Monday, November 23, 2009

A Different Shade of Pale




















The mystery of Monticello: Where did Sally Hemings (ca. 1773-1835) stand and who were her children? A good place to start: Annette Gordon-Reed's Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy (1997) and The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family (2008). I dig. Hemings and Jefferson certainly had a social relationship, though the paternity of her children has often been pawned off on various and sundry, including Jefferson's nephews, the Carr brothers, who lived at Monticello for quite a little while in the late 1700s.

My own research touches on Dabney and Peter Carr (1770-1815); the latter served in the Virginia House of Delegates in the early 1800s and, after losing a couple of elections, began a school at his Carr's Brook (or Carrsbrook) estate in Albemarle County. He took in as many as seventeen boarding and several more day students in 1811 and 1812. Also residing at Carr's Brook were Peter Carr's wife Hetty Smith Stevenson (1767-1834), at least one child, and eleven slaves of indeterminate age. Carr corresponded with Uncle Thomas Jefferson from Carr's Brook; some or all of their letters have been preserved. Carr joined a militia unit during the War of 1812 and died in 1815 of broken health just after the war's end. I'm sure there's much more to be found beneath the surface, but that's part of my glancing shot at the Carr brothers.

Two other famous cases of politicians crossing the color line have been Strom Thurmond of South Carolina (1902-2003) and Vice President Richard Mentor Johnson (ca. 1780-1850). I'm sure there have been many more.
Loving v. Virginia (1967) finally overturned anti-miscegenation laws. Better late than never.

Today's Rune: Signals.

6 comments:

Cloudia said...

And of course our Hawaii-born president....

Philly? Heck yeah! YO! Escaped to Hawaii 20+ years back....



Aloha, Friend!


Comfort Spiral

the walking man said...

When it came to ownership it was all about color and the head on the shoulders thinking. When it came to sex, well it was the other head thinking and able to look beyond the color. We do have a pretty fucked up sense of right and wrong.

Charles Gramlich said...

The Strom Thurmond thing has always been so hilarious to me. Some psychological things going on there.

Adorably Dead said...

I knew it wasn't that far back, but I forgot exactly how far back it was that those laws were still in place.

Great to be reading your blog again. :p

Distributorcap said...

and you two can get your face on the Nickel

fascinating

jodi said...

Erik, we all know that the massas could have all the wenches they wanted while if the bucks even LOOKED at a white woman, they were punished by death. Totally screwed up. What an unholy mess.