I found again my notes on his monument. The graceful, pink marble, polished obelisk, sitting on a six-foot square base, was the highest of any in this near 159-year-old cemetery. A stylized Old English letter "J" was on the East and West sides of the twenty-five foot monument. The base of the monument bore this inscription: In Memory of George W. Jones born in King & Queen County, Virginia March 15, 1806 moved to Lincoln County, Tennessee in 1821 Died Fayetteville, Tennessee November 14, 1884 It was also inscribed with these words of tribute: "For 50 years a public servant in various stations of responsibility and exacting trust in the state and national councils. He was honest, capable and faithful and notably illustrated by precept and example the excellence of republican institutions and the wisdom of popular government.
He was upright and irreproachable in his private dealings and amiable in intercourse with his fellow-man, and his useful life was ended in peace and perfect honor."
I especially noted the words "irreproachable in his private dealings" and "perfect honor". Such laurels of praise were commonly found on the gravestones of nineteenth-century people who could afford an impressive monument. In his will, Jones had directed that his executors, William N. Wright and John C. Goodrich, select "such monument or gravestones as they may think be suitable to be placed on my grave...not too expensive." His estate settlement notes that $890 was paid for his large and beautiful gravestone. In today's dollars, that would be $20,000-$30,000.
The stone inscription said Jones was "amiable in intercourse" My mind was in a dark perverse place. Were my speculations about adultery projecting my need for something to spice up my account of his life? Did my jaded imagination prejudice my findings? Were my sometimes flexible ideas and occasional wanton ways being infused into what could be his upright character? Miss Patc's place in his life was intriguing. Was Miss Patc's son's name, George Jones Stonebreaker given just in honor of my Mr. Jones or because of something more?
Then the issue of slavery's shadow entered my wondering. I knew Jones was a slave master. Did owning slaves indicate a probability of sexual exploitation? Miscegenation was a severe taboo for respectable anti bellum whites. Notions of amalgamation (interracial mixing) were commonly seen as morally corrupt by the white culture. Society's mores dictated that only the lowest white trash was capable of coupling with a black.
Would it have been deeply resented by the black folk, another degrading element of their chattel status? Sexual matters of all kinds stir various-usually strong-feelings. The records show that one of four people of color in large cities were mulatto. The mulatto ratio in the upper South was lower, but the reality of amalgamation was as obvious there as it was across the South. Interracial reproduction-one of the ugly aspects of slavery-was prevalent. Mulatto free persons and mulatto slaves were common in almost every community throughout the South.