Jefferson and Sally Hemmings

[Orange_Juice]

If it did happen, I would have understood. Jefferson's wife had died and according to what I've read, Sally looked very much like Martha Jefferson since she was her half-sister.

I'll bet she did! Same family tree probably.

 

[Cecilie1200]

Beverly Hemmings? What about her?

Beverly Hemmings? Who the hell is that?

The circumstantial evidence is pretty telling, actually. He took Sally with him to France and treated her like a girlfriend instead of a slave, buying her nice dresses and other things. How many slaves get that treatment?

According to whom? Even circumstantial evidence has to be EVIDENCE, dear.

The oral history points directly to a relationship as does the many, many such realtionships that existed exactly like this at this time. As Mary Chestnut's diary attests to:

Oral history? You mean the Hemings family passing down rumors that they were really descended from Thomas Jefferson? Well, gee. Who wouldn't like to believe they were descended from a former President and Founding Father, rather than, for example, his halfwit younger brother? My family likes to talk about being descended from Jefferson Davis. The difference is, we also have hard evidence like birth records to back it up, not just "oral history".

I not only have no clue who Mary Chestnut is, I also have no idea why her vague personal opinion on something general has anything to do with this.

 

[Orange_Juice]

Beverly Hemmings? Who the hell is that?



According to whom? Even circumstantial evidence has to be EVIDENCE, dear.



Oral history? You mean the Hemings family passing down rumors that they were really descended from Thomas Jefferson? Well, gee. Who wouldn't like to believe they were descended from a former President and Founding Father, rather than, for example, his halfwit younger brother? My family likes to talk about being descended from Jefferson Davis. The difference is, we also have hard evidence like birth records to back it up, not just "oral history".

I not only have no clue who Mary Chestnut is, I also have no idea why her vague personal opinion on something general has anything to do with this.

WOW! Ok, you really don't know what you are talking about then! Nevermind

LOL, that's so funny, her "personal opinion."

 

[Cecilie1200]

I strongly disagree with that. Humans always do things that seem "illegolical" and sex is probably the most logicless act we engage in. To say they didn't do it because they didn't think they were humans misses a huge point about slavery. It was built on an obvious lie, that blacks were not humans. Of course whites ignored this lie when it served their interests. Were blacks given tasks to do that animals couldn't do? Yes. Were some blacks able to read and write? Yes. Were blacks put in charge of other blacks? Sure. Hell, late in the war slaves were being armed to fight in the Confederate army

Did you know that debates go better when your arguments actually bear some resemblance to the remarks you're putatively responding to? I never said, "They never did it". I said, in fact, quite clearly that I was NOT saying it never happened.

And no, people do not just "ignore the lie when it suits them" when the lie involved is integral to their own self-image. Once again, there are always exceptions, but there is no lie in the world as powerful as the one upon which your own ability to feel good about yourself as a person is built.

I have no idea what you think blacks being able to read or write has to do with anything.

 

[Cecilie1200]

WOW! Ok, you really don't know what you are talking about then! Nevermind

LOL, that's so funny, her "personal opinion."

I'm talking about a report written about a DNA test of the descendants of two of Sally Hemings' children. Not recognizing random names you're throwing out from whatever indubitably fascinating rumor mill you've been using as "history" does not mean I don't know what I'm talking about. It means I don't know what YOU are talking about. You DO recall the DNA tests that constitute the ACTUAL evidence concerning the Jefferson family and the Hemings family, right?

And of course it's her personal opinion. It's her DIARY, dimwit. That's what a diary is.