{"id":5,"date":"2006-05-20T09:53:08","date_gmt":"2006-05-20T17:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.opinion.katrinasdream.org\/?page_id=5"},"modified":"2025-08-24T17:59:30","modified_gmt":"2025-08-25T01:59:30","slug":"sally-hemings-her-sisters","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.katrinasdream.org\/dreamscape\/1st-21st-century-church\/god-creation-and-restoring-the-balance\/ponderings\/sally-hemings-her-sisters\/","title":{"rendered":"Sally Hemings & Her Sisters"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>When a woman says no<\/em> to a man, she subliminally looks death in the face.\u00a0 Men have not only more physical strength and the threat of that strength is always there, consciously or unconsciously but in today’s society of inequality, men usually have more status and power than women.\u00a0 If women learn not to be afraid of death in all its forms, they will not hesitate appropriately to say no<\/em> and stand firm.\u00a0 If men learn not to be afraid of death, they will not feel castrated or threatened when women oppose them.<\/span><\/p>\n

Maggie Ross<\/a>, Pillars of Flame,<\/em> Harper & Row, 1988, Page1<\/span>33<\/span><\/p>\n

When Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson made love was she being sexually abused? The Episcopal Church would say she was.\u00a0 Under the influence of its primary insurance company, the church has notified clergy that dating parishioners can be sexual abuse.\u00a0 A number of older clergy laughed and said something like, I dated Hilda in my first parish.\u00a0 It didn’t please the other girl’s mothers much.\u00a0 But most parishioners seemed to enjoy romance in their midst.\u00a0 We got married 39 years ago.\u00a0 It’s been good.\u00a0 Nowadays it is sexual abuse to have intercourse with someone who is under<\/em> you.\u00a0 Hey, don’t laugh.\u00a0 We’re talking hierarchy,<\/em> not Khama Sutra<\/em>.\u00c2\u00a0 (Another time we’ll take a look at hierarchy, a mental illness like colonialism.)<\/span><\/p>\n

A college professor who sleeps with his student is committing sexual abuse. A manager at MacDonald’s is guilty of sexual abuse for sleeping with an employee.\u00a0 A wet behind the ears young priest is sexually abusing a parishioner if they sleep together no matter if she begged him to do it.\u00a0 The priest, the manager and the professor have some authority over<\/em> the parishioner, the employee, the student.\u00a0 Therefore the women cannot give full, free consent. And so, when Thomas Jefferson slept with his slave, Sally Hemings, this was sexual abuse, as defined by the Church Insurance Company.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Jefferson had authority over<\/em> Sally Hemings.\u00c2\u00a0 He owned 100% of her, like the chair he sat in or the porkchop he ate for dinner.\u00a0 When he died she may have been given<\/em> her freedom while other slaves were sold to pay his massive debts.\u00a0 She had <\/em>no freedom until it was given to her.\u00c2\u00a0 This teenager may have enjoyed, desired, appreciated, begged to have intercourse with him.\u00a0 I doubt she could say, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Not tonight, Mr. Jefferson. That makes it abuse.<\/span><\/p>\n

OK, try this on for size.<\/span><\/p>\n

Can an American husband have intercourse with his wife without committing sexual abuse?\u00a0 Stupid question? Consider this.\u00a0 Every American woman is economically beneath<\/em> every American man.\u00a0 Sure, Sally’s modern sisters are not owned.\u00a0 However, their incomes are reported to be 25% less than any man for the same work.\u00a0 If a wife decides to leave her man’s bed and becomes a single woman again, she will earn 25% less than a man.\u00a0 As the only caregiver for the children from their nights together, she will raise her kids with 25% less money.\u00a0 She and her children will have 25% less food, clothing, medicine, education, housing — you name it.\u00a0 And in retirement, it will get worse.\u00a0 Women understand this.\u00a0 Men generally don’t.\u00a0 That is the nature of hierarchy.\u00a0 (And colonialism.)\u00a0 The higher one is the less one understands.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sure, an American woman is not<\/em> a slave like Sally.\u00a0 She is only one fourth a slave.\u00a0 Maybe one eighth?\u00a0 One sixteenth?\u00a0 She doesn’t have to be freed, as Sally may have been, or sold like the other slaves and perhaps Sally\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s children to pay for the French wine her sexual partner enjoyed.\u00a0 However, patient reader, can we say that the American wife is 100% free today? In our strange economy, is a woman really able<\/em> to give full and free consent to her husband? Without blaming men or women or dogs or cats or God or Thomas Jefferson (Thank God for Thomas Jefferson!)\u00a0 without any thought of blame can anyone say that every woman is as free as any man to enjoy life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness<\/em>?\u00a0 She is any man\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s equal if<\/em> she has an independent income and a room of her own.\u00a0 Only then.<\/span><\/p>\n

What do you think?<\/span><\/p>\n

George Swanson, May 19, 2006<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Some Sources:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Sally Hemings:<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

http:\/\/womenshistory.about.com\/library\/bio\/blbio_hemings_sally.htm<\/u><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.monticello-assoc.org\/hemings.html<\/u><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.geocities.com\/nstix\/jeffersonhemings.html<\/u><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.lkwdpl.org\/wihohio\/hemi-sal.htm<\/u><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/us.imdb.com\/title\/tt0206951\/<\/u><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.famouspeople.com\/famous\/60.html<\/u><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Sally_Hemings<\/u><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/edition.cnn.com\/TRANSCRIPTS\/0005\/07\/sm.08.html<\/u><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.ashbrook.org\/articles\/mayer-hemings.html<\/u><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.monticello.org\/plantation\/lives\/sallyhemings.html<\/u><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.angelfire.com\/va\/TJTruth\/<\/u><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Women’s Income<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.bls.gov\/cps\/wlf-databook2005.htm<\/u><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.bls.gov\/cps\/wlf-table16-2005.pdf<\/u><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.bls.gov\/cps\/wlf-table17-2005.pdf<\/u><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.bls.gov\/cps\/wlf-table18-2005.pdf<\/u><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.bls.gov\/cps\/wlf-table19-2005.pdf<\/u><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When a woman says no to a man, she subliminally looks death in the face.\u00a0 Men have not only more physical strength and the threat of that strength is always there, consciously or unconsciously but in today’s society of inequality, men usually have more status and power than women.\u00a0 If women learn not to be…
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