Amy Sterling Casil
1 min readJan 4, 2024

--

When I was young, I read two books by Barbara Chase-Ribaud. One was Sally Hemings, and the other was Valide. She told the story of Sally Hemings from Sally's perspective. As a young person, I could not understand how somebody who I'd been taught was a hero and a good man, would have lied to Sally that he was going to free her. The book detailed how he got Sally to go to Paris with him by lying to her and saying he would free her. And, she also experienced people who did not believe in slavery and who saw her as an equal human. These books influenced me as a young teen. I recommend them to everyone. To this day, if I mention Jefferson's horrible behavior and treatment of a woman he stated he "loved," as well as his children with her, I still experience white supremacists yelling at me that the children were not Thomas Jefferson's but some OTHER family members. It is sick, corrosive, disgusting. Thank you for another excellent article, Alison.

--

--

Amy Sterling Casil
Amy Sterling Casil

Written by Amy Sterling Casil

Over 500 million views and 5 million published words, top writer in health and social media. Author of 50 books, former exec, Nebula nominee.

No responses yet