The Selling of Sally Hemings

Oregon Magazine ^ | September 14, 2003 | Thomas Lipscomb

[WaterDragon]

The myth of Sally Hemings is for sale again. There has always been something about Thomas Jefferson’s lovely black slave Sally Hemings that drives otherwise rational people nuts. From the pages of The New York Times to prize-winning historians, the spewings of pseudo-science and psychic friends network nattering have been truly monumental.

[maxwell]

It's always been a source of amusement to me how folks operate on "info"-bytes: e.g., "Sally Hemmings" elicits "oh that slave that Thomas Jefferson screwed?"

Often I wonder how much of what we think we know, is actually true...

[WaterDragon]

One of the strengths of America is that we have more of the best of every nation here -- Europe, Asia and Africa -- and a powerful mingling over the centuries of these best, than any other country in the world. We're raucus, argumentative and competitive with each other, but at the end of the day, we know our identity -- we're Americans. We all want to get to the top, to be the best....and in the process we lift each other up a little more.

Recently a friend who is originally from Scotland told me she at least knows her race is 'pure.' LOL. How sad. She's not yet Americanized enough to understand the sterility of that view.

[WaterDragon]

Bump!

Maxwell -- I agree, the libbie media does it's darnedest to create these buzz words to create automatic reactions in hopes they'll pass for 'knowledge.' Thank goodness for conservate writers.

[alethia]

"Recently a friend who is originally from Scotland told me she at least knows her race is 'pure.' LOL. How sad. She's not yet Americanized enough to understand the sterility of that view."

Well, you know what happens with just about any species with too much "in-breeding". The royal family of Europe had huge issues with this and experienced hemophilia and insanity on a regular basis. The same goes for just about any race of people.

Mixed breeds have proven to be stronger, more resilient and in many instances more intelligent than pedigreed -- that goes for dogs too!!!

[WaterDragon]

Amen to that, alethia!

[DTwistedSisterS]

I read in "Don't Know Much ABout History" that it could've been any one of the TWENTY Jeffersons living on the land there.

[WaterDragon]

Sally Hemings sounds a worthy ancestress regardless of who fathered her children.

[WaterDragon]

Very true. The important person, it seems to me, was Sally herself.

[cyborg]

I am inclined to believe they did have a child together. Would not have been unusual anyway. Sally Hemmings herself was half English and half African. Anyway, Sally Hemmings had a choice. When she was in Paris, under French law any slave that touched French soil was free. She could have stay, but she went back with Jefferson. Besides, she being his dead wife's half sister, she probably LOOKED like her.

I just want to know what the New York Slimes hopes to achieve from a non-event 200 years ago.

[I_Love_My_Husband]

Yes, good point. The evidence is that it's a Jefferson, but which one? I'm sure in the future DNA science might be able to tell, but not now. The evidence points to the brother of Jefferson. The article states that Sally Hemmings was the 1/2 sister of Jefferson's wife Martha. Interesting fact unbeknownst to me.

[fini]

I read an article just a few months ago that showed that a very large part of the Scotish population has very mixed blood- Scotish, Nordic, English and "other." So I guess "pure" is a relative term.

[exit82]

The Democrats udsed the Sally Hemings lie to bash a truly great American just so they could somehow redeem their rapist President,Bildo. This psuedo-history broke at the time of the FreeRepublic "March for Justice" 10/31/98.

The tragedy is that a wonderful American got trashed, and when you go to Monticello, and see Jefferson's home, in the context of the times. he took excellent care of his slaves, to the point of buying produce from them on land he gave them to grow vegetables for themselves. The slaves stayed on the Monticello for three and four generations because they had a home there and were well treated.

The genetics did not prove that Jefferson fathered anyone with Sally Hemings. Only that it was a Jefferson male.

But since when did the truth matter to Democrats. Whatever works in a pinch to accomplish their devious objectives.

[WaterDragon]

I just want to know what the New York Slimes hopes to achieve from a non-event 200 years ago.

I've wondered if the "New York Slimes" staff are merely lazy or actually afraid of reality. They seem to avoid any reference to it, certainly.

[WaterDragon]

I think by 'pure' she meant northern Europe. The current political and moral condition of that area of the world today is not particularly outstanding. The best of it are already here! LOL

[WaterDragon]

The Democrats udsed the Sally Hemings lie to bash a truly great American just so they could somehow redeem their rapist President,Bildo.

What is truly nasty about the Democrats is that they believe that to connect a slave family with Jefferson lowers Jefferson! Why not assume that the Jefferson line had been invigorated by infusion of the bloodline of an intelligent, beautiful negress? If they are going to assume anything at all?

[cyborg]

If they want a juicy interracial sex scandal, perhaps they should investigate Jesse Jackson, Jr.'s little trysts... ooooo I know. That's going low but the Slimes are scraping the bottom anyway. Seriously, you are right about the NYT.

[petitfour]

Interestingly, the week that the committee of historians released their findings on who was the father was also the week that the White House invited the white and black descendants of Jefferson to the White House. Even though the DNA evidence was insufficient to say that Thomas Jefferson was indeed the father of several of Sally Hemings children, the White House recognized them as such. The Bush White House. Sally Hemings did have at least one child who was definitively NOT a Jefferson.

One of my college professors was on the committee, and he loved to find out bad things about Jefferson. However, even he could not conclude that Thomas Jefferson was the father. He didn't think Jefferson physically had it in him to father ANY child when the alleged offspring were conceived. I'm less certain and think it possible.

[WaterDragon]

Ewww. I can't imagine anyone hoping Jesse Jackson is their granddaddy!