Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Thomas Jefferson to Sally

Sally,

I find myself living in a grand contradiction of sorts, that no matter what I do I cannot seem to escape. I confess to have a physical aversion toward dark-skinned Africans. I do not like them, I find them rather disgusting, yet for some reason I find myself hopelessly attracted to you. Yes, I know that you certainly look white, but at the same time when I look at you the thought of your black race cannot be completely erased from my mind. I should be repulsed. I should be disgusted. But I am not.


So too do I find the thought of race-mixing to be an unpleasant one. The amalgamation of black and white produces a degradation to which no lover of his country, no lover of excellence in the human character, can innocently consent. Yet at the same time I find myself bonded to you and the children we have created. I cannot abandon you or them. I will take care of you all to the best of my abilities.


Unfortunately the black in your blood is omnipresent. I could never leave my wife, and regardless of her I could have never been with you. And to be honest I cannot say that I love you. Yet at the same time I cannot be certain that I don't. This is all very perplexing to me, but I suppose that's how things are meant to be between us. Weirdly, I like it that way.


Thomas


Questions:

1) Why did it take so long for a book like this to become written? Has it taken all these year for the American people to become comfortable acknowledging that a white founding father as legendary as Thomas Jefferson could have had a real relationship with a black woman? We have certainly seen various examples recently of illegitimate black children. John McCain comes first to my mind (although his rumor proved to be false), but there are definitely others that I am blanking right now.

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