Mr. Jefferson's Women

Chapter One: Mr. Peterman's Shirt Jefferson disliked stuffy people, stuffy houses, stuffy societies. So he changed a few things: Law. Gardening. Government. Architecture. Of the thousand castles, mansions, chateaux you can walk through today, only Monticello, only Jefferson's own mansion, makes you feel so comfortable you want to live in it. J. Peterman Company Thomas Jefferson did wear simple and comfortable shirts like the one that inspired a clever advertising copywriter for the J. Peterman Company's retail catalogue. The claim that the style is "99% Thomas Jefferson, 1% Peterman"[1] may stretch the truth. Simple muslin work shirts were as common among Jefferson's Virginia contemporaries as they were inside the great house at Monticello. Still, the rest of the copywriter's pitch rings true. Jefferson was an inventor. He liked comfort. And he did change a few things. In 1776 Jefferson's words declared American independence and encouraged a candid world to hope that all men were created equal. Ten years later his Statute for Religious Freedom summoned Virginians to insist that "Almighty God hath created the mind free." Jefferson calculated the most efficient shape for the blade, or moldboard, of a plow. He modeled a new capitol for the commonwealth of Virginia, based on an ancient Roman temple, that established the classical revival as the standard for American public architecture. At Monticello he devised a mechanism, hidden beneath the floor between the entrance hall and parlor, to open both French doors simultaneously when either door was pushed. In the valley below Monticello he established Virginia's first secular university. Farther to the west, Jefferson's acquisition of the vast territory of Louisiana secured the navigation of the Mississippi River and changed the political geography of the nation and the world. Jefferson did change a few things, but there were others that he left alone. He lived comfortably on a southern plantation as the master of about one hundred slaves, yet he contended that slavery was both a moral wrong and a political liability. He was content to hope that future generations might set things right for people of color. Comfortwhether in his mansion or in the muslin shirts that inspired J. Petermanmattered to Thomas Jefferson. In his personal life, Jefferson was never entirely comfortable with strong and independent women. In politics, except for a brief moment in dialogue with Abigail Adams, his attitude toward women was immovable. Jefferson did nothing whatsoever to improve the legal or social condition of women in American society, and he was always wary of female influence in government. Almost a decade ago I heard a distinguished panel of scholars discuss "Thomas Jefferson, Sally Hemings, and the DNA Evidence" at a historical conference in Fort Worth, Texas. The program committee had wisely placed the session in the large ballroom of the headquarters hotel. The place was full. DNA tests had recently confirmed a genetic relationship between Thomas Jefferson's family and one of Sally Hemings's children. That scientific evidence persuaded many previously skeptical historians (myself included) that the liaison between Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemingsa connection first alleged by James Callender in 1802, reasserted by Fawn Brodie in 1974, and finally rehabilitated by Annette Gordon-Reed's persuasive book in 1997was almost certainly true.[2] The panel discussion in Fort Worth was informative, but I found the comments from historians in the audience more interesting. Someone in a tweed jacket was confident that "surely it was a loving relationship." Two oKukla, Jon is the author of 'Mr. Jefferson's Women ', published 2007 under ISBN 9781400043248 and ISBN 1400043247.