#this is 'cold in my professions' (jefferson's version)

[macaron-n-cheese]

guys please read my last post for context on the first point it's actually acedemic please

[macaron-n-cheese]

There is evidence that Thomas Jefferson may have been queer

Over the weekend I went to a history conference as one does. I was looking at the program and one of the lectures caught my eye. I was like "wait is that lecture what I think it is because if it is that would be awesome" so I went. It WAS awesome. The lecture was by an archivist who is doing a project on Jefferson's writings. Her background qualifies her to analyze 18th-century letters.

So basically she was reading books because that's what librarians do and the quotation “No body knows how much I wish to be with you” was very obviously right there. She realized that no one has done research on this before and decided to be the one to do it. The lecturer is still in progress if analyzing Jefferson’s papers and library.

To be clear, this lecture states that there is not enough evidence to definitively say Jefferson was queer, but just evidence that seems to be queer. The evidence is clearly homosocial, but anything beyond that can only be inferred.

my notes (my apologies if they are confusing at any point)

hahhahehheheh Jefferson: “No body knows how much I wish to be with you” Jefferson and Page and the Intimacy of Encryption

Same talk given to LGBTQ+ group

Coded letters to John Page

Page lives at Roseburg! Jefferson went there a lot

Scared people would find his letters so be encrypted

But he liked it like it was a game

Send real info but also bestie stuff

Impossible to determine Jefferson as queer but this is just fun

How do you define letters as queer or no?

Gender switch, Greek letters, codes

Coding citizenship, gender, sexuality

Homosocial bonds develop when yapping about exchange of women

Jefferson dirty enslaver grrrr

Sally Hemmings :(

Jefferson thought libraries, newspaper, education were essential to American nationality

Letters technology of collective fantasy

Lost history of cryptology

Jefferson father of American cryptology

Homosociality and stuff

Gay? 🤨 I mean he read ancient gay stuff

Trafficking women part of this (like using wives/daughters to connect families) :(

Connect families

Cedric mother of queer theory

Tools for examining must be subtle and definitive

Variable and political

Emerging subject categories in Jefferson’s writings

William Bendamen shows that Jefferson would be aware of queerness from what is in his library

Gay porn in 18th century WHAT

he owns gay porn caught in 4k

Lots of this is encoded, destroyed, difference in language & culture

Buggery laws

THE LETTERS to Page. 20 January 1763

Friends from youth to Page’s death in 1808

Letter from Shadwell. Jefferson is around 20.

“Why can you and I not be married, too?”

The commas, references, tenses, Latin is hard to attribute

Friendship or queer is unknown

Reference to laws of human nature. Early scientific musings of relationships

Elusiveness of understanding may be intentional.

Life together supported by letter 6 months later

Rebecca Burwell. Belinda

Plans to propose to her and writes to Page from Williamsburg “Devilsburg”

Refers to Belinda as “he”

Rejected by her

If it worked he and Page related by marriage between Burwells

Written like business transaction. (trafficking of women between men)

Many homosocial letters talk about trafficking of women

Jefferson thought his letter was interception and is super paranoid

Ask Page if he found this

Jefferson freaking out and asks him to being better code. I’m going to send you this.

Develops wheel cipher

3 months later Jefferson finds out Rebecca married to something else

Page marries. Jefferson moves to Monticello, marries Martha

Last letter

I can die with sweet resignation after reading your letter

Letters from Page lost in Shadwell fire

Page and Jefferson letters are ones between young men and are representative of such

Jefferson uncomfortable with women. Kinda misogyny but he’s so confusing so it’s hard to classify

Categorizing Jefferson but it’s all connected

This is technique to secure bonds among wealthy planter elite. College friends! This is before Revolution and stuff

There is so much to cover

Jefferson weird and paper expensive. He knows papers are to be shared and he decided NUH UH.

Jefferson morals vs action

Notes on Virginia. RACIST

Black writers at bottom in notes and in library

Boooo he’s a loser

Kicks off institutionalization in America

Jefferson isn’t the only one to code

Anne Lister codes. Puts lesbian letters in crypt.

This info puts my post from a year ago about Martha Jefferson’s epitaph into context, actually! The Greek reference and gender swapping is just Thomas’s thing with people closest to him. I wonder how many others got this treatment...Jefferson and gender is really something else, like bro can't interact with women yet swaps their gender in writing. What's going on in his silly autistic (probably) brain? Referencing mythology is also pretty cool like what a nerd using ancient Greek analogies.

I always found his coding interesting but just haven’t researched it. This new research is special to me because @asica-black and I used to discuss Jefferson’s coding and think “hey do you think these were coded and he worried that people would accuse him of buggery?” and answer is most likely yes!

So yeah it seems like Jefferson had a boyfriend.