The debate over the affair between Thomas Jefferson and Sally
Hemings rarely rises above the question of "Did they or didn't
they?" But lost in the argument over the existence of such a
relationship are equally urgent questions about a history that is
more complex, both sexually and culturally, than most of us
realize. "Mongrel Nation" seeks to uncover this complexity, as well
as the reasons it is so often obscured.
Clarence Walker contends that the relationship between Jefferson
and Hemings must be seen not in isolation but in the broader
context of interracial affairs within the plantation complex.
Viewed from this perspective, the relationship was not unusual or
aberrant but was fairly typical. For many, this is a disturbing
realization, because it forces us to abandon the idea of American
exceptionalism and re-examine slavery in America as part of a long,
global history of slaveholders frequently crossing the color
line.
More than many other societies--and despite our obvious
mixed-race population--our nation has displayed particular
reluctance to acknowledge this dynamic. In a country where, as
early as 1662, interracial sex was already punishable by law, an
understanding of the Hemings-Jefferson relationship has
consistently met with resistance. From Jefferson's time to our own,
the general public denied--or remained oblivious to--the
possibility of the affair. Historians, too, dismissed the idea,
even when confronted with compelling arguments by fellow scholars.
It took the DNA findings of 1998 to persuade many (although, to
this day, doubters remain).
The refusal to admit the likelihood of this union between master
and slave stems, of course, from Jefferson's symbolic significance
as a Founding Father. The president's apologists, both before and
after the DNA findings, have constructed an iconic Jefferson that
tells us more about their own beliefs--and the often alarming
demands of those beliefs--than it does about the interaction
between slave owners and slaves. Much more than a search for the
facts about two individuals, the debate over Jefferson and Hemings
is emblematic of tensions in our society between competing
conceptions of race and of our nation.
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