Researchers Say They’ve Found the Truth About Thomas Jefferson
A secret 15-year effort has produced genetic evidence that one of the nation’s Founders fathered children with a woman he enslaved.
Three hours after Thomas Jefferson passed away at Monticello on July 4, 1826, his secretary Nicholas Trist snipped a lock of his gray, reddish-blonde hair. Trist stored the hair with a note in a packet, unaware that centuries later it would provide evidence in a contentious debate about Jefferson's relationship with Sally Hemings, the enslaved woman who gave birth to six of his children.
After a 15-year effort, a team from the Smithsonian has found genetic proof that Jefferson fathered at least two of Hemings's six children. They compared Jefferson's DNA, reassembled from the hair, to descendants of two of Hemings's sons, Madison and Eston. The researchers discovered that these descendants share more of Jefferson's DNA than his known descendants by his wife Martha Wayles.
While the findings may finally convince some skeptics, others remain unconvinced and accuse the researchers of a "deliberate attempt" to support a preconceived theory. This discovery reignites a long-running debate about Jefferson's relationship with Hemings, a complex issue that has been a part of American history since at least 1802, when a newspaper first accused Jefferson of fathering Hemings's children.
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