Not going to go very deep into this subject because I fear the hate it stirs up…and I don’t need or want the negativity in my life right now; and, I have no desire to spend any amount of time defending my words when those who will want to argue don’t know what is inside my heart and my mind.
Sally Hemings was the lover, slave, maid of Thomas Jefferson. Her pigment was light and not dark..light as in more caucasian. She was also the half sister of Thomas Jefferson’s beloved wife, Martha who died before her time. Sally and Martha had the same father – so their Daddy dearest was relieving himself with Martha’s mother and Sally’s mother who was his slave. I find this disgusting. What I find more disgusting is that Thomas Jefferson preyed on teenage Sally Hemings. She had the opportunity to be free while living with him in Paris for two years…she and her brother who was his ‘man’. But, she and her brother chose to return with him to America because of love, because of loyalty, because it is what they knew??? and the rest is history.
I have always loved Thomas Jefferson’s words – he was obviously a smart and articulate man. But as I read more about him…I feel a lot of contempt.
But should I?
While I find it hard to entertain the idea of slavery! All aspects of slavery. I always come back to the question – should we condemn the white slave owner? Were they just living the way they knew how to live. Did they really believe that africans were just a step above animals. In fact many times just a step below animals. I find it unfathomable that human beings did not see other human beings as the same…but as I try to understand the mentality of the time…I am starting to believe that they just didn’t know. They didn’t know it was just a pigment difference.
…..and I think it begat generations of hatred – blacks against whites.
But then the craziness happened again with hitler and the jewish race.
….and it is happening again now in America with sexual orientation and hatred.
….and it is happening again between religions.
We do not look at those different from us as equal….and when I say we….I mean all of us and our own personal prejudices.
Until next time…
Ninasusan 
TJ is a mixed bag. He is my main man when he talks about limited government, checks and balances and decentralization of government. He loses me when he talks about God and independence. He wrote that we hold these truth to be self evident that all men are created equal and that we have certain inalienable rights that are granted by God.
He does not know what he is talking about. First God does not grant rights. He gives responsibilities. Secondly, Jefferson believed that only white, male property owners were the ones with the rights. In his mind, everyone and everything else was property (women, slaves and children).
The purpose of his Declaration of Independence was to incite people to disobey the King (Geo III). Christians were, from the beginning, resistant to this idea. John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and another who’s name escapes me, appointed Jefferson to write the inflammatory document to incite the hesitant Christians to rebel by pointing out how the King was in rebellion against God by denying them their alleged God given rights. Jefferson and his team were able to manipulate the majority of the continental congress to revolt.
To my mind Jefferson was a godless unbeliever of the first degree as were his cohorts Adams, Franklin and Thomas Paine.
As for the Sally Story…I would not doubt its truth. Jefferson was also a hypocrite of the first degree.
All done again…another opinion attack…sory
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Ya…he’s fallen several levels in my admiration!
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Well just to state my belief…not to debate but to way in…
Not for 1 second do I believe at any point did White Men think it was really OK to steal Blacks from Africa, throw them in the bottom of a ship, starve them, haul them across the ocean, sell them, work them to death, beat them, rape their women and girls, brake up families when selling off more slaves than needed, and deny them the compassion and respect due anyone that walked upright…also need to included the American Indian in my belief as well.
I support my belief with one very simple piece of evidence…
“The Holy Bible”.
If this country had been truely build on Christain values and any simple set of moral behaviories then …..well the American Indians would be a healthy, much larger subset of todays population. Slavery and all its evils would not have happened and this country would look very different today.
My heart as a white women will always be in daily pain, cry, and search for non existing peace… for the crimes of others though out our countries history and the current times.
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I didn’t mean to imply that it was okay because they thought the black slave lower than an animal. I just can’t wrap my mind around the hatred and violence and want somehow to put a reason to it. It makes me sick. But all of the bigotry, hate and violence still exists today … just different scenarios.
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I’ve read a bunch of books on Sally Hemmings and Thomas Jefferson and their offspring, both historical ficton and non fiction. I always felt horrified and torn, in a similar way that you described. What a sad time then, and again today. Prejudices and hatred and bigotry abound in almost all facets of life. Rich, poor, minority or not. The have’s, the have not’s, and all things gender, sexual, marital and religious. Civil discourse has become a thing of the past I fear. Agreeing to disagree, live and let live….I’m not sure it exists any longer.
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Exactly. I think we may be the majority…it’s just the minority talks a lot louder and carries a bigger bag of dirt!
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