New Book Disputes Claim That Thomas Jefferson Fathered Child of Slave
- Posted on September 1, 2011 at 6:18am by
Tiffany Gabbay
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A new book, slated for release Thursday, September 1, is debunking the age-old theory that Founding Father Thomas Jefferson fathered a child with Sally Hemings, one of his slaves.
A panel of historians, formed at the behest of the Thomas Jefferson Heritage Society, reportedly worked without compensation to research the book’s — “The Jefferson-Hemings Controversy: Report of the Scholars Commission” – findings.
Richard Dixon, an editor for TJHS, said the book will provide substantive academic material to be used in ongoing debate.
“The reason that this book is important is that it does address these, we might call them, reasons why Jefferson could have been the father, in a detailed manner, and shows the fallacies in these reasons, and should bring the reader back to a point where the issue is not proven,” he said.
The hotly contested debate over whether Jefferson fathered a child with his slave has engrossed historians for years. The Washington Times reports:
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.
“It is true that Sally’s sons Madison and Eston were freed in Jefferson’s will, but so were all but two of the sons and grandsons of Sally’s motherBetty Hemings who still belonged to Thomas Jefferson at the time of his death. Sally’s sons received by far the least favorable treatment of those freed in Thomas Jefferson’s will,” said Robert F. Turner, a former professor at the University of Virginia who served as chairman of the commission.
Mr. Turner made the remark in a statement announcing the release of the book, “The Jefferson-Hemings Controversy: Report of the Scholars Commission.”
Among the historians charged with researching the issue, beliefs on Jefferson having sired a child with Hemings vary from “serious skepticism” to “almost certainly false.”
Among the academic evidence presented in the book:
• 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.
The scholars are set to hold a news conference Thursday at the National Press Club to discuss the book. Meanwhile, Turner is challenging scholars on the other side of the issue to rigorously debate the matter in a public forum.
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Comments (71)
Neesey
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 8:37amThis stuff is not new folks…they can claim what ever they want, but in the end, it doesn’t change the impact of the man.
Report Post »Pyx
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 8:27amThe “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.
It was not Thomas Jefferson. It was QUOTE ANY ONE OF TWO DOZEN MEN. UNQUOTE
Report Post »tobywil2
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 8:25amThomas Jefferson’s first draft of the Declaration of Independence contained the following statement on slavery: “he has waged cruel war against human nature itself, violating it’s most sacred rights of life & liberty in the persons of a distant people who never offended him, captivating & carrying them into slavery in another hemisphere, or to incur miserable death in their transportation thither. this piratical warfare, the opprobrium of infidel powers, is the warfare of the CHRISTIAN king of Great Britain. determined to keep open a market where MEN should be bought & sold, he has prostituted his negative for suppressing every legislative attempt to prohibit or to restrain this execrable commerce: [11] and that this assemblage of horrors might want no fact of distinguished die, he is now exciting those very people to rise in arms among us, and to purchase that liberty of which he has deprived them, by murdering the people upon whom he also obtruded them; thus paying off former crimes committed against the liberties of one people, with crimes which he urges them to commit against the lives of another.” http://commonsense21c.com/
Report Post »DanWesson455
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 8:16amWho freakin cares. 240 years ago. Maybe she was soooo GOOD. He just couldn’t help himself. Get over it whoever this story is bothering. Cripes!
Report Post »Immortal600
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 8:06amThe science (Y-DNA) proves a Jefferson male fathered at least one child. “A Jefferson male”. Jefferson’s father? He was deceased. A brother? He had none. HOWEVER, he did have an uncle and cousins that were male Jeffersons with the same Y-DNA. And, we know his uncle frequented his plantation. It is also believed that Sally Hemings was related to Jefferson’s wife and looked like her. It doesn’t shock me that the two may have fathered a child: the science supports it. But the science also leaves the door open for others, like the Uncle.
Report Post »blowback
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 8:14amSmall minds concern themselves with such foolish matters. This is political, not science. The conclusions are for political purposes, not scientific purposes. It‘s a fool’s game.
Report Post »Buster Hyman
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 10:23amJefferson never had a brother? Hmmmm…well according to ACTUAL history not only did he have 6 sisters he also had ONE brother who reportedly spent quite a bit of time down with the slaves.
Y’all have a nice day.
Report Post »Bill
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 11:46amJefferson did have a brother. Reread the article. The commission said Randolph Jefferson was the likely father of Sally Hemmings youngest child. Randolph was Thomas Jefferson’s brother.
Report Post »Immortal600
Posted on September 2, 2011 at 11:39amCorrect: I misspoke. Randolph was his brother. But I also see references to an Uncle Randolph, but am unable to find a “Randolph” in Peter’s family genealogies. Forgive me. There were other bros for Prez Tom, but they died young
Report Post »Lee_in_PA
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 8:02amthe DNA used in the original study was from the MALE side of both families and confirmed that SOME Jefferson fathered Estron. If that matters over 200 years later. For those who want to belive Thomas fathered Sally’s children, and for those who say it never happened, there is no definitive way to determine this unless Thomas is dug up and his DNA is compared to Eston’s. I doubt that ever happens. And why does it matter to us now?
Report Post »Nemo13
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 7:59amA reasonable conclusion. And there are many notable times when blacks or those that want blacks to have a wonderful history try to rewrite history. All you have to do is the leg work, truth is always there. History should never be tampered with just to make any peoples feel better.
Report Post »let us prey
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 7:55amSarah Louise Palin – Part Time Politician, Full Time Parasite
Report Post »You have an unhealthy obsession with Palin, the tea party and the GOP. You also exhibit [like your prog friends] common features of a sociopath. Your glib charm and grandiose sense of self is sad. You must be fueling your need for stimulation by commenting on a conservative forum like the Blaze. Like your hero obumbler, you do not accept blame, but blames others, even for acts you obviously committed. Keep posting here, you are showing us how the mind of the progressive works. Know your enemy. Palin has forgotten more than obumbler will ever know, and that drives you crazy. There is help for you. Good luck to you sir or maam.
National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI)
1-800-950-NAMI
blowback
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 7:53amWho cares!
Report Post »krisfaction74
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 7:52amPerry/Palin 2012, Sec of State- John Bolton, Chief of Staff- Herman Cain, Sec of Defense- General McCrystal, Sec of Treasury- Dave Ramsey WH Press Sec- Brian Killmead, Sec of Agriculture- Random Iowa Farmer, Sec of Commerce- Department Dissolved, Sec of Education- Department Dissolved, Sec of Energy- Department Dissolved, Sec of HHS- Department Dissolved, Sec of Homeland Security- Hank Whitman, Sec of HUD- Department Dissolved, Sec of Interior- Ted Nugent, DOJ Sec- Sheriff Arrpio, Sec of Labor- Department Dissolved, Sec of Transportation- Department Dissolved, V.A. Sec- Marcus Lutrell
It‘s not perfect but it’s a start
Christie/Rubio 2020 (Fill in the rest)
Report Post »cassandra
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 7:45amHey sarah louise palin are you serious the GOP or the Tea Party is trying to bring back the true history that has been little by little changed or left out of our school books when you talk about the 3/5 clause it shows that you don‘t have a clue of the truth try reading David Barton’s book American History in Black and White maybe you will learn something, know your facts before you speak, it shows your stupidity when you don’t have the facts
Report Post »AntiLiberal74
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 7:43amYeah. The child turned out to be the great-great-great-great grandfather of George Jefferson….
Report Post »Tickdog
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 7:39amgross…
Report Post »krisfaction74
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 7:33amI could care less either way, Jefferson was a great man. As to reading my Constitution for the first time in 2010, I‘ve been involved in the conservative punk movement since the 90’s making the same arguments the TEA party is making 15 years ago. I’m happy the debate is getting real and I welcome the Jefferson- Hemmings controversy.
Report Post »Hatedemdems
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 7:29amBlack liberals think they have a free hand to rewrite our history.
Report Post »TomFerrari
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 7:49amActually, I think it was the white-guilt elitists who primarily wrote the history books. The foisted their lies upon ALL of us. We ALL bought into it.
KUDOS to the Jefferson foundation that took it upon themselves to do the RESEARCH and not just paraphrase what they had been taught by other elitists “scholars”!!
——
@SHAMANWORLD…
Is your statement that you “will not go” and “have guns” a threat? They seem eerily closely linked in your statements. Enough to cause concern, many would say.
As for “Black is Back in charge”…
Report Post »At least you are admitting that black men and women HAVE been in charge in the past, and that black leadership is not new.
Oh, and obama IS going away when the voters tell him to go.
He may incite riots in the streets; but, he WILL GO.
We have the United States Constitution and the United States Congress and the United States Armed Forces to assure that a President DOES leave when the voters say so.
REMEMBER that before you start riots in the streets over this guy.
REMEMBER that he is A) 1/2 black, and B) he is not the ONLY black man in America.
Being the FIRST black President does not mean he is CORRECT on any topic(s) or issue(s), nor does it mean he is INcorrect. Aside from the fact that his rammed-down-the-throat-of-America obamacare has been deemed UNCONSTITUTIONAL; it is the RESULTS of his policies and actions; that will determine whether they are/were right or wrong. UNEMPLOYMENT, ECONOMY, GAS PRICES…
TomFerrari
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 7:27amIf I read this correctly…
The liberal historians have fed us a line of crap (which I BOUGHT, hook, line, and sinker).
In which case, their thought process seems to have been, “If he treated his slaves well, then he obviously, would only have done so because of his own lustful desires… NOT because he was a good man who treated other men, including slaves, well and with dignity and respect. NOPE! We, the elite, washed educated KNOW what was in his evil, white mind. So, we have determined that he was gettin’ some from his slaves.”
Ah, the liberal mind at work again and again and again…
I don’t think it will ever stop.
Glenn is ABSOLUTELY right, we MUST go back to the ORIGINAL sources if we are to study history. These ivy-league elitists have rewritten it over and over and have even plagiarized off of one another for decades, rather than study the original historic evidence.
Dear GOD! We have a LOT of work to do.
.
Report Post ».
.
riverdog1
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 1:31pmgood one tom, we should use glenns revision of history to teach our children. hint. that was a dig on you messiah glenda. he is usually wrong about EVERYTHING.
Report Post »Hatedemdems
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 7:24amThe minorities must believe that Jefferson fathered a slave child. Nothing else is acceptable.
Report Post »liberalsarealiens
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 7:24am12 out of 13 scholars conculded it was probably Jeffersons brother who fathered the child. DNA testing only narrowed the field down to two dozen men in the jefferson family who could have been the father. Oral history from the childs family points to Jeffersons brother. BUT, this doesn’t jive with the liberal version which is what they want the truth to be!
Report Post »seljo1701
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 7:22amI thought you Progressives liked Science? Sounds like this book is doing some of said practice. It doesn’t prove anything definitively, but tries to point out the weaknesses of what you claim to be unfallable History. The scince appears to say that SOMEONE int eh JEfferson family fathered children of Eston, but nothing conclusive that it was Thomas.
Report Post »SCHEXbp
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 7:11amU R an uninformed LIAR….
Report Post »Do some edumacating of yourself instead of practicing simplistic (typical liberal) name calling.
Go be a HuffPost Super User….
DanWesson455
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 8:19amWould you please name whom you are talking to. It appears you are saying something to the very next poster, which I hope is not true. Thanks.
Report Post »let us prey
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 9:20amdan
Report Post »Looks like [Sarah Louise Palin – Part Time Politician, Full Time Parasite] post was deleted from this story.
The comment was directed at [Sarah Louise Palin – Part Time Politician, Full Time Parasite] only.
ShamanWorld
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 6:59amThis book is only meant to make people believe Jefferson was a “pure” “good ol’ boy like the rest of you”. I‘m sure there were plenty of white men who couldn’t fight the “jungle fever”and had kids with their slaves. How do you think there have been so many light skinned African Americans? Slavery was WORSE than the Holocaust(Jews got reparations for it and many black Germans were killed), but black people aren’t allowed to ask questions or even be a little angry about it. If Ancestry.com can trace our ancestors that far back,then they should be able to trace the slave trade profit $$ all the way back. Trust me,if it were the European Jews(lawyers and bankers and pols(oh my!) who had been put in slavery in the USA, they would own US more than they already do…
Report Post »SCHEXbp
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 7:21amWhat is this, bigotry central now?
Report Post »Some whites with few slaves used sex to make more “property” unfortunately.
Guess you’ve never seen photos of a concentration camp?
Blacks can’t be “a little angry about it.” R U kidding? Even though there are no slaves alive NOR even children of slaves alive, nor probably grandchildren of slaves old enough to remember anything. It is brought up ALL THE TIME.
BTW MANY MANY more whites were enslaved than blacks. Slave comes form Slav, the people The Roman Empire enslaved a lot. Africa was barely “mined” for slaves for millennia. Then Muslims (not Jews) ran the slave trade inside Africa, Shaman.
ShamanWorld
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 7:31am@SchexBP You are so ignorant on the truth my friend. First off, “white slaves” in Europe were called endentured servants, ad they only had to work for a set number of years. No comparison there buddy. And if I’m African American and living in the USA then unless my family migrated from Africa on their own (which they didn’t,then I’m a descendant of slaves. Next point,yes, the Arab sold many blacks from Northern Africa(Egypt etc.) into slavery, and they are still killing today in Sudan(Nubia)(Lower Kingdom of Ancient Egypt). And lastly,it is a well known fact that Jewish bankers helped fund the trans-atlantic slave trade,and they used some of that money to start up Wall Street!(ponzi scheme) JPMorgan Goldman Sachs and others, are banks that profited from slave labor and monies derived from slave labor. I could educate you more, bu tI have to go to WORK now kids. TTYL
Report Post »krisfaction74
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 7:47amWow, slavery worst than the holocaust. I couldn’t compare the two. They were both human atrocities, but they were atrocities that I nor any other American living today have participated in. I am not my ancestors and I do not claim responsibility for what they did. I owe zero reparations to to any group of people.
Report Post »TomFerrari
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 7:58am“fight jungle fever”???
WHAT THE HELL???
Maybe they LOVED the person?
Maybe they thought they were sexy??
But, you in your elitist, omniscience, have, in ONE-SENTENCE, relegated every single INTERRACIAL relationship to RAPE.
You…
are…
disgusting.
And a SHAME to not only the black community, but to ALL of America!!!
You CLEARLY have issues. Perhaps you should go back to huffnpuff or dailycuss or moooveon.
You’d be much more comfortable there.
Of course, then you wouldn’t have anybody to attack and vent your own personal issues upon, would you? (from the comfort and anonymity of your mother’s basement, of course)
Sheesh!!!
I have a LOT of black friends who would LOVE to give you a good piece of their mind !
You realize, you are also stating that black slaves were UNWORTHY or INCAPABLE of loving white people? INCAPABLE of making up their own minds? INCAPABLE of choosing to be sexually involved with people of other races? Do you have ANY IDEA how insulting you are to black people?
Again,
You
Report Post »are
DISGUSTING.
.
.
.
let us prey
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 8:12amThe classical meaning of “shaman” as a person who, after recovering from a mental “illness” (of “insanity”) takes up the professional calling of socially recognized religious practitioner, is exemplified among the Sisala (of northern Gold Coast) :
Report Post »“the progressives “seized” him and made him insane for several months. Eventually, though, he learned to control their power, which he now uses to defame all others.”
clockwatcher
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 6:45amDidn’t DNA test settle this issue a few years ago?
Report Post »seljo1701
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 7:18amDidn’t read the article. It talks about the argument on DNA being made…
Report Post »emertz8413
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 7:33amAs I understand it, the DNA they used was mitichondril (can’t spell it) DNA, DNA from the Jefferson‘s mother’s side of the family, which, over time doesn’t decompose as quickly. With this DNA they proved that only that someone in her line (could have been brother’s, cousins, etc.) was the father. In my opinion that led to a lot of confusion and people heard what they wanted to hear. I would hope the man had more integrity than to do that, but I would have hoped the rape of female slaves wouldn’t have happened under his watch either.
Report Post »OUTRIDER WRITER
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 7:37am@Clockwatcher
Report Post »You can‘t just read the first paragraph and think you’re done reading…….
But, chin up…..you’re not the lone ranger…….
Immortal600
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 8:09amThe used Male DNA (Y-chromosome) to prove that male descendants of one of the slaves had the same Y-DNA as Thomas Jefferson, and his uncle, and ALL male Jeffersons who descended from a male common to Thomas. the DNA testing also proved that the Woodson claimants were NOT descended from Thomas.
Report Post »GERATMO
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 6:39amOnce again, Liberals are trying to rewrite history.
Report Post »SCHEXbp
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 7:02amAu contraire, Liberals hyped the Sally Hemmings story based on oral history (& “presentism”) & no one dare deny the thinness of the DNA “proof” – but this book has been forthcoming for some time.
Report Post »O’Reilly consistently says that her being in Paris while he was there was his main “proof.” Now we see that this was invalid, as are a lot of Bill’s half-baked conclusions.
searching for the Truth
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 6:35amLet them be known by their ” Fruits.”
Report Post »MOLLYPITCHER
Posted on September 1, 2011 at 6:30amThis is all an interesting piece of history. It’s probably a very interesting book. Whatever happend, he was still a great man, who did great things for America and the world. Look at how many corrupt people there are in Washington today. Thomas Jefferson was a human being just like the rest of us.
Report Post »