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Letters Send your letters via email to smd@jhu.edu.
On panic and pain relief
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On the "hierarchy" of inclusion One thing can be said about the controversy regarding the Woodson family connection to Thomas Jefferson; as Thomas Jefferson Foundation President Daniel Jordan put it, "It's done more to encourage a dialogue on race than the presidential commission [on race]." ["A Daughter's Declaration," September.] I would like to point out a deeper issue as well. Thomas Jefferson inherited Sally Hemings when his father-in-law passed away. It is quite likely that she was a mulatto (half-white) slave. In fact, it was rumored that Jefferson's father-in-law, Wales, sired her, making her and Martha Wales Jefferson half-sisters. Making the assumption that Hemings had Caucasian features, and lighter skin, it would be reasonable to assume that she would be a "house slave," having higher status as one who worked inside the house as opposed to outside in the fields. It's very interesting that many involved with the biological connection to Jefferson did not attend the Getting Word program [an oral history project involving descendants of Monticello's slaves] that is portrayed in the photo on page 27. I was at that function and enjoyed it immensely. I found it to be a cross section of people of African American descent, with African Americans of all hues and some white people, too. In fact, at least 10 percent of these folks were white, but all were descended from African slaves. It is also interesting that Ms. Cooley- Quille was not at this Thomas Jefferson Foundation-sponsored event--perhaps because the biological connection between Jefferson and his slaves was not part of the event. Not that the issue was downplayed, but rather, the fact that plantation life--which certainly included the slave population--was part of the American culture is much more important than whether or not you had a biological connection to the Massa.
Ms. Cooley-Quille [and some others who attended the] Monticello
Association function are at the higher end of the hierarchy of
American heritage regarding relation to the author of the
Declaration of Independence. The members of the Getting Word
project are at the lower end of the hierarchy, being descendants
of the non-Woodson slaves. It seems that the hierarchy of
inclusion is as pervasive as it ever was.
Another '49er remembers
Many thanks for "The Boys of
'49" (September). Here is a '49 story from another
perspective. As a T-8 sergeant on the Manhattan Project, I worked
in a nuclear physics lab and later as part of the first atomic
test team at Alamogordo, New Mexico. February of '46 found me at
Gettysburg College picking up my final chemistry [course so that
I could] be admitted to the graduate chemistry program at Johns
Hopkins that September. With several other veterans (most married
with children, as I was), we were to live a very frugal life on
the $110 a month we received from the GI Bill.
There was little time to fool around. Life was classes, labs,
library, and dissertation, with a few precious hours with the
family late at night. But, as the first Christmas break
approached, our class was informed of an ancient chem department
tradition--an evening of fun in which a "spoof" of our professors
was the highlight. I was picked to portray Dr. Clark Bricker (who
was also a Gettysburg College graduate) Fortunately, my
performance of Clark's lecture style was well received.
RETURN TO
NOVEMBER 1999 TABLE OF CONTENTS.
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