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Thomas Jefferson's Sexual Imagination
Author(s) -
Burstein Andrew
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
history compass
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.121
H-Index - 1
ISSN - 1478-0542
DOI - 10.1111/j.1478-0542.2005.00178.x
Subject(s) - constitution , proposition , mental health , psychology , psychoanalysis , humanities , psychiatry , art , law , philosophy , political science , epistemology
Abstract Our key to understanding Thomas Jefferson's presumed relationship with his slave Sally Hemings lies in his response to prevailing theories of health science. The leading authority on health for sedentary intellectuals, or gens de lettres, was the Swiss physician Samuel A. D. Tissot. Jefferson followed Tissot's prescriptions for a healthy mental and physical constitution through exercise and semi‐vegetarian diet, and it is altogether likely that he derived comfort (and a clear rationale) from Tissot and his disciples, who recommended sex, especially for a widower like Jefferson, with a healthy, fruitful, and attractive female. Jefferson's writings, including correspondence with physician‐friends, appear consistent with this proposition.