Mulatto slaves were so common in old Virginia that laws were enacted to
govern the condition of these offspring of masters and slaves._[34]_
(
http://home.comcast.net/~davidmartin/ppl/f/d/ab444345c8025b59bdf.html#_ftn34) What
if Abraham fathered the little boy by such a slave? If the mother herself
were a product of multiple generations of master/slave relations, little
James may have been only 1/8 or 1/16 black--which could easily have meant he
appeared fully white, and in early 19th century Virginia this would have
made him legally white._[35]_
(
http://home.comcast.net/~davidmartin/ppl/f/d/ab444345c8025b59bdf.html#_ftn35) However,
regardless of his appearance, any
child born to a slave woman would have been a slave under Virginia law. In
a letter written by Thomas Jefferson in 1815, he explained this
circumstance to a young man who had recently visited Jefferson’s plantation and
expressed confusion about the light-skinned slaves he saw there:
WHAT IS POSTED HERE, LEAVES PLENTY ROOM FOR WONDERING WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN
SWEPT UNDER THE RUG????? CUZ AT