Week 7

Though I did not make it to class on Thursday, I will write about what "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl" stirred within me. While reading this book, I could not stop my mind from flashing back to two things. The first is the recent(within 10 years or so) discoveries of Thomas Jefferson's relations with his slave. Just like within the book, Jefferson also seemingly had sexual relations and children with his slave. However, I think Jefferson attempted to justify his relations by sending all of his "slave children" to college and having them educated. Also, at his death Jefferson noted in his will for the woman slave whom he had had the sexual relations with to be freed. The thought that Thomas Jefferson, one of the founding fathers of this nation, committed some of the same crimes described in this book makes me wonder just how prevalent and/or accepted the act of masters having sexual relations with/raping their females slaves actually was during the 1800's.

"The Jefferson-Hemings story was sustained through the 19th century by Northern abolitionists, British critics of American democracy, and others. Its vitality among the American population at large was recorded by European travelers of the time. Through the 20th century, some historians accepted the possibility of a Jefferson-Hemings connection and a few gave it credence, but most Jefferson scholars found the case for such a relationship unpersuasive.

Over the years, however, belief in a Thomas Jefferson-Sally Hemings relationship was perpetuated in private. Two of her children - Madison and Eston - indicated that Jefferson was their father, and this belief has been relayed through generations of their descendants as an important family truth.

That a Jefferson-Hemings relationship could be neither refuted nor substantiated was challenged in 1998 by the results of DNA tests conducted by Dr. Eugene Foster and a team of geneticists. The study - which tested Y-chromosomal DNA samples from male-line descendants of Field Jefferson (Thomas Jefferson's uncle), John Carr (grandfather of Jefferson's Carr nephews), Eston Hemings, and Thomas C. Woodson - indicated a genetic link between the Jefferson and Hemings descendants. The results of the study established that an individual carrying the male Jefferson Y chromosome fathered Eston Hemings (born 1808), the last known child born to Sally Hemings. There were approximately 25 adult male Jeffersons who carried this chromosome living in Virginia at that time, and a few of them are known to have visited Monticello. The study's authors, however, said "the simplest and most probable" conclusion was that Thomas Jefferson had fathered Eston Hemings."

The full article can be found at the following web address: http://www.monticello.org/plantation/hemingscontro/hemings-jefferson_contro.html

I still remember hearing about the DNA testing which was done in order to prove that Jefferson had sexual relations with Sally Hemings. And I remember people like my grandma making statements like "oh, he never did that" and "It's just people with agendas trying to make Jefferson look bad." I love my grandma to death but I gotta say I think maybe she was wrong on this one. It seems like, from reading this book and other accounts of slave women, that having sex with the master was almost a common occurrence. It really is amazing though to think that one of the founding fathers of the greatest and freeest(sp?) country in the world would use slaves, not only for labor but also for his own personal pleasures! It's embarrasing to think about and perhaps that is why so many people like my grandma just deny the thought even though there is substantial evidence being brought to support the claim.

The other area my mind kept wandering to was the "Roots" movies. These movies are re-telling of an African-American man's geneology and the struggles his ancestors faced as slaves in the South. These movies are filled with situations much like the ones which arise in "Incidents in the Life as a Slave Girl". I think what stuck out most in the movies was the fact that it did not matter to masters which slaves were married to who. The slaves were all viewed as livestock which could be separated at a moments notice. In "Roots", there is a moment when a man and wife were suddenly separated from each other because the husband was sold away. This left the wife unsure about what she should do. Should she remain faithful to her husband even though she hasn't a clue whether or not they will ever be reunited again in this lifetime. Or should she forget him and find another man to take care of her? This situation brings me to a quote which helps put us in the shoes of a slave.

"Why does the slave ever love? Why allow the tendrils of the heart to twine around objects which may at any moment be wrenched away by the hand of violence? When the separations come by the hand of death, the pious soul can bow in resignation, and say, 'Not my will, but thine be done, O Lord!' But when the ruthless hand of man strikes the blow, regardless of the misery he causes, it is hard to be submissive."(pg. 170)

It is hard for anyone born in a free country to be able to understand what slave go through. Not even being able to have the luxury to love because if you love someone you are probably setting yourself up for disappointment. I can't imagine. As a slave, do you think it would be worth the risk of loving someone even though the very next day they could be sold away? Would you marry someone if you truly loved them even though, like in Roots, they could be sold and you may never see them again. If that were the case, would it be ethical to marry someone else even though your husband may very well be remaining faithful to you?