Did Thomas Jefferson Really Have Children by a Slave?
Everybody “knows” he did, right?
In a book due out Thursday, eminent scholars say it’s unlikely that Thomas Jefferson fathered Sally Hemings’ children, disputing a decade’s worth of conventional wisdom that the author of the Declaration of Independence sired offspring with one of his slaves.
Did he or didn't he?
The debate has ensnared historians for years, and many thought the issue was settled when DNA testing in the late 1990s confirmed that a Jefferson male fathered Hemings’ youngest son, Eston. But, with one lone dissenter, the panel of 13 scholars doubted the claim and said the evidence points instead to Jefferson’s brother Randolph as the father.
The scholars also disputed accounts that said Hemings’ children received special treatment from Jefferson, which some saw as evidence of a special bond between the third president and Hemings.
There seems to be reason to doubt Jefferson’s patrimony:
Claims that the relationship between Hemings and Jefferson started in Paris are unlikely because she was living with his daughters at their boarding school across the city at the time.
The “Jefferson family” DNA used in the 1998 test came from descendants of his uncle, which the scholars said means any one of two dozen Jefferson men living in Virginia at the time Eston was conceived could have been the father.
The 1802 rumors centered on Thomas Woodson, who was said to have been one of Hemings’ children. But tests of three Woodson descendants failed to show a link to Jefferson family DNA. Also, no documentation supports claims he was Hemings’ child.
Oral tradition from Eston Hemings’ family initially said he was not the son of the president, but rather of an “uncle” — which the scholars think is a reference to Randolph Jefferson, the president’s brother, who would have been referred to as “uncle” by Jefferson’s daughters.
This issue may never be definitively settled to everybody’s satisfaction — and what issue ever is?
One commenter responding to this article makes an important observation:
It is all about honor and character. This whole Sally Hemings fiasco came about while Bill Clinton’s character was being exposed for what it is. To take attention off him and slime probably one of the greatest Founding Fathers at the same time. How despicable and how like the progressives to do this Goebbel-like propaganda push to protect their own. — Sheila Reynolds
The book — The Jefferson-Hemings Controversy: Report of the Scholars Commission — is for sale here.
No surprise that Hollywood made a movie about it. (Note the subtitle change from An American Scandal to An American Love Story.)
