Thomas Jefferson to Jeremiah A. Goodman, 26 July 1813

Download or read book Thomas Jefferson to Jeremiah A. Goodman, 26 July 1813 written by Thomas Jefferson and published by . This book was released on 1813 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Autograph letter, signed, from Thomas Jefferson at his Monticello residence to his overseer, Jeremiah A. Goodman, at a second Jefferson plantation, Poplar Forest (Forest, Bedford County, Virginia). 1 page. Jefferson informs Goodman of the arrival of Hercules, an enslaved man who had escaped from Poplar Forest and was recaptured. Jefferson plans to remand Hercules to Goodman's custody; while "the folly he [Hercules] has committed certainly justifies further punishment," Jefferson remarks that perhaps Hercules's recent imprisonment in Buckingham County jail might be sufficient, especially considering that "it is his first folly in this way." However, Jefferson instructs Goodman to pardon Hercules on his own authority, "and not by my interference, for this is what I would have none of them [other enslaved people at Poplar Forest] to suppose." In the second paragraph, Jefferson discusses the effects of a recent drought on Monticello's wheat and corn crops, and hopes the harvest has been more successful at Poplar Forest, since the milled flour must be delivered to Richmond by November "to take the chance of the winter exportation, when the enemy cannot lie closely in or before the bay" (referring to the British blockade of American ports during the War of 1812).