There's something different about this Jeff medal

ModernCrapNut

but it was only a matter of time.

Link

DorkGirl

That's awful Do you see the collar and chain around her neck?

GAT

DISGUSTING! And I hope it ends with no bids.

Artist

Sally Hemmings was fourteen at the time her relations with Jefferson allegedly began. It is believed that four of her children were fathered by Jefferson, one of them all but conclusively via 20th century DNA testing techniques. Another interesting fact, is that I believe that Sally Hemmings and Martha Jefferson (Jefferson's wife) shared a common father.

Jefferson crystalized the notion the "all men are created equal" when he wrote those words in the Declaration of Indepenence - the fact that a man could project such a profound truth in such a consequential way and yet still own slaves (and have children with at least one of them) gives perspective to how far we as a nation have come in terms of making those words truly manifest, at least with regards to what we do and do not find acceptible today.

I personally love Thomas Jefferson and he is my favorite founding father - but I also believe that the Mint should have put Sally Hemmings on his 1st spouse coin and NOT a contemporary image emblamatic of Liberty. IMHO the design path they chose adheres to a romantic ideal, whereas a Sally Hemmings design would have honored a historic reality (albeit one that is hard to define in a modern context,) and also honored a woman whose life was devoted to closely serving our third president.

Artist

Oh yeah - and I forgot to add that I like the medal on Ebay.

As I see it, it exists to remind us that many people can have vastly different perspectives on the same things.

TomB

The medal does not bother me and I have been joking for quite some time that Sally Hemmings should be on the Jefferson FS coin.

pontiacinf

<< <i>The medal does not bother me and I have been joking for quite some time that Sally Hemmings should be on the Jefferson FS coin. >>



Hey Tom

I agree. I feel the medal is depicting a time in history, however shameful, still showing things "how they were."

Pentimento

Interesting. I like it.

fcloud

It is interesting that we try to convay today's mores and ways on people of the past.

Don't get me wrong -- wrong is wrong, but at the time this was the norm.

200 years from now people will look at what we did and say "that was awful, how could they have done that?"

Keep it in perspective.