Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson (April 13 (April 2 O.S.), 1743 – July 4, 1826) was the third (1801–1809) President of the United States, second (1797–1801) Vice President, first (1789–1795) United States Secretary of State, and an American statesman, ambassador to France, political philosopher, revolutionary, agriculturalist, horticulturist, land owner, architect, archaeologist, slaveowner, author, inventor, lawyer and founder of the University of Virginia.

The Sally Hemings controversy

A subject of considerable controversy since Jefferson's own time was whether Jefferson was the father of any of the children of his slave Sally Hemings. A full account of the controversy can be found in the Sally Hemings article.

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Sally Hemings

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Two major, mutually contradictory studies were released in the early 2000s. A study by the Thomas Jefferson Foundation states that "it is very unlikely that Randolph Jefferson or any Jefferson other than Thomas Jefferson was the father of her children," while a study by an independent Scholars Commmission concludes that the Jefferson paternity thesis is not persuasive.

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David N. Mayer, a member of the Scholars Commission, says in his own writings that there is "the possibility that Jefferson's brother Randolph or one of Randolph Jefferson's five sons could have fathered one or more of Sally Hemings' children." He also states that, "Indeed, eight of these 25 Jefferson males lived within 20 miles (a half-day's ride) of Monticello?including Thomas Jefferson's younger brother, Randolph Jefferson, and Randolph's five sons, who ranged in age from about 17 to 26 at the time of Eston's birth." All of these men could have passed down the Y chromosome used as "proof". Professor Mayer's independent report also suggests that the Foundation report is flawed by biases and faulty assumptions (including the assumption that only one man fathered all of Sally Hemings' children).

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Significantly, everyone who has researched the issue -- regardless which side they take on the Jefferson-Hemings paternity question -- agree that there is no evidence supporting the original allegation, published by Thomas Callender in 1802, that Jefferson fathered Sally Hemings' first child in France prior to 1790. All the documentary evidence shows that Hemings' first child, Harriet, was born in 1795 -- years after the mythical child "Tom" that Callender alleged.

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