[cyborg]

there is no way TJ was involved with Hemmings when he had his pick of the beauties of the French Court

*** Sally Hemmings was not ugly by accounts. She was quite beautiful, and a better choice because she was younger than most courtesans anyway. If there's one thing history has proven is that powerful men have a weakness for beautiful women.

[Doctor Stochastic]

If there's one thing history has proven is that powerful men have a weakness for beautiful women.

And conversely.

Henry Kissinger: Power is the great aphrodisiac.

[CatoRenasci]

I never suggested Hemmings was unattractive, and I'm not sure how you translate 'beauties of the French court' as 'courtesans' in the tradition sense of play-for-pay girls.

What is known, is that at the time Hemmings was in Paris with Jefferson she was an awkward and quite unsophisticated young teenager. While later accounts of her describer her as very pretty, the best contemporary description, that of Abigail Adams, does not. At best, she was a girl with potential. Jefferson was known to enjoy the company of intelligent, sophisticated, pretty women (one things of Abigail Adams - not a lover, but a friend). There is no evidence that he had what we have come to call a 'Pygmalion' complex, a desire to take poor, but pretty women and elevate and educate them. What I was suggesting the evidence shows is that Jefferson had his pick of women whom he would find a far more attractive overall package than Hemmings.