Hemings and her family but says nothing whatever on the Hemings/Jefferson question. His account is one of the most important sources we have for life at Monticello. Henry Wiencek ______________________________________ To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html ______________________________________ To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html