In her article “Engaging Jefferson: Blacks and the Founding Father,” Annette Gordon-Reed argues that Jefferson can be considered a father figure to black Americans given his relationship with Sally Hemings, an enslaved woman at his plantation, which resulted in several offsprings. Even though Jefferson was known to assert the superiority of the white race, which was especially evident in his Notes on the State of Virginia, his public treatment of the racial and slavery issue should not be mistaken for his private view of the problem. In particular, Jefferson, as a series of DNA tests have shown, fathered several children to the African American woman at Monticello and even took care of their future (Gordon-Reed 181). During his lifetime, Jefferson was seen as “a dangerous social radical” (Gordon-Reed 172). In this light, his discriminative rhetoric against black people can be seen as a tribute he had to pay to his community rather than an ideal that he held deep in his heart. That is why, through his complex family life, Jefferson can be symbolically constructed as a spiritual father for both races of Americans, black and white.
Gordon-Reed is right when she says that Jefferson can be regarded a symbolic fatherly figure by both white and black Americans. His discriminative writings about black people are, certainly, worth less than his actions: for decades, he had been in a relationship with his slave Sally Hemings and had become a father to several of her children. At the same time, it would also be unwise to fantasize about Jefferson’s motives. While Jefferson could simply be hiding his equality ideals through his discriminative writings, he may as well be acting hypocritically, pursuing some material benefits (Schwabach 5). In other words, he may still have considered Hemings inferior and become a father of her children. In this sense, it would be hard to determine whether spiritually Jefferson can be regarded a father to black Americans. That is why, Gordon-Reed’s argument should be taken with some restriction.
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"Response to “Engaging Jefferson: Blacks and the Founding Father”".
- Gordon-Reed, Annette. “Engaging Jefferson: Blacks and the Founding Father.” The William and Mary Quarterly, vol. 57, no.1, pp. 171-182.
- Schwabach, Aaron. “Thomas Jefferson, Slavery, and Slaves.” Thomas Jefferson Law Review, vol. 33, no.1, pp. 1-60.
