The Hemingses of Monticello by Annette Gordon-Reed

[crusades0917]

This Historian presents supposition as fact. She therefore has very little credibility.

[vivecarocks]

She sounds like Oprah when she speaks...haha.

[capted3126]

I agree with al the factual aspects you came to regarding France and the huge impact it made.Unfortunately,commerce in the south depended largely on slavery,and it was more money than compassion or common sense that drove them, not to mention still others who,in this country's infancy,were still very against another imperialistic govt coming in the form of states rights issues.Unity,independance,was forced to trump slavery issues at the period u refer to.

[capted3126]

Miss reed,although she is overtly slated toward afro-centric implications,has in this vein, done a tremendous contribution in history that extrapolates human integrity in which,the Hemmings,Randolphs,and Jeffersons were part of. Miss Reed is an exceptional scholar and historian.....i,like her, became intrigued with this period after reading Fawn Brodies' book too.

[cyberdyva]

kassandrasduplex, when is your book being published?

[kassandrasduplex]

Like it or not folks, YOUR republic owes it's SOUL to Tho. Jefferson. A Jeffersonian republic seeks to diminish the superstition and tyranny of religion (Obama is continuing the Bush Faith Based garbage) and to expand public education for ALL who have the ability, FREE ( Obama continues the Bush privatization of our public education commons with the charter garbage and No Child.) Jefferson's detractors had better see who their friend really is and soon as the fate of this republic is at stake.

[kassandrasduplex]

"Reason and persuasion are the only practicable instruments. ... But every state, says an inquisitor, has established some religion. No two, say I, have established the same. ... Our sister states of Pennsylvania and New York, however, have long subsisted without any establishment at all." Jefferson inspires the future establishment clause. Read his Notes on the State of Virginia then smear him, if U can.

[bapyou]

Have you read the book since you posted your comments here? I don't see Gordon-Reed's book as a "smear" on Jefferson. Gordon-Reed is one of our foremost scholars of Jefferson.

[kassandrasduplex]

I confess I have not read the Hemingses and don't intend to. I have read Jefferson's "Notes", am familiar with the story of his "Bible" and the Gospel of Thomas unlike his detractors. Neo-cons still run this country despite Bush's departure (one I had hoped Obama would prosecute but see he won't.) And the neo-cons dont like true revolutionaries for the cons are against the ideal of equality, as all true revolutions seek to achieve. (If not then overthrows are mere coups.)

[bapyou]

Why do you feel Gordon-Reed is a Jefferson detractor? She is anything but.

[lunargoddess2002]

Honestly, Kassandra, what leaders like revolutionnaries? Revolutions are naturally occuring every century. It usually takes some form of depotism to bring them about. However, Jefferson was for revolution at the time of the French revolution but when the Haitian revolution came about, he was against it. I think he had written a lot of things but didn't wholeheartedly believe them all. He was human like us all and the self we project on the page isn't always the self we truly are.

[kassandrasduplex]

After all the smearing of Jefferson for allegedly having a sexual affair with his slave, most people today couldn't name one of his progressive achievements. He predicted where we are right now in Notes on Virginia. I paraphrase, "The People will forget a due respect of their rights in the sole pursuit of making money."

[PtrckSh]

All of your comments miss the mark entirely. The book is about the Hemingses. Jefferson, naturally, plays a crucial role in the story. Some of us see great value in the telling of that history as an end in itself.

If Thomas Jefferson deserves to remain an exalted figure in American history, as I very much believe he does, then let us tell history as it was and he will be judged charitably.

[lunargoddess2002]

That isn't a smear. There is evidence that she was his concubine. If you don't even want to read the book fine. Lots of historians believe that he had an affair with Sally Hemmings. However, most are not sure of the parentage of all of her children. Either Jefferson fathered one or one of his young cousins. You should read it before you dismiss it. Most people know about the Jeffersonian myth. He also a paradox. He believed one thing but practiced another.

[capted3126]

@lunargoddess2002 ...Sally Hemings resembled her half-sister Martha Jefferson {Randolph],which,for that period,and the enigma that was TJ,should be taken into consideration.

[lunargoddess2002]

@capted3126 I know she resembled his wife. However, she was still his property. She was chattel. Even though she had a better life than most slaves at Monticello, she was still a slave. That is the paradox for me. He believe in liberty for some at not for others. He believed in revolution for some but not for others. That is where the paradox lies for me.

[capted3126]

@lunargoddess2002 ..well,lunar,this is a paradox for many people because they think in contemporary terms.......remember,slavery through consignment and many other forms were a practice that has plagued humanity since the DIASPORA,orMoses. you must revisit history ,not to exonerate,but to understand that the 1700's were a turning point for civilizations all over the world.We dont need to cast blame,or create'paradox's'.Slaves were sent by tribal leaders; commodity of trade,this is true.

[lunargoddess2002]

@capted3126 Even a that time there was a large anti slavery movement. Even Jefferson was asked about this from his Enlightenment contemporaries in Paris. You had William Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson and many others who were against slavery and knew it was contemptable. If you even look at the First Republic in France, you'll see that slavery was then abolished in the Outre Mer territories and departments. With the Enlightenment you got more enlightened thinking regarding this.

[capted3126]

@lunargoddess2002 ;additionally,the war of 1812 ,the british conceded independance to the colonies;the issue of slavery ,and the now soveriegn country called The United States,had 50 years of southern slavery,before we hada civil war. Jefferson,like so many of the founders,knew they must first form united colonies first...or there would be no freedom for any man,black or white.He struggled with this,a price on his neck,and his writings reflect the eventual abolishment.

[lunargoddess2002]

@capted

Oh Jefferson did not struggle with this. It seems to me that you are selectively reading his texts. There are several paradoxes. He was for revolution and liberty until Haiti has revolution. Then he embarks on one of the largest embargo that cripples the country until the modern day along with France. Also, he talks about abhoring slavery in Notes on the state of Virgina but still holds slaves.He talks about the liberty of man but dehumanizes enslaved Africans Franklin was a better man.

[capted3126]

@lunargoddess2002 ...you got some real issues kid....instead of facing the reality of the time, you have infused emotional trappings, which is remarkably an in dication of self-loathing,which you dont have the stamina to face,so you project your hate on issues you clearly dont understand......have a nice blog.

[kassandrasduplex]

In promoting her work, the Professor should offer mitigating and less inflammatory details. And one should NEVER forget that to project a contemporary judgement on an historical figure is tantamount to fraud. Jefferson remains the first prominent political philosopher to propose in an official government document the concept of absolute equality among men. Remember he did this almost a quarter millenia past and in opposition to the world's Superpower of it's time, earning a death sentence.

[ekleston88]

He wrote about absolute equality, but when in a position to act upon this belief i.e. by treating his slaves as equals, he rather used them as concubines and workers on his plantation. You should read the book and get a perspective on your comment. I entirely agree that Jefferson did alot of forward thinking and courageous things; Adrienne Koch says that Jefferson was 'innovative, speculative and bold', but only on the issues that did not effect himself

[kassandrasduplex]

Were it not for Jefferson we wouldn't be having a conversation. He is, like it or not, the Father of the American Revolution and remains the first political philosopher to declare in an official revolutionary venue, the concept of equality among mankind (men!) He also nearly lost his home for his beliefs and remains one of the world's great PROGRESSIVE philosophers. Check out Jefferson's Bible and compare it to the Gospel of Thomas, unknown in Jefferson's day.

[lunargoddess2002]

Well, I think it would have happened eventually. You had so many people who followed the enlightenment and the rest of the Western world was moving toward either enlightened monarchy or republics. Look at the writings on the continent that inspired these thoughts of liberty, annihilation of despotism and individual thought. He read Rousseau, Montesquieu,Beaumarchais, Didero and all the important writers of that age. He was a product of his age. However,he believed in equality for all to a point.

[kassandrasduplex]

Recently the Professor appeared on the Diane Rehm Show and either made, or a caller made the inevitable comparison to 20th century Dixiecrat politician Strom Thurmond. This was patently offensive. Thurmond was the quitessential pandering, bigoted, racist Dixiecrat whose family had not sacrificed much for his privileged position, nor for the country as a whole. The comparison was disparaging and based soley upon the intimate relations with his black servant. Jefferson stands alone.

[kassandrasduplex]

From New York University Law school's website: News published in 1998 described DNA tests showing a near-certain confirmation of a genetic link between Jefferson and Hemings youngest child, Eston.

Near-certain and exact are not the same thing. Jefferson had nephews and one surviving child (he lost some 4 or 5 children and his wife during his lifetime of work and sacrifice). So, unfortunately, the definitive connection has never been made.

[uniquesongstress]

Well it is as exact as it can be because a paternity test as well will never prove that a person is 100% the father. And as for his nephews, the Carr's were ruled out as the family because the Y chromosome didnt match.

[MichaelMCurtis]

Thank You Annette...Michael Curtis of Munich as Miss Hemings´great great daughter´s friend in Miss Gloria Roberts

[blackjack2012]

Congratulations on winning the National Book Award! Happy birthday and I can't wait to take your class this Spring.