For the story of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, see: http://www.monticello.org/site/plantation-and-slavery/thomas-jefferson-and-sally-hemings-brief-account Personally, I wish someone (in South Africa) would write a book like Edward Ball's "Slaves in the Family": http://www.amazon.com/Slaves-Family-Edward-Ball/dp/0345431057 You can find much more on either of these topics by searching at Google. Keith ------ Original Message ------ Received: Mon, 09 May 2011 08:17:55 PM EDT From: Andrew Rodger <rodgera@audioio.com> To: south-africa@rootsweb.com Subject: Re: [SOUTH-AFRICA] Diana vd Kaap, mother of Susanna Biebow (Bibault) = 1687 Wow! On 9 May 2011, at 12:22 PM, Keith Meintjes wrote: > Richard, > > I cannot answer your question of Delia. > > However, "Bibault" is given as an alternate spelling in SA > Genealogies. I > suppose it is a plausible French spelling. I did search NAAIRS on > all the > variations of the name I could think of, and did not find much of > anything. > > That form of the surname is used in the Huisgenoot article of 1928, > which > contributes to the Afrikaner mythology (where Detleef's son, Hendrik, > proclaims himself an Afrikaner). > > So, we have all the elements: An illegitimate child by a slave. > Marriage to > a weesmeisie (orphan girl) from the Berg China. A son who is the > first person > to proclaim himself an Afrikaner. A man who later becomes a > surgeon, and > purchases the slave mother of his illegitimate child, while still > fathering > children by his wife. > > Someone should write a novel. > > Keith Fascinating parallels with the story of Thomas Jefferson's family, which I first became aware of during a visit to Monticello, his home (depicted on the US 5c coin), near Charlottesville, VA, and explored further in a volume of his papers and Conor Cruise O'Brien's "The Long Affair", Sinclair-Stevenson, London 1996, ISBN 1 85619 637 2 (hardback) or 1 85619 628 3 (paperback). As I recall it, though, Jefferson at least waited until his wife was dead before taking up with her personal slave-lady's maid; but that slave was actually his wife's half-sister, fathered on one of his slaves by Jefferson's father-in-law. Their descendants separated into two camps, primarily on the basis of their skin colour: those who looked whiter married white and their families became "white", while those who were darker married black and their descendants identified as "black". This, too, could make quite a novel -- perhaps on similar lines to Dan Sleigh's "Islands"; but I reckon Bibault's story in the right hands could be better than either! Andrew Rodger rodgera@audioio.com ------------------------------- To unsubscribe from the list, please send an email to SOUTH-AFRICA-request@rootsweb.com with the word 'unsubscribe' without the quotes in the subject and the body of the message