Marxist
Literotica Guru
- Joined
- Sep 20, 2001
- Posts
- 18,322
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29905-2002May3.html
Begs the question, why don't the mean Black people just leave those nice White people alone and with their mind blinders intact?
By Leef Smith
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, May 4, 2002; Page B01
For three years, the descendants of slave Sally Hemings have attended family reunions at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello plantation, touring the historic grounds outside Charlottesville alongside Jefferson's acknowledged kin, mingling at often contentious white-linen luncheons and waiting to be recognized as bona fide family.
That seems ever more unlikely now.
A 24-page report being presented today by a committee of the Monticello Association -- a group representing more than 700 lineal descendants of Jefferson and his wife, Martha -- recommends that Hemings's offspring be denied a place in their select ranks.
Citing a "lack of universally acceptable information" regarding Jefferson's alleged paternity of one or more of Hemings's children, the report says it would be inappropriate to embrace her clan without more evidence. One of the privileges of being a proven Jefferson descendant is burial at Monticello.
"Only further historical and scientific research which discloses new facts could give a different and more definitive answer to the question," states the Membership Advisory Committee report, which was three years in the making. "Therefore we believe that there is not sufficient evidence for descendants of Sally Hemings to meet the criteria . . . for membership."
Monticello Association members are holding their annual retreat this weekend in Charlottesville and could vote on the membership question as early as tomorrow. Shay Banks-Young, a descendant of Hemings's son Madison, said no one is surprised by the recommendation.
"I just wonder why it took them three years to get to the decision we always knew they'd come to," Banks-Young said. "It would have been nice [to be accepted], but you can't lose something you never had. They've spent time and money to disprove who we know we are. We've been patient, and now we'll just move on."
Association officials declined to comment on the report before it is voted on.
In 1998, DNA tests confirmed a link between the male line of Jeffersons and some descendants of Hemings. Combined with historical evidence, the test results prompted many Jefferson scholars -- including those at the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, which owns and runs Monticello -- to publicly conclude that Jefferson likely fathered one if not all of Hemings's six children.
The Monticello Association resisted taking a formal position, instead forming a committee in 1999 to study the issue to help members decide whether to amend their admissions criteria.
Since then, the debate has been loud and rancorous, dividing family members.
While the new report says it is not the association's job to "re-invent history," it suggests that members "give credit where credit is due" by organizing a group to highlight the contributions of the slaves and other workers who helped build Monticello. Tentatively called "Families of Jefferson's Monticello," the group would be open to descendants of all who lived or worked at the estate during Jefferson's time. The report also suggests consideration of a second graveyard at Monticello for members of the new group.
That prospect has infuriated Hemings's descendants.
"I can't imagine anyone would want to be buried in a separate cemetery for blacks only," Banks-Young said.
Julia Westerinen, ofStaten Island, N.Y., a white descendant of Sally Hemings's son Eston, said: "They're acting like a crowd of us are standing at the bottom of a hill with our hands outstretched begging to be buried there. I don't know of any Hemings descendants that want to buried at Monticello. What we want is for them to recognize us as lineal descendants of Thomas Jefferson."
Talk of a Jefferson-Hemings liaison was rife in some circles even before the third president's death in 1826, and historians have debated the subject ever since. But it was the DNA tests that set scholars on fire with new theories.
The tests compared the Y chromosome in males who trace their ancestors to Jefferson with that of male descendants of Hemings. Researchers said the scientific data matched the descendants of Eston Hemings with the male line of Jeffersons. And when historical evidence was factored in, the researchers said, it all but confirmed a relationship between Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings.
Critics of the DNA tests note that the science proves only that someone in the Jefferson family fathered Eston Hemings. One of the most vocal groups has been the Thomas Jefferson Heritage Society, which was founded in 2000 by John H. Works Jr., a former Monticello Association president.
The group commissioned its own examination by 13 scholars. In their April 2001 report, the examiners were nearly unanimous in concluding that Jefferson's paternity was "almost certainly untrue." The report went on to theorize that Jefferson's brother Randolph fathered Hemings's children.
Works called the questioning of Jefferson's character "tragic" and said that most of Jefferson's acknowledged family agrees with the conclusions presented in the scholars' report. Those who do not concur, he said, are riding a wave of "political correctness."
The Hemings descendants "can't create the link back to Thomas Jefferson probably because it doesn't exist," said Works, whose Heritage newsletter has criticized the idea of a second graveyard at Monticello.
"This is not a black-versus-white issue," he said. "This is not a racial issue. The Hemings descendants simply don't meet the criteria" for membership.
Association member Lucian K. Truscott IV has been one of the most vocal proponents of welcoming in the Hemings family. He said it is unfair for the association to require a genealogical paper trail when the laws governing slavery prohibited such documents. "Jefferson scholars agree that the book is closed on this now," Truscott said. "The DNA was just the capper in a long chain of quasi-circumstantial evidence that strongly indicates Jefferson fathered those children. . . . The rest of the world has moved on. The Monticello Association has to move on."
Begs the question, why don't the mean Black people just leave those nice White people alone and with their mind blinders intact?
By Leef Smith
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, May 4, 2002; Page B01
For three years, the descendants of slave Sally Hemings have attended family reunions at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello plantation, touring the historic grounds outside Charlottesville alongside Jefferson's acknowledged kin, mingling at often contentious white-linen luncheons and waiting to be recognized as bona fide family.
That seems ever more unlikely now.
A 24-page report being presented today by a committee of the Monticello Association -- a group representing more than 700 lineal descendants of Jefferson and his wife, Martha -- recommends that Hemings's offspring be denied a place in their select ranks.
Citing a "lack of universally acceptable information" regarding Jefferson's alleged paternity of one or more of Hemings's children, the report says it would be inappropriate to embrace her clan without more evidence. One of the privileges of being a proven Jefferson descendant is burial at Monticello.
"Only further historical and scientific research which discloses new facts could give a different and more definitive answer to the question," states the Membership Advisory Committee report, which was three years in the making. "Therefore we believe that there is not sufficient evidence for descendants of Sally Hemings to meet the criteria . . . for membership."
Monticello Association members are holding their annual retreat this weekend in Charlottesville and could vote on the membership question as early as tomorrow. Shay Banks-Young, a descendant of Hemings's son Madison, said no one is surprised by the recommendation.
"I just wonder why it took them three years to get to the decision we always knew they'd come to," Banks-Young said. "It would have been nice [to be accepted], but you can't lose something you never had. They've spent time and money to disprove who we know we are. We've been patient, and now we'll just move on."
Association officials declined to comment on the report before it is voted on.
In 1998, DNA tests confirmed a link between the male line of Jeffersons and some descendants of Hemings. Combined with historical evidence, the test results prompted many Jefferson scholars -- including those at the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, which owns and runs Monticello -- to publicly conclude that Jefferson likely fathered one if not all of Hemings's six children.
The Monticello Association resisted taking a formal position, instead forming a committee in 1999 to study the issue to help members decide whether to amend their admissions criteria.
Since then, the debate has been loud and rancorous, dividing family members.
While the new report says it is not the association's job to "re-invent history," it suggests that members "give credit where credit is due" by organizing a group to highlight the contributions of the slaves and other workers who helped build Monticello. Tentatively called "Families of Jefferson's Monticello," the group would be open to descendants of all who lived or worked at the estate during Jefferson's time. The report also suggests consideration of a second graveyard at Monticello for members of the new group.
That prospect has infuriated Hemings's descendants.
"I can't imagine anyone would want to be buried in a separate cemetery for blacks only," Banks-Young said.
Julia Westerinen, ofStaten Island, N.Y., a white descendant of Sally Hemings's son Eston, said: "They're acting like a crowd of us are standing at the bottom of a hill with our hands outstretched begging to be buried there. I don't know of any Hemings descendants that want to buried at Monticello. What we want is for them to recognize us as lineal descendants of Thomas Jefferson."
Talk of a Jefferson-Hemings liaison was rife in some circles even before the third president's death in 1826, and historians have debated the subject ever since. But it was the DNA tests that set scholars on fire with new theories.
The tests compared the Y chromosome in males who trace their ancestors to Jefferson with that of male descendants of Hemings. Researchers said the scientific data matched the descendants of Eston Hemings with the male line of Jeffersons. And when historical evidence was factored in, the researchers said, it all but confirmed a relationship between Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings.
Critics of the DNA tests note that the science proves only that someone in the Jefferson family fathered Eston Hemings. One of the most vocal groups has been the Thomas Jefferson Heritage Society, which was founded in 2000 by John H. Works Jr., a former Monticello Association president.
The group commissioned its own examination by 13 scholars. In their April 2001 report, the examiners were nearly unanimous in concluding that Jefferson's paternity was "almost certainly untrue." The report went on to theorize that Jefferson's brother Randolph fathered Hemings's children.
Works called the questioning of Jefferson's character "tragic" and said that most of Jefferson's acknowledged family agrees with the conclusions presented in the scholars' report. Those who do not concur, he said, are riding a wave of "political correctness."
The Hemings descendants "can't create the link back to Thomas Jefferson probably because it doesn't exist," said Works, whose Heritage newsletter has criticized the idea of a second graveyard at Monticello.
"This is not a black-versus-white issue," he said. "This is not a racial issue. The Hemings descendants simply don't meet the criteria" for membership.
Association member Lucian K. Truscott IV has been one of the most vocal proponents of welcoming in the Hemings family. He said it is unfair for the association to require a genealogical paper trail when the laws governing slavery prohibited such documents. "Jefferson scholars agree that the book is closed on this now," Truscott said. "The DNA was just the capper in a long chain of quasi-circumstantial evidence that strongly indicates Jefferson fathered those children. . . . The rest of the world has moved on. The Monticello Association has to move on."
