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Subject: [JEFFERSON-HEMINGS] Re: Freedom for the Hemings Family - Check out Michael Janofsy's article
Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2000 18:09:31 EST
Saundra---
I'm going to belabor this point because statements about men living or dead
are important. Shakespeare wrote:
Good name in man and woman, dear my lord,
Is the immediate jewel of their souls:
Who steals my purse steals trash; 'tis something, nothing;
'Twas mine, 'tis his, and has been slave to thousands;
But he that filches from me my good name
Robs me of that which not enriches him,
And makes me poor indeed.
Othello, Act III, scene 3
The statement that "...the Virginia State Legislature voted a special
dispensation for her [Sally Hemmings] in recognition of the well-known fact
that she had been the President's mistress," besmirches the names of the
entire Virginia State Legislature. Politics was too rough back then for
legislators to openly avow that they were giving some "special dispensation"
to a slave because she was a past President's mistress. So what diplomatic
cover did they invent, how was the real reason known and what was this
special dispensation? You are the only person I have ever seen refer to it.
I tried to find the NY Times article you quoted, but it seems to have been
removed from the web, as often happens after a time. I note that you did
NOT, however, include the statement for which I am asking the source within
your quotation marks.
So did the statements in question originate with Mr.Michael Janofsky or not?
D. E Mayfield
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