‘It’s difficult to capture a subject’s voice’

The Washington Post Book World has been fast and fierce with its exposés of the Founding Fathers. On Feb. 3, for example, Post reviewer Michael Grunwald wondered if Jefferson might have been a hypocrite (yawn) but also “a deadbeat and arguably a swindler” (interesting), a man who, in his twilight years, obsessed with keeping meticulous meteorological records while inflicting casual cruelties upon his own family.

Ouch.

This week’s head on the block belongs to George Washington, another ivory-toothed hypocrite who believed in freeing his slaves—but only after he and the Missus were safely dead. And what of those slaves? That’s the question Scott E. Casper asks in his new book, Sarah Johnson’s Mount Vernon. Turns out that many of them stuck around to work on the plantation even while Washington’s descendants, one of whom was a Confederate officer, continued to enjoy their own slaves.

Not surprising, I suppose, but Casper’s approach to the story is intriguing for its focus on a single freed slave named Sarah Johnson. From the Post’s review:

Like most former slaves, Johnson was illiterate, which presents a challenge in telling her story; she did not leave behind any letters or diaries. The details of her life are drawn from the papers of people who owned her and those who eventually employed her, as well as documents and agreements that may have been read to her but that she could sign only with an “X.” For a historian, it’s difficult to capture a subject’s voice without her own words. But Casper deftly uses the limited sources available to depict Johnson’s life with an authenticity that is moving.

I’m interested to hear more about how Casper accomplished this, and what holes his story must necessarily concede. For instance, how much can we know about a person—let alone an enslaved person—if all of our information comes only from her employers? Without meaning to sound glib, it might be interesting to contemplate a biography based on nothing more than a lifetime’s worth of employee records: I work, therefore I am. The whole idea is just so very American.

Remember that you can see Casper talk about these issues on March 27 at the Virginia Festival of the Book.

IMAGE: Mount Vernon Slave Workers

This is one in an occasional series about the Virginia Festival of the Book, to be held in Charlottesville, Virginia, on March 26–30, 2008, and sponsored by my employer, the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities.

Comments

[Steven Augustine]

We really can't underestimate the astonishing power of the propaganda field we were raised in... Jefferson's hypocrisy is old news to *us*, but a substantial number of the Americans (with an inkling who Washington or Jefferson were) would consider us to be degenerate, trouble-making conspiracy-buff commie hoboes and fiends for bringing any of this up.

I doubt that much of this subversive material is being taught in grammar school as yet; that's where the default, semi-religious reverence for the office of president (king?) is inculcated. Which explains quite a lot.

[Brendan Wolfe]

You're probably right, Steven. And don't underestimate the astonishing power of the propaganda field that surrounds Monticello, Poplar Forest, and the University of Virginia. This is a place where every third dog is called TJ, where Jefferson is called Mister Jefferson (or is it Mistah Jefferson?), and certain truths about the man's essential goodness are held to be self-evident.

And yet . . . I've been on two tours of Monticello in the past six months. On the first, Jefferson was absolutely portrayed as a financial deadbeat (although that word certainly wasn't used). The guide hemmed and hawed (no pun intended) on the issue of Sally Hemings.

On the second tour, the (different) guide barely mentioned Jefferson's finances but, on behalf of the foundation that runs the house, declared that to the best of her knowledge -- which is based on house records, DNA, oral history, et al. -- Mister Jefferson had fathered children by Ms. Hemings.

Well. There you go.

I'm an optimist, which makes me confident that reports of these academic and cultural skirmishes will eventually trickle down to public school classrooms.

[Steven Augustine]

Brendan!

Let's hope...