THOMAS JEFFERSON, America's "Renaissance man," is making a comeback, according to a recent Sunday Sun article ("The truth about the American statesman may not be self-evident," Dec. 4).
Count me among the people hoping he returns ignominiously to wherever it was he was making his comeback from.
Do not count me among admirers of the statesman, ambassador and author of the Declaration of Independence who went on to become our third president. It's not just because he was a racist who used every opportunity to claim black people were inferior. It's that Sally Hemings business, alluded to in the article but dismissed by Jefferson's defenders, who say there is no written documentation of their relationship.
There's no "written documentation" that I had a relationship when I was 16 years old with a pretty East Baltimore girl named Ramona Rollins either, but we had one. Sally Hemings herself said she had a relationship with our third president. Somebody fathered her children. And the closest and most likely suspect was one Thomas Jefferson.
But neither those who believe in the Jefferson-Hemings relationship nor those who claim it never happened bother to mention Sally Hemings' age when it started. According to historian John Chester Miller, in his book "The Wolf by the Ears: Thomas Jefferson and Slavery":
"[Jefferson] made Sally Hemings . . . his mistress. According to a story reputedly told by Sally Hemings herself . . . he persuaded her to submit to his desire under the promise of freeing, when they reached adulthood, any children born to them. If this account can be believed, Jefferson emerges as the seducer of a young, innocent, attractive colored girl, hardly out of puberty . . ."
Read the last part of that carefully. "Hardly out of puberty." Sally Hemings was about 14 years old when this happened, so let's not mince words about what Thomas Jefferson was. The term is "child molester."
Let's not shy away from it. Today we imprison grown men for this offense. In 1800, Americans elected a child molester to the highest office in the land, and now we have a memorial dedicated to him in Washington and his face is carved in stone on Mount Rushmore.
Granted, he was a child molester who wrote eloquent and grandiose prose about freedom and equality and such. And in spite of his obvious racism, I'm sure Jefferson's defenders will remind me that he had serious moral reservations about slavery.
So the man "aimed for the palace and got drowned in the sewer," to use Mark Twain's exquisite phrase. So what? A child molester still doesn't rate as America's "Renaissance man" in my eyes.
But let's assume -- and believe me, this is only for the sake of argument -- that those who genuflect whenever Jefferson's name is mentioned are right. Let's assume that he had no relationship with Sally Hemings' and that her children were the result of some immaculate conception. America's "Renaissance man" still pales -- no pun intended -- next to the man I think was the outstanding figure of Jefferson's era: Haiti's Toussaint L'Ouverture.
Jefferson had a problem with L'Ouverture. I suspect it may have been the typical American one that causes some whites discomfort at a competent black man in power. One of these men can be my hero, but both clearly cannot.
L'Ouverture accomplished more than Jefferson and against greater odds. His armies defeated forces from Spain, Great Britain and France. Some historians claim France's defeat in Haiti led Napoleon to sell the lands that would be known as the Louisiana Purchase to the United States.
In contrast to Jefferson's renowned racism, Toussaint believed in and practiced racial equality. His army chief of staff was white, as were some of his closest advisers. "The equilibrium between the races remained steady," under his rule, one historian wrote, noting that one of Napoleon's generals said of L'Ouverture, "Races melt under his hand."
When his nephew Moise -- whom he loved as a son -- led TC massacre of white property owners, L'Ouverture didn't hesitate to have him shot. The decision was a harsh one, but distinguishes L'Ouverture from the morally ambivalent Jefferson.
Heroes and Renaissance men are strictly in the eye of the beholder.
Gregory P. Kane is a reporter for The Evening Sun.