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Subject: [JEFFERSON-HEMINGS] Freedom for the Hemings Family - Check out Michael Janofsy's article
Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2000 16:41:10 EST
This statement came from this article. Sorry I forgot to put quotes around
it!
The New York TIMES On the Web May 17, 1999
Jefferson Table Extended for Hemingses
By MICHAEL JANOFSKY
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. -- If descendants of Thomas Jefferson ever accept as
their relatives people who claim as forebears Jefferson and Sally Hemings,
one of his slaves, the first steps were taken over the weekend. However small
they were. As part of the Jefferson family's 86th reunion, his descendants,
a group known as the Monticello Association, for the first time invited
Hemings descendants to attend a reception on Saturday at Monticello,
Jefferson's plantation home, and a family business meeting Sunday. About 35
Hemingses came, and also for the first
time, the association agreed to accept a membership application from a
descendant of each of the three male children Hemings relatives claim she had
by Jefferson. In addition, a motion to have the Hemings descendants leave
the room after lunch Sunday, when the business meeting officially began, was
voted down, 33-20, another small sign that relations might be warming. But it
could be a long thaw. Despite the desire of all Hemings' progeny to be
recognized as true descendants of the nation's third president and the author
of the Declaration of Independence, the applications were viewed as strictly
symbolic. And final approval was hardly guaranteed, reflecting the fierce
pride of Jefferson descendants and their grudging reluctance to accept an
alternative view of history that shows their patriarch in a less than glowing
light. In response to the ongoing campaign by
Hemings descendants to prove what they believe is their rightful place in
history, the association voted to have a special committee gather more
evidence -- through genetic tests, oral histories and anything else -- before
making a final determination of whether Hemingses are truly Jeffersons. The
committee is expected to present its findings by next year's reunion. The
vote effectively seeks to build upon years of scientific, genealogical and
historical work that both supports and disputes the contention that Jefferson
and Hemings
had children together. Recent genetic tests, for example, offered evidence
that Jefferson probably fathered one of Hemings three sons, Eston Jefferson,
but not necessarily the other two, Thomas C. Woodson and James Madison
Hemings. As a result, descendants of Eston Jefferson argued this weekend
that the genetic evidence is compelling, while Woodson and Madison progeny
sought to place greater emphasis on oral histories passed down by generations
of their families.
In any event, the request for more information continued a Jefferson family
dispute pitting forces sympathetic to the Hemings' campaign to be accepted
against family members who want to see more proof. The rancor spilled outof
the meeting room Sunday when the Hemings' leading champion among the
Jefferson descendants, Lucien K. Truscott IV, an author from Los Angeles,
accused the out-going president, Robert M. Gillespie, of sabotaging efforts
to have Hemings' descendants ultimately be recognized as true Jefferson
descendants.
Truscott said that when he made a motion for the association's executive
committee to admit the Hemingses as honorary members, he was dismissed by
Gillespie as acting out of order. "That is a good reflection of how fair
they intend to be with the criteria committee they appointed," Truscott
said. "They had the opportunity to vote, to let these people in as nonvoting
members, to come to meetings, and they wouldn't even let the floor vote."
Gillespie insisted Truscott was out of order, that association bylaws say
that honorary members must be affiliated either with the Monticello
Foundation, which maintains the residence, or the
University of Virginia, which Jefferson founded.
Other Jefferson descendants took issue with Truscott, not least for his
characterizations of association members as racists for their reluctance to
recognize Hemingses as Jeffersons. As Truscott stood before a bank of
television cameras, answering reporters' questions, one Jefferson descendant,
Theresa Shackelford, walked up beside him to refute some of his contentions.
To his charge that some members have said they would resign and insist upon
not being buried in the family cemetery if Hemings were allowed in, Ms.
Shackelford said, "I've never heard anybody say they would resign or refuse
to be buried in the graveyard.
"And you can't allow them in as honorary members until there is time to do
more thorough research," she added. "You can't do these things halfway.
Look, I am for any lineal descendant, be they black, white or purple. We're
not racists in this organization. We're snobs, but not racists."
This article can be found at
http://search.nytimes.com/search/daily/bin/fastweb?getdoc+site+iib-site+96+0
+wAAA+sally%7Ehemings
Thomas Jefferson never denied his relationship with Sally Hemings. After he
died, the Virginia
State Legislature voted a special dispensation for her in recognition of the
well-known fact that
she had been the President's mistress. Only Sally and her sons, Madison and
Eston, were
allowed to stay behind at Montecello. All of the other of the 187 slaves were
disbursed.
Jefferson's three older children by Sally had previously been freed.
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