101 Comments

So I'm guessing that any of this history will not be taught in Florida and any of the other states that thinks this is " woke". I hate that term.

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Don't hate the term-- hate the bigots who misuse and pervert it!

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Certain folks use "woke" like they use "critical race theory" - undefined scare words for Things They Don't Like. There is a similar history for "liberal," and the misuse of the term "socialism" goes back decades:

"Socialism is a scare word they have hurled at every advance the people have made in the last 20 years. Socialism is what they called public power. Socialism is what they called social security. Socialism is what they called farm price supports. Socialism is what they called bank deposit insurance. Socialism is what they called the growth of free and independent labor organizations. Socialism is their name for almost anything that helps all the people. When the Republican candidate inscribes the slogan "Down With Socialism" on the banner of his "great crusade," that is really not what he means at all. What he really means is "Down with Progress--down with Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal," and "down with Harry Truman's Fair Deal." That's all he means. -Harry Truman, Syracuse NY, October 10, 1952.

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I wish we had Harry in charge today, a great breath of fresh air, compared to Uncle Joe.

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Ever hear this one?

https://youtu.be/QC6z0nz03JI

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I'm quite proud to be"Woke"; Dog knows it took me long enough to wake up.

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Thank you for this history lesson today as well as yesterday. You have the privilege of knowing who your ancestors were and how they shaped the country we live in. We are not all that fortunate.

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If, as some have suggested, Thomas Jefferson had (like many brilliant people do) Aspergers Syndrome, it could make sense that he would view and judge (inappropriately) humans of the black race as less intelligent. While Aspy folks are often labeled as "geniuses" they just as often lack the ability to read people, make sense of senses, integrate sensory stimuli, draw appropriate conclusions during interactions, and to see anyone else as smart who does not approach the world with their computer-like detail and precision. That can result in a rather arrogant and demeaning perspective. All of that is complicated by being touch avoidant and confused by emotion, leading perhaps to being threatened by the "natural" ease, grace and physicality of folks who are not wired the way he is. NO excuse for enslaving and denigrating (and maybe even raping and beating) intelligent people of a different race or color. But a warning to all of us: Respect and delight in human variation. Or as some brown guy in the East once said, " Love one another."

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P.S. I continue to use the term "Aspergers Syndrome" in my work because I am not convinced that these brilliant folks are all on one autistic spectrum that includes folks who are incapable of connecting to others at all. Rather I see two different conditions, each with their own variations.

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Why do we need a syndrome to explain anything that is so, so common? It's not just about white people thinking black people inferior -- in-groups tend to think members of out-groups are inferior, and (wonder of wonders) their selective processing of incoming information confirms what they already believe to be true. Sometimes there's an economic incentive to treat out-group members as inferior: who wants their own group members to be doing such dangerous and/or demeaning work for little or no pay?

Riddle me this: How could men in general have treated women in general as they have for centuries without considering women less intelligent, less than human? No big deal if a woman dies giving birth to an heir or two -- they'll just get themselves another one. Arrange the society so that women have few other options and they'll put up with it.

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True. (Also this was autism awaremess week.) We have work to do.

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Many thanks for providing another camera angle on a story that is many facets.

The complexity of this "great man" is not in question, and yet the perception of "greatness"

is often self-serving. The fact that Thomas Jefferson was part of a group of landowners who sought to establish a government based on duplicitous principles should not surprise anyone.

It makes perfect sense that imperfection was inherent in the process, and in those who set the machinery in motion were by no means perfect.

Today men and women of all races and beliefs and orientations are enfranchised and encouraged to add their voices to the conversation. And the millions of misguided Americans who seek to roll back the clock, and introduce institutional injustice present an enormous challenge to those who wish to safeguard and expand these rights.

The Framers did not claim that perfection is the goal, only a "to form a more perfect union..."

Certainly, in today's rollback of rights, there is a sense that we are eroding many of the benefits

and protections that had been enshrined by our Constitution. But to imagine that those founders

were paragons of virtue is a gross misrepresentation. The truth is more than an issue of black and white, rights and wrongs. If everything were perfect, there would be nothing worth discussing.

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"Certainly, in today's rollback of rights, there is a sense that we are eroding many of the benefits and protections that had been enshrined by our Constitution."

Treaties are the law of the land under what is commonly known as the Supremacy Clause, no? That did stop each and every Treaty made with this land's ~indigenous~ from being broken. So, while it is true there is a current concerted effort to roll back certain rights which can be argued are guaranteed by the 2nd Constitution, the Niemoller Effect began with the breaking of those Treaties.

What shoulda' been a big red flag if not an inflection point was shrugged off. The Dobbs decision showed how easy it is for 6black robed to poof wimmin rights. 6, yet only require 5.

As far as "to form a more perfect union:, that suredafuq is not captured in the original text which intentionally excluded wimmin, slaves and people of color.

My nod to the Framers for the 3independent branches of government (they are not co-equal nor ever could be) and for the Army Clause. Is a good place to begin anew.

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I feel the same way, but it's what I FEEL.

then, when I start to contemplate what something like a new constitutional convention would look like, I get dizzy.

and after a few minutes, I get very depressed.

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Have often referred to America as a baby nation due to its relative youthful age at the same time as a recognition of the lack of maturity in dealing with her governance.

So, agree any Constitutional Convention in this zeitgeist would more likely yield secessions all the way through [un]Civil War. Or if one prefers the whizzdumb of MTG, a national divorce. MTG is one of the exceptions to wimmin should be governing this nation.

MTG is a thermometer, barometer and anemometer of what could be right over the horizon and should not be summarily dismissed instead closely monitored at all times. Still shake my noggin' at the Bill Kristols, Tom Nichols, and Rick Wilsons of the world who insisted once Trump lost the 2020 election the Republican Party and the conservative movement would snap back to reality. As if riding an avalanche down a mountain comes with the option to defy a greater force's momentum and gravity itself.

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My story about what a baby nation we are: My great grandmother, Mary Walker Randolph, was born in 1866 at the Edgehill plantation about 5 miles from Monticello. Its owner and Man of the House was Thomas Jefferson Randolph. He was Jefferson's first white grandson, born to Jefferson's daughter Martha who married Thomas Mann Randolph and moved to his house at Edgehill. Thomas Jefferson Randolph spent the last 6 years of Jefferson's life at Monticello with his mother helping to take care of Jefferson and the plantation. My great grandmother lived the first 11 years of her life at Edgehill with him, having dinner every night with a man who dined with Jefferson himself for the last six years of Jefferson's life. So when I visited my great grandmother in the early 1950's, (she lived until '57), there was only one dead person between me and Jefferson himself -- Thomas Jefferson Randolph.

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Mr Truscott—In my 4th year “Documentary Editing” seminar at UVA, I worked with Dorothy Twohig (then editor of the Washington Papers) to edit TJ Randolph’s 30-40 pages of memoir that is stored in Special Collections. Have you ever seen that? I still have a photocopy of the hand-written document stored away somewhere.

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No, I haven't seen it. Most of my history of him is oral history coming down through my family.

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the Black aunt I mentioned a day or so ago who raised my mother (until she passed in 1944) was born in 1865. so I was raised by a woman (my mother, obviously) who was raised by someone born the year the Civil War ended, so it's similar.

and also a little scary...I'm pushing 75 and I can remember the early '50s like they were a few decades back....

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Memory is an odd thing. Mine insists at a Memorial Day Parade there were vets going back to the Spanish American War marching. Not sure if that memory is real. Do recall going with my Father to the Old Soldiers Home though to bring them smokes and hard likkur. Then sit and listen to their stories. Can still see that large house which was donated by an industrialist.

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That's truly incredible.

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exactly....a total shitshow.

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What an interesting article. "Actions speak louder than words."

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"RW fetus fetish"= classic ambush, still crackin' up over it. As usual you find something others have missed.

Adding, without subtracting a single letter or word, RW is also into kiddie porn and sadly, all too often act upon it.

As previously mentioned, no doubt Trump did many awful things. Of those revealed, his timing the walk-thru of a teen dressing room as they were preparing for the next competition was to this father, grandfather and 1moon away from a great grandfather, visual rape on a grandiose scale.

Often refer to Trump as Yellow Hair as our kind calls Custer. Custer also abused and misused wimmin, including indigenous. It took to the turn of the century for his actual death story to be revealed. Yellow Hair was struck down by indigenous wimmin inc. a "wife" he had taken in Kansas after one of his early massacres. Struck down, not killed. They then proceeded to stick buffalo bone used for sewing in his ears and eyes, then sent him on to the world of the dead. There is big medicine in sending the dead off that way. Lady Justice is shown with a sword for good reason.

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You should see the monument in the West Point graveyard serving as his headstone, ringed by "victories" in the wars against native Americans. The grandest self-aggrandizing piece of shit in stone I've ever beheld.

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1st, catching up: Am most honored and most humbled by your kind words to me, my Brother. As well as to others on your threads. Is warming to read your followers express their thoughts as well as their appreciation of your mastery of the written and spoken word. Most of all to recognize and acknowledge your goodness as a hooman. A good man who abides by do no harm yet stands for those have been or will be harmed no matter the personal consequences accompanying doing what is right. Timeless is the man or woman who is both good and wise.

2nd, "victories" by the self-declared indian killahs. They are the inverse of you.

Much has been made of renaming USA bases that honored the traitors. Not much has been written or spoken about the service academies and the war colleges that perpetuate similar lies, falsehoods, birthed myths, and most of all lost their way on what honor and duty to the nation and her people is and is not. Is the easy way out to change a name or take down a statue than it is to change the way people think and act. Will be your legacy for honoring your ancestors, this nation and her people by standing fast.

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Thank you, ~shadowcloud~! I'll do my best to keep your praise from swelling my head.. … As disgusting a low-life as trump is, I'd simply prefer a terminally humiliating end for his gross behavior—like the one Obama delivered at a WH correspondents dinner that has kept djt away ever since.. Judith Testa, however, is no doubt off somewhere sharpening her buffalo bones.

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Deserved praise.

Suspect the newly released excerpts of Trump's depo in the defamation case is a portend to what awaits him in all the cases he is facing, an inglorious ending.

His lack of self-discipline as well as his insistence on getting the last word is tantamount to Trump sticking buffalo sewing bones into his own eyes and ears all the while his snake tongue and oral hissing reveals his truth to wife, family, the nation and the globe.

(Pardon the delay, Substack ate my homework again)

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It ain't over till it's over—when the jury speaks. trump's performance during the deposition could only have damaged his case. His lawyer finally had to tell him who the woman in a photo of Carroll was. trump kept insisting it was his wife Marla Maples—after he declared Carroll ineligible for rape because she wasn't his type. The judge is fed up and effectively expressed sympathy for trump's lawyer (not in a prejudiced way) after the lawyer pleaded in effect "look at what I have to work with." … The safest way I've found to tame the substack beast is to write offline, when ready cut and paste to the substack box.

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(Bottom up) Substack's techo-gremlins tickle me. However, will heed your advice.

Other than Judge Cannon and Justice Thomas, Trump has yet to win over a single judge.

Irrespective of the verdict looking forward to what one or more has to say. Would be nice if the verdict was announced prior to the CNN Town Hall.

As for Trump and his cadre of attorneys, bon chance MFERs.

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Y'know, I think his lawyers may detest djt even more than the rest of us, and not just because he stiffs them. They're willing to take the money (if they can get it) and let him run, but I think the disruptive way he makes a mockery of the judicial system shocks even most MAGAt judges.

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Right as rain.

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Agree. Those who have worked for Trump, whether in his business, past administration or representing him in legal matters, judges and justices he appointed have integrity issues of their own yet their bottom is not bottomless as is Trump's.

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I volunteer to stick buffalo sewing bones into Traitor Tot’s eyes and ears. It would give me great pleasure.

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that made me laugh out loud. as I hope it did Judith, since she's not someone I'd want pissed off at me.

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Me too, on all counts!

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What a wonderful world if all of mankind were colorblind.

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In the documentary High on the Hog, about the influence of black people on American cooking, James Hemings is given credit as a father of American cuisine. He was the first chef to introduce French technique into American cooking, combining it with Jefferson's locally grown produce. The documentary said James, not Peter. It was fascinating because James (or Peter) had never previously been given credit for his amazing influence on cuisine.

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You just solved the mystery of where did the Truscott's' come by First You Feed Them (FYFT). Was in plain sight all this time.

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Thanks for the additions. Jefferson was nothing if not contradictory. I can understand him, but I find it hard to love him, and I've read all his correspondence and papers from his time in Paris for my book on his travels.

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Your book sounds interesting, is it published yet?

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I can answer that. Yes, it was published. Google Anthony Brandt and Jefferson's travels.

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Thank you for your work! I have theologian friend who teaches a graduate seminar in the essential texts of American catholicism, which appropriately requires reading several non catholic thinkers. Based upon what you have presented and we have had the good fortune to read, I want to suggest to him that Jefferson in all his narrowness and complexity would be an excellent addition to the reading list.

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I don't understand keeping your children as slaves. This is just revolting.

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As revolting as keeping anyone as a slave. The disgustingness is all of a piece.

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Revolting, indeed. Is the foreseeable evolution of chattel slavery, no?

While there isn't any current equivalence in today's America, there is the overturning of child labor laws by R states in order to put to work little brown children inside a slaughterhouse. Not to be outdone by the livestock, poultry and hog industry, the non-unionized auto industry in the New Old South is also employing children in assembly factories.

And keep in mind there is no shortage of slavery apologists who continue to write slavery was a good deal for the enslaved.

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One of the most incredible phenomena in my lifetime, and it precedes me, is the slavery apologists and Lost Cause nincompoops. When you lose a war, you should have the decency and good sense to be ashamed of that loss. Not these people, if I can call them that.

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Lost Cause folk are the poster child for revisionism and for the expression no shame-no honor.

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...and I had to tolerate the presence of unreconstructed, unapologetic "lost cause" folks very close in my family. all of them were Jewish. an excuse I heard a lot of was about the necessity of "trying to fit in." and this was with a Black great-aunt.

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I'm not so sure legal child labor is not slavery. At least it explains the RW fetus fetish. After forced birth, in 10 short years they can get nearly free labor if the child is healthy enough to work.

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Three hundred children worked at McDonald’s restaurants in Louisville, Kentucky. Ten-year olds received little or no pay. 24 minors under age 16 worked more hours than legally permitted. The children worked as late as 2:00 am. The franchisee was among three McDonald’s fined $212,000.

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Justice Scalia changed SCOTUS with the introduction of 2words, originalism and textualism. While some claim Rs/cons want to rollback rights gained in the 1960s, originalists and textualists want a return to the 1790s thru 1860 or so.

How #2A is viewed by the Court is but one example. States demanding gun reciprocity gun laws is another. Dobbs is another including criminalizing medical procedures and out of state travel. States infringing upon child labor laws is another. Movements to have state legislators choose election winners as well as US Senators are 2more. States demanding Federal Public Lands be ceded to states is another. SCOTUS punting on blatant hyper-partisan gerrymandering is another. Trump telling the gathering of Chiefs, (As Seen On TeeVee) go ahead and sell your land nobody will know or prosecute you is another. What is commonly known as the #10ers (states' rights) is another. Attempts to rid the nation of a minimum wage is another. Underfunding and hollowing out of Federal Agencies and Depts is another. Going after books and words is another. Otherism is another which fully blossomed and spread on 9/12. Insisting America is a Christian nation rather than a nation with many faiths and non-believers including Christians is another.

Going to stop there while acknowledging there is more when people pause to breathe and reflect on what is at stake.

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What is at stake is democracy itself.

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That it is. Find Rs/cons view of democracy can be summed up with My States of My America.

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Right! That was exactly the exposé I had in mind. One of the state's smarmy senators maneuvered a SCOTUS devoted to antisocial values, assuring a steady supply of near-slave labor. The information starvation cult is probably being assured it's fake news.

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"Peter's (Hemings?) father was John Wayles, the father of Jefferson's wife, Martha.

Thus, Peter was the child of John Wayles and Betty Hemings, correct?

So, not following this part "Peter was the son of Betty and Joseph Neilson, a white carpenter who worked for Wayles."

Was Peter's father John Wayles or Joseph Neilson?

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Second post is correct. I'll fix the first one. Now corrected. Good catch.

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yes

i always have trouble figuring half siblings and cousins 1st, 2nd and cross relationships so i was stumbling thru that part of who begat whom.

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I think that's all simple compared to "removed." I have double second cousins once removed. There's gotta be a better way.

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anthropologists are always complaining about the English language's poverty when it comes to having specific terms for the more complicated familial relationships.

so yeah...a LOT of different "cousins."

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kinfolk.

covers all, hm?

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Good eyes! I saw that, too, and was about ready to post directly but then saw your post. Here's what I understand: Peter's father by Betty was John Wayles. John Hemings' father by Betty was Joseph Neilson.

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Yes, I was wondering that too.

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You wrote: "his white daughter Martha and her half-sister," but wasn't Sally the half-sister of Jefferson's wife?

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I get confused by all those relations. I think niece is right. I'll fix it.

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Thanks for putting it back in!

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This is absolutely fascinating to me. Thank you.

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Fascinating. Is the line about people, glass houses and stone throwing appropriate for Jefferson? I would like to visit Monticello one of these days ...

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Do it if you possibly can. I was a kid when I visited and—along with the historical echoes, of course—found his ingenious architectural solutions fascinating. Adapting one has given me mucho extra space in a tiny apartment.

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