Jefferson DNA Data
Encyclopedia
The Jefferson-Hemings controversy concerns the question of whether there was an intimate relationship between Thomas Jefferson
and his mixed-race slave, Sally Hemings
. The controversy started as early as the 1790s. While some historians of the late twentieth century started reanalyzing the body of evidence, for many consensus was not reached until after the results of the DNA analysis in 1998 that showed a match between the Jefferson male line and a Hemings descendant.
The historiography of the controversy showed that historians had valued the testimony of the Jefferson family over that of their slaves, including one of Jefferson's natural sons. They failed to check the facts thoroughly and allowed their own biases and preservation of Jefferson as an icon to prevent them from evaluating significant evidence. The relation between the power of white slave masters, their interracial affairs with enslaved women, and the resulting mixed-race children has been at the heart of some of the complex history in the United States during and since its years as a slave society. According to the principle of partus sequitur ventrem, incorporated into law since 1662 in Virginia, children took the social and legal status of the mother (i.e., children of slave mothers were born slaves) in contrast to English common law
. This law enabled white men to avoid social and financial responsibility for the children they fathered with slave women.
In the antebellum period, the Hemingses would have been called a "shadow family". Sally Hemings was three-fourths white and believed to be a half-sister to Jefferson's late wife, as her father was also John Wayles
. As a widower, Wayles had six children by his 12-year liaison with his slave Betty Hemings
; the youngest was Sally. As the historians Philip D. Morgan
and Joshua D. Rothman have written, this was one of numerous interracial relationships in the Wayles-Hemings-Jefferson families, Albemarle County and Virginia, often with multiple generations repeating the pattern.
Hemings' children were seven-eighths European in ancestry and legally white according to Virginia law of the time. (The "one-drop rule
" did not become law until 1924.) Of the four who survived to adulthood: William Beverley, Harriet Hemings
, Madison Hemings
and Eston Hemings
, all but Madison eventually identified as white and lived as adults in white communities.
In 1997, Annette Gordon-Reed
published a book that analyzed the historiography of the controversy, demonstrating how historians since the nineteenth century had accepted early assumptions and failed to note all the facts. Since 1998 and the DNA study, most historians have accepted that the widower Jefferson had a long intimate relationship with Hemings, and fathered six children with her, four of whom survived to adulthood. The Thomas Jefferson Foundation (TJF), which runs Monticello
, conducted an independent historic review in 2000, as did the National Genealogical Society
in 2001; both were among those that concluded Jefferson was likely the father of all Hemings' children. Scholars have based their conclusions on interpretation of the body of evidence; added to that, the DNA study showed a match of the Jefferson male line with a descendant of one of Sally Hemings' children. Prominent historians and biographers such as Joseph Ellis
, Andrew Burstein and Philip D. Morgan
have said that such studies had led to their accepting his paternity. Since then, the Jeffersonian scholarship has changed to acknowledge his paternity; other scholars have studied more closely the interracial societies of many plantations and nearby towns.
, after being refused an appointment to a Postmaster position by Jefferson and issuing veiled threats of "consequences," reported that Jefferson had fathered several children with Sally Hemings. Jefferson never responded publicly, but his family denied the issue.
Others privately or publicly made the claim. Elijah Fletcher, the headmaster of the New Glasgow Academy (Amherst County, Virginia
) visited Jefferson in 1811 and reported that:
The controversy has referred to the family's and historians' denial of Jefferson's paternity for nearly 200 years, and disagreements over how to interpret limited documentation related to the issue. Jefferson's daughter Martha reportedly told her son Thomas Randolph
that Jefferson had been away from Monticello for 15 months before one of Hemings' children was born. He repeated this to the historian Henry Randall. Thomas Randolph was also quoted as noting that the source of the rumors was the strong physical resemblance of Hemings' children to Thomas Jefferson:
According to Randall, to explain this 'startling' close resemblance that everyone who visited Monticello could see, Jefferson's grandson told him that the late Peter Carr, Jefferson's nephew and a married man, had fathered Hemings' children. Gordon-Reed noted that Randolph was violating a social taboo by naming a white man as the father of slave children, and suggested he would only have done so for a compelling reason, to protect his grandfather. Because of the social taboo, Randall admitted that he suppressed, at Randolph's request, any mention of Hemings in his three volume "Life of Thomas Jefferson" (1858) However, Randall did pass on this family testimony onto the historian James Parton
, while strengthening his account by suggesting he had personally seen records supporting it - but no such record existed. Randall's letter was a "pillar" of later historians' defenses of Jefferson.
Then, in 1873, the allegation was again made public: Sally's son, Madison Hemings, claimed Jefferson as his and his siblings' father in a memoir recounting his family life at Monticello. He said Jefferson promised Sally Hemings when they were still in Paris and she was pregnant, to free her children when they came of age. In 1873, Israel Jefferson
, also a former slave of Monticello, confirmed the account of Jefferson's paternity of Hemings' children in his own memoir published that year by the same newspaper.
The 19th-century historian James Parton, who published a biography of Jefferson in 1874, generally attacked Hemings' account and noted the political intentions of the journalist who interviewed him. He and other critics essentially discounted the content of the memoir and projected negative assumptions about Hemings' motives in telling his story. (But, the 20th-century historian Merrill Peterson noted Hemings' details about events early in his life were mostly accurate.) Parton repeated the family's Carr paternity thesis and the assertion that Jefferson was absent during one of the conceptions.
Succeeding 20th-century historians, such as Merrill Peterson and Douglass Adair
, relied on Parton's book as it related to the question of Jefferson's paternity. In turn, Dumas Malone
adopted their position. In the 1970s, he was the first to publish a letter by Ellen Randolph Coolidge, Randolph's sister, who claimed the late Samuel Carr (also married), rather than his brother Peter, had fathered Hemings' children. Briefly, the above 20th-century historians and others such as Joseph Ellis
and Andrew Burstein "defended" Jefferson on the following grounds, based on the family testimony: he was absent at the conception of one Hemings child; and the family identified Peter or Samuel Carr as father(s).) In addition, these historians interpreted Jefferson's character and his expressed antipathy to blacks from his writings, as precluding his having such a relationship (although the prevalence of such arrangements among planters was well known and Sally Hemings was of mixed race, his wife's half sister, described as "mostly white" and "decidedly attractive"). They discounted accounts from former slaves, including Madison Hemings, and did not cross-check the facts to determine whose account was best supported by the evidence. For instance, Madison Hemings' account was supported by the fact that Jefferson freed all of Sally Hemings' children, although he was deeply in debt.
In her book, Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy (1997), Annette Gordon-Reed wrote,
noted that Jefferson was at Monticello "nine months prior to each birth" of Hemings' children, during a 13-year period when he was often away for months at a time. The source for the birth dates of the children is Jefferson's Farm Book. There are no records which reflect whether Sally Hemings was at Monticello during the conception period, but Dumas Malone
documented Jefferson's activities. It was his timeline that showed Jefferson was at Monticello for each of Hemings' conceptions, and she never conceived when he wasn't there. Martha Randolph, Jefferson's daughter, made a deathbed claim that Jefferson was away over a 15-month period during which one of the Hemings children was conceived. This was disproved by Malone's documentation. In the early 21st century, a statistical analysis of the conception data and Jefferson's residencies found a 99 percent chance that he was the father of all her children.. This analysis, commonly referred to as a Monte Carlo study, was done by the head of archaeology at Monticello, and has been criticized by the Scholars Commission Report..
The Hemings children were named for people in the Randolph-Jefferson family or important to Jefferson, rather than for people in the Hemings family. Jefferson gave the Sally Hemings family special treatment: the three boys, while young had very light household duties, and then were each apprenticed to the master carpenter of the estate, the most skilled artisan. This would provide them with skills to make a good living.
Most importantly, Jefferson freed all the Hemings children; this was the only slave family to go free from Monticello, and Harriet Hemings was the only female slave whom he ever freed. He allowed Beverley (male) and Harriet to "escape" in 1822 at ages 23 and 21, although Jefferson was already struggling financially and would be $100,000 in debt at his death. Jefferson avoided publicity this way, but the young adults were legally fugitive
slaves and at risk under the law until Emancipation. The gentry noted their absences at the time; the Monticello overseer Edmund Bacon mentioned in his memoir that people were talking about Harriet's having left, saying that she was Jefferson's daughter. In his 1826 will, Jefferson freed the younger brothers Madison and Eston Hemings, who were approaching the age of 21. As required by the law for manumitted slaves, the will petitioned the legislature to permit them and three older Hemings males, who were also freed in his will after serving him for decades, to stay in the state with their families. His daughter Martha Randolph gave Sally Hemings "her time" after Jefferson's death, and she lived freely with her two younger sons in nearby Charlottesville
for a decade.
In 1997 Annette Gordon-Reed
identified errors of fact in the Jefferson family testimony, noted that Randall had suggested he had seen material which did not exist, and showed that Parton, Malone, and Peterson had failed to assess critical evidence. She noted the significance of Jefferson's actions related to the Sally Hemings' family, which he took for no other. For 180 years, historians represented Peter or Samuel Carr as the likely father(s) of all of Sally Hemings' children. This was conclusively disproved in the 1998 DNA study (see below) of the Y-chromosome of direct male descendants of the Jefferson male line, the Carr line, and an Eston Hemings descendant. In the same study, the team found a match between the Eston Hemings descendant and the Jefferson male line. While another Jefferson male from his line would have had the same DNA as Thomas Jefferson, no other candidate from his male line had ever been identified during the decades of the historic controversy as a possible father; as noted above, the Carrs had been considered candidates. No other Jefferson had the same degree of access to Hemings as did Thomas Jefferson.
from living male claimed descendants of Jefferson and Hemings. The study concluded that the descendants of Eston Hemings Jefferson matched the Y chromosome of the Jefferson male line, and that Thomas Jefferson was the likely father of Eston. In addition, the study proved that Jefferson's Carr nephews (identified by the president's grandson and granddaughter as father(s) of Hemings' children) were not genetically connected to Eston Hemings.
Descendants of Thomas Woodson were also tested, as they had a long family tradition of descent from Hemings and Jefferson. Callender had referred to a "Tom" as one of Jefferson's children with Sally. The Thomas Jefferson Foundation had earlier noted that historic evidence regarding Thomas Woodson suggested he could not have been a descendant, but the family persisted in their belief. The DNA study showed conclusively that there was no match between Woodson descendants and the Jefferson male line, although most of Woodson' male descendants who were tested had a haplotype typical of Europe
an origin.
Because the Jefferson male line was found to have the K2 (now T) haplotype, rare in Europe, there were additional studies to see if it was represented in other Jefferson males in England. After research, it was determined that Jefferson's family origin was in England. Researchers have speculated about the possible origins of the haplotype, more common in peoples of the Middle East and Africa. Researchers believe the haplotype was most likely carried to Europe and England in ancient migrations, but might have arrived with more recent migrations of Sephardic Jews in the 15th and 16th centuries.
collected the material and conducted the testing in 1998. They announced results in a Nature
article in November 1998.
' youngest son Eston Hemings
for genealogical DNA test
ing. Hemings' eldest son Beverly Hemings had no male descendants. Male-line descendants of Hemings' other son Madison Hemings
have been located, but have not been tested.
In addition, the team located male-line descendants of Thomas Woodson. They were included because of a persistent tradition, held by Woodson's descendants, that maintain that he was born in 1790 as a slave at Monticello and the eldest son of Jefferson and Hemings. There is no firm historical evidence to support this claim and much that opposes it; for instance, there is no record of Sally Hemings' having a surviving child born before 1795. Shown in the figure below is the genetic lineage of the one male-line descendant (H21) of Eston Hemings and the five male-line descendants (W55, W56, W69, W70, and W61) of Thomas Woodson.
Because of family testimony by Jefferson's grandchildren, some historians considered Thomas Jefferson's Carr nephews by his sister to be possible biological fathers of Heming's children. Researchers were able to test three male-line descendants (C27, C29, and C31) of Samuel and Peter Carr, Jefferson's nephews.
The descendant of Eston Hemings has the same set of Y-chromosome DNA alleles as the descendants of Field Jefferson. This supports the claim that Thomas Jefferson could have been the father of Eston Hemings. It is impossible to prove absolutely that no other Jefferson fathered the child. (1) That would be proving a negative, and (2) any male who had the same Y-chromosome as Thomas Jefferson (other descendants of a common male ancestor) could have been the father, provided that this person had relations with Sally Hemings nine months before the birth of Eston Hemings.
The study team said that Thomas Jefferson was most likely the father, as historians have concluded. He was documented at Monticello at the time of each of Sally Heming's conceptions, and other circumstantial evidence supports his paternity (see historiography discussion above).
The Carr descendants have similar DNA among themselves but are distinctly different from either the Jefferson or Hemings descendants.
Four of the descendants of Thomas Woodson are quite similar among themselves but distinctly different from Jefferson and Hemings. They do have similarities to the descendants of the Carr line and show European ancestry in their paternal line. One of the Woodson descendants is quite different from all of the other individuals, which suggests that one of his genetic ancestors was not in the direct male line from Thomas Woodson.
Family Pedigree
Member Bi Allelic Markers Microsatellite STR Mini Satellite MSY1
----
Jefferson:
----
Hemings:
----
Carr:
----
Woodson:
Results of re-testing the original Jefferson descendant samples for additional STR markers were published by King, et al. in 2007. Together with DXYS 156Y (which was not included in the new panel), this gives the extended DNA signature:
(Note: the value of DXYS 156Y was reported as 7 in the original paper. This is believed to translate to 12 in the convention now used by DNA testing labs and online databases).
The highest concentrations of the K2 haplogroup are found today among the people of the Middle East
and Africa
, but researchers believe the haplogroup originated in Asia. It is highest among the Fulbe peoples of West Africa
. In lower concentrations, it appears in East Africa and in the Middle East
.
Researchers wondered about the path of migration to produce small numbers of K2 individuals who came to reside in the UK and elsewhere in Europe. In 2007 King, et al. at the University of Leicester
conducted DNA testing through a surname study of people named Jefferson. Testing 85 randomly selected men from the UK with the surname Jefferson, the team found that they could be classified by a number of different haplogroups. This suggested that the surname originated independently multiple times from different unrelated founders. (This is likely as the surname means simply Jeff's or Jeffer's son.)
Two of the 85 men, with paternal grandfathers from Yorkshire
and the West Midlands
, respectively, and no known familial links to the USA, were found to belong to haplogroup K2. These two showed a perfect 17/17 match for STR
values of the descendants of Field Jefferson. This shows that the rare haplotype existed among other men and families in England, so confirmed Jefferson's commonly accepted family origins there.
Researchers at Leicester state that the background level of the K2 haplogroup (now called Haplogroup T) in the UK is typical of the random dispersal of small numbers of uncommon haplogroups throughout the world. It could have had any ancient origin of arrival in the UK. Given known migration patterns, some researchers think it possible that Jefferson had a Sephardic Jewish ancestor from Spain
or Portugal
, or an even more ancient ancestor in Europe with origin in Phoenicia
or the Levant
. Dr. Michael Hammer
, a geneticist at the University of Arizona
, found an exact match with this sample with a Moroccan
Jew. Additionally, his database contained close matches with two other Middle Eastern Jews and an Egypt
ian.
"The haplogroup has probably been present for centuries in the 'indigenous' population of western Europe," says Professor Jobling (of the University of Leicester), "and is not exclusive to the Middle East and Africa." According to limited data from commercial testing of people in the European nations, men in Italy
may have the highest frequency of haplogroup T, with as many as 3.9% of Italian males belonging to this haplogroup. Approximately 3% of Sephardi Jews
and 2% of Ashkenazi Jews
belong to haplogroup T.
and Andrew Burstein publicly said they had changed their opinions and acknowledged Jefferson's paternity of Hemings' children. As Burstein said in 2005,
, a lineage society, wrote that DNA tests indicated that any one of eight Jeffersons could have been the father of Eston. The eight possibilities identified by the DNA tests are Thomas, Randolph (Jefferson's brother); Randolph's five sons, who were in their teens or 20s when Sally Hemings was having children; and a cousin George. The memo noted that Dr. Foster said that the title of the article, as published by Nature: "Jefferson Fathered Slave’s Last Child," was misleading. The team had concluded that Jefferson's paternity was the simplest explanation and consistent with historic evidence, but the DNA study could not identify Thomas Jefferson exclusively of other Jefferson males.
In 1999 the newly formed Thomas Jefferson Heritage Society (TJHS) commissioned its own report. (Its founder and current Director Emeritus Herbert Barger, a family historian, had assisted Dr. Eugene Foster by finding descendants of the Jefferson male line, Woodsons and Carrs for testing for the DNA study.) Its Scholars Commission, which included Lance Banning
, Robert F. Turner and Paul Rahe, among others, concluded in 2001 there was insufficient evidence to determine that Jefferson was the father of Hemings's children. Their report suggested that his younger brother Randolph Jefferson
was the father, and that Hemings may have had multiple partners. But, Paul Rahe published a minority view, saying he thought Jefferson's paternity of Eston Hemings was more likely than not. In turn, the TJHS report was directly criticized as poor scholarship in the National Genealogical Society
Quarterly, which reported that the historical, genealogical, and DNA evidence were sufficient to conclude that Thomas Jefferson was the father.
The historian Alexander Boulton reviewed the TJHS report and The Jefferson-Hemings Myth: An American Travesty, published by the TJHS. In the William and Mary Quarterly
, he noted that Randolph Jefferson had never been seriously proposed as a candidate by historians until after the DNA study of 1998 showed a genetic match between the Hemings descendant and the Jefferson line. He noted "previous testimony had agreed" that Hemings had only one father for her children, so criticized the idea that she had multiple partners for her children. Jeanette Daniels, Marietta Glauser, Diana Harvey and Carol Hubbell Ouellette conducted separate research and in 2003 documented that Randolph Jefferson was seldom at Monticello.
In 1999, after meeting his Hemings' cousins on a TV interview show, Lucian Truscott IV invited them to that year's annual meeting of the Monticello Association
, the Jefferson lineage society. The Association decided to commission its own report to determine whether it would admit Hemings' descendants to the lineage society. In contrast to the conclusions of the certified genealogists of the National Genealogical Society
, the 2002 report concluded the evidence was insufficient to establish Jefferson's paternity. The majority of Association members voted against admitting the Hemings descendants. (Truscott IV noted in a 2001 article in American Heritage
that the Association did not have such strict documentation standards before the DNA study and he could as easily have enrolled his cat as his daughter.)
In 2010, Shay Banks-Young and Julia Jefferson Westerinen (descended from Sally Hemings' sons Madison and Eston, respectively, they identify as African American and white), and David Works (brother of John H. Works, Jr., and descended from Martha Wayles), were honored with the international "Search for Common Ground" award for "their work to bridge the divide within their family and heal the legacy of slavery." The three have spoken about race and their extended family in numerous appearances across the country. After organizing a reunion at Monticello in 2003 of both sides of the Jefferson family, they organized "The Monticello Community", for descendants of all who lived and worked there during Jefferson's lifetime. In July 2007, the 3-day Monticello Community Gathering brought together descendants of many people who had worked at the plantation, with educational sessions, tours of Monticello and Charlottesville, and other activities. It was organized by descendants of both sides of Jefferson's family, as well as of others who had worked there.
Shay Banks-Young, a descendant of Madison Hemings
, had grown up with a family tradition of descent from Jefferson. David Works had originally resisted the new DNA evidence, but after he read the commissioned reports, he became convinced of Jefferson's paternity and voted in favor of admitting the Hemings' descendants to the Monticello Association.
Julia Jefferson Westerinen is descended from Eston Hemings Jefferson. After he moved his family to Madison, Wisconsin in 1852, they all took the surname Jefferson and entered the white community. His descendants married and identified as white from then on. In the 1940s, Julia's father and his brothers changed the family oral tradition and told their children they were descended from an uncle of Jefferson, as they were trying to protect them from racial discrimination. In the 1970s, a cousin, Jean Jefferson, read Fawn Brodie's biography of Jefferson and recognized Eston Hemings' name from family stories. She contacted Brodie and learned the truth about their descent. This enabled tracking down the family to gain a descendant for DNA testing. Julia's brother, John weeks Jefferson, was the Eston Hemings' descendant tested; his DNA matched that of the Jefferson male line.
Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the Statute of Virginia for Religious Freedom , the third President of the United States and founder of the University of Virginia...
and his mixed-race slave, Sally Hemings
Sally Hemings
Sarah "Sally" Hemings was a mixed-race slave owned by President Thomas Jefferson through inheritance from his wife. She was the half-sister of Jefferson's wife, Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson by their father John Wayles...
. The controversy started as early as the 1790s. While some historians of the late twentieth century started reanalyzing the body of evidence, for many consensus was not reached until after the results of the DNA analysis in 1998 that showed a match between the Jefferson male line and a Hemings descendant.
The historiography of the controversy showed that historians had valued the testimony of the Jefferson family over that of their slaves, including one of Jefferson's natural sons. They failed to check the facts thoroughly and allowed their own biases and preservation of Jefferson as an icon to prevent them from evaluating significant evidence. The relation between the power of white slave masters, their interracial affairs with enslaved women, and the resulting mixed-race children has been at the heart of some of the complex history in the United States during and since its years as a slave society. According to the principle of partus sequitur ventrem, incorporated into law since 1662 in Virginia, children took the social and legal status of the mother (i.e., children of slave mothers were born slaves) in contrast to English common law
Common law
Common law is law developed by judges through decisions of courts and similar tribunals rather than through legislative statutes or executive branch action...
. This law enabled white men to avoid social and financial responsibility for the children they fathered with slave women.
Background
Jefferson became a widower at age 40 in 1783, and remained so to his death in 1826. He is believed to have had a relationship with Sally Hemings that lasted nearly four decades, until his death, and six children with her. As the Monticello Website says:"Through his celebrity as the eloquent spokesman for liberty and equality as well as the ancestor of people living on both sides of the color line, Jefferson has left a unique legacy for descendants of Monticello's enslaved people as well as for all Americans."
"Based on the documentary, scientific, statistical, and oral history evidence, the TJF Research Committee Report on Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings (January 2000) remains the most comprehensive analysis of this historical topic. Ten years later, TJF and most historians now believe that, years after his wife’s death, Thomas Jefferson was the father of the six children of Sally Hemings mentioned in Jefferson's records, including Beverly, Harriet, Madison, and Eston Hemings.
In the antebellum period, the Hemingses would have been called a "shadow family". Sally Hemings was three-fourths white and believed to be a half-sister to Jefferson's late wife, as her father was also John Wayles
John Wayles
John Wayles was a planter, slave trader and lawyer in the Virginia Colony. He is historically best known as the father-in-law of Thomas Jefferson, third President of the United States....
. As a widower, Wayles had six children by his 12-year liaison with his slave Betty Hemings
Betty Hemings
Elizabeth "Betty" Hemings was an American enslaved woman of mixed race, who in 1761 became the concubine of the planter John Wayles of Virginia. He had become a widower for the third time. He had six children with her over a 12-year period...
; the youngest was Sally. As the historians Philip D. Morgan
Philip D. Morgan
Philip D. Morgan is a British-American historian. He has specialized in Early Modern colonial British America, and slavery in the Americas...
and Joshua D. Rothman have written, this was one of numerous interracial relationships in the Wayles-Hemings-Jefferson families, Albemarle County and Virginia, often with multiple generations repeating the pattern.
Hemings' children were seven-eighths European in ancestry and legally white according to Virginia law of the time. (The "one-drop rule
One-drop rule
The one-drop rule is a historical colloquial term in the United States for the social classification as black of individuals with any African ancestry; meaning any person with "one drop of black blood" was considered black...
" did not become law until 1924.) Of the four who survived to adulthood: William Beverley, Harriet Hemings
Harriet Hemings
Harriet Hemings was born into slavery at Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson, third President of the United States, in the first year of his Presidency. Most historians believe her father is Jefferson, who is believed by many historians to have had a relationship with his mixed-race slave...
, Madison Hemings
Madison Hemings
Madison Hemings, born James Madison Hemings , was born into slavery as the son of the mixed-race slave Sally Hemings; he was freed after the death of his master Thomas Jefferson. Based on historical evidence, most historians believe that Jefferson, United States president, was his father...
and Eston Hemings
Eston Hemings
Eston Hemings Jefferson was born a slave at Monticello, the youngest son of Sally Hemings, a mixed-race slave. Most historians believe that his father was Thomas Jefferson, the United States president. Evidence from a 1998 DNA test showed that Eston's descendants matched those of the male...
, all but Madison eventually identified as white and lived as adults in white communities.
In 1997, Annette Gordon-Reed
Annette Gordon-Reed
Annette Gordon-Reed is an American historian and law professor noted for changing scholarship on Thomas Jefferson. Gordon-Reed was educated at Dartmouth College and Harvard Law School. She is Professor of Law and History at Harvard, and the Carol K. Pforzheimer Professor at the Radcliffe...
published a book that analyzed the historiography of the controversy, demonstrating how historians since the nineteenth century had accepted early assumptions and failed to note all the facts. Since 1998 and the DNA study, most historians have accepted that the widower Jefferson had a long intimate relationship with Hemings, and fathered six children with her, four of whom survived to adulthood. The Thomas Jefferson Foundation (TJF), which runs Monticello
Monticello
Monticello is a National Historic Landmark just outside Charlottesville, Virginia, United States. It was the estate of Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence, third President of the United States, and founder of the University of Virginia; it is...
, conducted an independent historic review in 2000, as did the National Genealogical Society
National Genealogical Society
The National Genealogical Society is a genealogical interest group founded in 1903 in Washington, D.C.. Its headquarters are in Arlington, Virginia....
in 2001; both were among those that concluded Jefferson was likely the father of all Hemings' children. Scholars have based their conclusions on interpretation of the body of evidence; added to that, the DNA study showed a match of the Jefferson male line with a descendant of one of Sally Hemings' children. Prominent historians and biographers such as Joseph Ellis
Joseph Ellis
Joseph John Ellis is a Professor of History at Mount Holyoke College who has written histories on the founding generation of American presidents. His book Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation received the Pulitzer Prize for History in 2001.-Background and teaching:He received his B.A...
, Andrew Burstein and Philip D. Morgan
Philip D. Morgan
Philip D. Morgan is a British-American historian. He has specialized in Early Modern colonial British America, and slavery in the Americas...
have said that such studies had led to their accepting his paternity. Since then, the Jeffersonian scholarship has changed to acknowledge his paternity; other scholars have studied more closely the interracial societies of many plantations and nearby towns.
Controversy
As early as the 1790s, neighbors talked about Jefferson's connection to Hemings. In 1802 the journalist James T. CallenderJames T. Callender
James Callender was a political pamphleteer and journalist whose writing was controversial in his native Scotland and the United States. His contemporary reputation was as a "scandalmonger", due to the content of some of his reporting, which overshadowed the political content...
, after being refused an appointment to a Postmaster position by Jefferson and issuing veiled threats of "consequences," reported that Jefferson had fathered several children with Sally Hemings. Jefferson never responded publicly, but his family denied the issue.
Others privately or publicly made the claim. Elijah Fletcher, the headmaster of the New Glasgow Academy (Amherst County, Virginia
Amherst County, Virginia
As of the census of 2000, there were 31,894 people, 11,941 households, and 8,645 families residing in the county. The population density was 67 people per square mile . There were 12,958 housing units at an average density of 27 per square mile...
) visited Jefferson in 1811 and reported that:
The controversy has referred to the family's and historians' denial of Jefferson's paternity for nearly 200 years, and disagreements over how to interpret limited documentation related to the issue. Jefferson's daughter Martha reportedly told her son Thomas Randolph
Thomas Jefferson Randolph
Thomas Jefferson Randolph of Albemarle County was a planter and politician who served in the Virginia House of Delegates, was rector of the University of Virginia, and was a colonel in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War...
that Jefferson had been away from Monticello for 15 months before one of Hemings' children was born. He repeated this to the historian Henry Randall. Thomas Randolph was also quoted as noting that the source of the rumors was the strong physical resemblance of Hemings' children to Thomas Jefferson:
According to Randall, to explain this 'startling' close resemblance that everyone who visited Monticello could see, Jefferson's grandson told him that the late Peter Carr, Jefferson's nephew and a married man, had fathered Hemings' children. Gordon-Reed noted that Randolph was violating a social taboo by naming a white man as the father of slave children, and suggested he would only have done so for a compelling reason, to protect his grandfather. Because of the social taboo, Randall admitted that he suppressed, at Randolph's request, any mention of Hemings in his three volume "Life of Thomas Jefferson" (1858) However, Randall did pass on this family testimony onto the historian James Parton
James Parton
James Parton was an England-born American biographer.-Biography:Parton was born in Canterbury, England in 1822. He was taken to the United States when he was five years old, studied in New York City and White Plains, New York, and was a schoolmaster in Philadelphia and then in New York...
, while strengthening his account by suggesting he had personally seen records supporting it - but no such record existed. Randall's letter was a "pillar" of later historians' defenses of Jefferson.
Then, in 1873, the allegation was again made public: Sally's son, Madison Hemings, claimed Jefferson as his and his siblings' father in a memoir recounting his family life at Monticello. He said Jefferson promised Sally Hemings when they were still in Paris and she was pregnant, to free her children when they came of age. In 1873, Israel Jefferson
Israel Jefferson
Israel Jefferson, known as Israel Gillette before the 1840s , was born a slave at Monticello, the plantation estate of Thomas Jefferson, third President of the United States...
, also a former slave of Monticello, confirmed the account of Jefferson's paternity of Hemings' children in his own memoir published that year by the same newspaper.
The 19th-century historian James Parton, who published a biography of Jefferson in 1874, generally attacked Hemings' account and noted the political intentions of the journalist who interviewed him. He and other critics essentially discounted the content of the memoir and projected negative assumptions about Hemings' motives in telling his story. (But, the 20th-century historian Merrill Peterson noted Hemings' details about events early in his life were mostly accurate.) Parton repeated the family's Carr paternity thesis and the assertion that Jefferson was absent during one of the conceptions.
Succeeding 20th-century historians, such as Merrill Peterson and Douglass Adair
Douglass Adair
Douglass Greybill Adair was an American historian who specialized in intellectual history. He is best known for his work in researching the authorship of disputed numbers of the Federalist Papers, and his influential studies in the history and influence of republicanism in the United States during...
, relied on Parton's book as it related to the question of Jefferson's paternity. In turn, Dumas Malone
Dumas Malone
Dumas Malone was an American historian, biographer, and editor noted for his six-volume biography on Thomas Jefferson, for which he received the 1975 Pulitzer Prize for history...
adopted their position. In the 1970s, he was the first to publish a letter by Ellen Randolph Coolidge, Randolph's sister, who claimed the late Samuel Carr (also married), rather than his brother Peter, had fathered Hemings' children. Briefly, the above 20th-century historians and others such as Joseph Ellis
Joseph Ellis
Joseph John Ellis is a Professor of History at Mount Holyoke College who has written histories on the founding generation of American presidents. His book Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation received the Pulitzer Prize for History in 2001.-Background and teaching:He received his B.A...
and Andrew Burstein "defended" Jefferson on the following grounds, based on the family testimony: he was absent at the conception of one Hemings child; and the family identified Peter or Samuel Carr as father(s).) In addition, these historians interpreted Jefferson's character and his expressed antipathy to blacks from his writings, as precluding his having such a relationship (although the prevalence of such arrangements among planters was well known and Sally Hemings was of mixed race, his wife's half sister, described as "mostly white" and "decidedly attractive"). They discounted accounts from former slaves, including Madison Hemings, and did not cross-check the facts to determine whose account was best supported by the evidence. For instance, Madison Hemings' account was supported by the fact that Jefferson freed all of Sally Hemings' children, although he was deeply in debt.
In her book, Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy (1997), Annette Gordon-Reed wrote,
"It is my belief that those who are considered Jefferson scholars have never made a serious and objective attempt to get at the truth of this matter. . . The failure to look more closely into the identities of the parties involved, the too ready acceptance and active promotion of the Carr brothers story, the reliance upon stereotypes in the place of investigation and analysis, all indicate that most Jefferson scholars decided from the outset that this story was not true and that if they had anything to do with it, no one would come to think otherwise. In the most fundamental sense, the enterprise of defense has had little to do with expanding people's knowledge of Thomas Jefferson or the other participants in the story. The goal has been quite the opposite: to restrict knowledge as a way of controlling the allowable discourse on this subject."
Facts
The historian Winthrop JordanWinthrop Jordan
Winthrop Donaldson Jordan was a professor of history and renowned writer on the history of slavery and the origins of racism in the United States....
noted that Jefferson was at Monticello "nine months prior to each birth" of Hemings' children, during a 13-year period when he was often away for months at a time. The source for the birth dates of the children is Jefferson's Farm Book. There are no records which reflect whether Sally Hemings was at Monticello during the conception period, but Dumas Malone
Dumas Malone
Dumas Malone was an American historian, biographer, and editor noted for his six-volume biography on Thomas Jefferson, for which he received the 1975 Pulitzer Prize for history...
documented Jefferson's activities. It was his timeline that showed Jefferson was at Monticello for each of Hemings' conceptions, and she never conceived when he wasn't there. Martha Randolph, Jefferson's daughter, made a deathbed claim that Jefferson was away over a 15-month period during which one of the Hemings children was conceived. This was disproved by Malone's documentation. In the early 21st century, a statistical analysis of the conception data and Jefferson's residencies found a 99 percent chance that he was the father of all her children.. This analysis, commonly referred to as a Monte Carlo study, was done by the head of archaeology at Monticello, and has been criticized by the Scholars Commission Report..
The Hemings children were named for people in the Randolph-Jefferson family or important to Jefferson, rather than for people in the Hemings family. Jefferson gave the Sally Hemings family special treatment: the three boys, while young had very light household duties, and then were each apprenticed to the master carpenter of the estate, the most skilled artisan. This would provide them with skills to make a good living.
Most importantly, Jefferson freed all the Hemings children; this was the only slave family to go free from Monticello, and Harriet Hemings was the only female slave whom he ever freed. He allowed Beverley (male) and Harriet to "escape" in 1822 at ages 23 and 21, although Jefferson was already struggling financially and would be $100,000 in debt at his death. Jefferson avoided publicity this way, but the young adults were legally fugitive
Fugitive
A fugitive is a person who is fleeing from custody, whether it be from private slavery, a government arrest, government or non-government questioning, vigilante violence, or outraged private individuals...
slaves and at risk under the law until Emancipation. The gentry noted their absences at the time; the Monticello overseer Edmund Bacon mentioned in his memoir that people were talking about Harriet's having left, saying that she was Jefferson's daughter. In his 1826 will, Jefferson freed the younger brothers Madison and Eston Hemings, who were approaching the age of 21. As required by the law for manumitted slaves, the will petitioned the legislature to permit them and three older Hemings males, who were also freed in his will after serving him for decades, to stay in the state with their families. His daughter Martha Randolph gave Sally Hemings "her time" after Jefferson's death, and she lived freely with her two younger sons in nearby Charlottesville
Charlottesville, Virginia
Charlottesville is an independent city geographically surrounded by but separate from Albemarle County in the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States, and named after Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the queen consort of King George III of the United Kingdom.The official population estimate for...
for a decade.
In 1997 Annette Gordon-Reed
Annette Gordon-Reed
Annette Gordon-Reed is an American historian and law professor noted for changing scholarship on Thomas Jefferson. Gordon-Reed was educated at Dartmouth College and Harvard Law School. She is Professor of Law and History at Harvard, and the Carol K. Pforzheimer Professor at the Radcliffe...
identified errors of fact in the Jefferson family testimony, noted that Randall had suggested he had seen material which did not exist, and showed that Parton, Malone, and Peterson had failed to assess critical evidence. She noted the significance of Jefferson's actions related to the Sally Hemings' family, which he took for no other. For 180 years, historians represented Peter or Samuel Carr as the likely father(s) of all of Sally Hemings' children. This was conclusively disproved in the 1998 DNA study (see below) of the Y-chromosome of direct male descendants of the Jefferson male line, the Carr line, and an Eston Hemings descendant. In the same study, the team found a match between the Eston Hemings descendant and the Jefferson male line. While another Jefferson male from his line would have had the same DNA as Thomas Jefferson, no other candidate from his male line had ever been identified during the decades of the historic controversy as a possible father; as noted above, the Carrs had been considered candidates. No other Jefferson had the same degree of access to Hemings as did Thomas Jefferson.
DNA study
Jefferson DNA data was tested in 1998 in an attempt to end the long controversy after the Gordon-Reed book was published. Researchers tested Y-chromosomal DNAGenetic genealogy
Genetic genealogy is the application of genetics to traditional genealogy. Genetic genealogy involves the use of genealogical DNA testing to determine the level of genetic relationship between individuals.-History:...
from living male claimed descendants of Jefferson and Hemings. The study concluded that the descendants of Eston Hemings Jefferson matched the Y chromosome of the Jefferson male line, and that Thomas Jefferson was the likely father of Eston. In addition, the study proved that Jefferson's Carr nephews (identified by the president's grandson and granddaughter as father(s) of Hemings' children) were not genetically connected to Eston Hemings.
Descendants of Thomas Woodson were also tested, as they had a long family tradition of descent from Hemings and Jefferson. Callender had referred to a "Tom" as one of Jefferson's children with Sally. The Thomas Jefferson Foundation had earlier noted that historic evidence regarding Thomas Woodson suggested he could not have been a descendant, but the family persisted in their belief. The DNA study showed conclusively that there was no match between Woodson descendants and the Jefferson male line, although most of Woodson' male descendants who were tested had a haplotype typical of Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an origin.
Because the Jefferson male line was found to have the K2 (now T) haplotype, rare in Europe, there were additional studies to see if it was represented in other Jefferson males in England. After research, it was determined that Jefferson's family origin was in England. Researchers have speculated about the possible origins of the haplotype, more common in peoples of the Middle East and Africa. Researchers believe the haplotype was most likely carried to Europe and England in ancient migrations, but might have arrived with more recent migrations of Sephardic Jews in the 15th and 16th centuries.
1998 test
Dr. Eugene A. Foster and a team at the University of LeicesterUniversity of Leicester
The University of Leicester is a research-led university based in Leicester, England. The main campus is a mile south of the city centre, adjacent to Victoria Park and Wyggeston and Queen Elizabeth I College....
collected the material and conducted the testing in 1998. They announced results in a Nature
Nature
Nature, in the broadest sense, is equivalent to the natural world, physical world, or material world. "Nature" refers to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general...
article in November 1998.
Hemings and Woodson descendants for testing
The team located a male-line descendant of Sally HemingsSally Hemings
Sarah "Sally" Hemings was a mixed-race slave owned by President Thomas Jefferson through inheritance from his wife. She was the half-sister of Jefferson's wife, Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson by their father John Wayles...
' youngest son Eston Hemings
Eston Hemings
Eston Hemings Jefferson was born a slave at Monticello, the youngest son of Sally Hemings, a mixed-race slave. Most historians believe that his father was Thomas Jefferson, the United States president. Evidence from a 1998 DNA test showed that Eston's descendants matched those of the male...
for genealogical DNA test
Genealogical DNA test
A genealogical DNA test examines the nucleotides at specific locations on a person's DNA for genetic genealogy purposes. The test results are not meant to have any informative medical value and do not determine specific genetic diseases or disorders ; they are intended only to give genealogical...
ing. Hemings' eldest son Beverly Hemings had no male descendants. Male-line descendants of Hemings' other son Madison Hemings
Madison Hemings
Madison Hemings, born James Madison Hemings , was born into slavery as the son of the mixed-race slave Sally Hemings; he was freed after the death of his master Thomas Jefferson. Based on historical evidence, most historians believe that Jefferson, United States president, was his father...
have been located, but have not been tested.
In addition, the team located male-line descendants of Thomas Woodson. They were included because of a persistent tradition, held by Woodson's descendants, that maintain that he was born in 1790 as a slave at Monticello and the eldest son of Jefferson and Hemings. There is no firm historical evidence to support this claim and much that opposes it; for instance, there is no record of Sally Hemings' having a surviving child born before 1795. Shown in the figure below is the genetic lineage of the one male-line descendant (H21) of Eston Hemings and the five male-line descendants (W55, W56, W69, W70, and W61) of Thomas Woodson.
Jefferson and Carr descendants
Thomas Jefferson did not have a surviving son from his marriage to Martha Wayles Skelton and thus did not have a surname-bearing, proven direct male descendant as a positive control. The team located male-line descendants of Thomas Jefferson's paternal uncle, Field Jefferson, who had the same Y-chromosomal DNA. Five such descendants (J41, J42, J47, J49, and J50) were located and their DNA was analyzed.Because of family testimony by Jefferson's grandchildren, some historians considered Thomas Jefferson's Carr nephews by his sister to be possible biological fathers of Heming's children. Researchers were able to test three male-line descendants (C27, C29, and C31) of Samuel and Peter Carr, Jefferson's nephews.
Results
The results of the 14 descendants are shown. Differences are highlighted with bold font. The five descendants of Field Jefferson (which are proxies for Thomas Jefferson) have nearly identical Y-chromosome DNA alleles except for a single difference at J50. It is a reasonable assumption that this is a point mutation.The descendant of Eston Hemings has the same set of Y-chromosome DNA alleles as the descendants of Field Jefferson. This supports the claim that Thomas Jefferson could have been the father of Eston Hemings. It is impossible to prove absolutely that no other Jefferson fathered the child. (1) That would be proving a negative, and (2) any male who had the same Y-chromosome as Thomas Jefferson (other descendants of a common male ancestor) could have been the father, provided that this person had relations with Sally Hemings nine months before the birth of Eston Hemings.
The study team said that Thomas Jefferson was most likely the father, as historians have concluded. He was documented at Monticello at the time of each of Sally Heming's conceptions, and other circumstantial evidence supports his paternity (see historiography discussion above).
The Carr descendants have similar DNA among themselves but are distinctly different from either the Jefferson or Hemings descendants.
Four of the descendants of Thomas Woodson are quite similar among themselves but distinctly different from Jefferson and Hemings. They do have similarities to the descendants of the Carr line and show European ancestry in their paternal line. One of the Woodson descendants is quite different from all of the other individuals, which suggests that one of his genetic ancestors was not in the direct male line from Thomas Woodson.
Family Pedigree
Member Bi Allelic Markers Microsatellite STR Mini Satellite MSY1
----
Jefferson:
- J41 0000001 15,12,4,11,3,9,11,10,15,13,7 (3)5, (1)14, (3)32, (4)16
- J42 0000001 15,12,4,11,3,9,11,10,15,13,7 (3)5, (1)14, (3)32, (4)16
- J47 0000001 15,12,4,11,3,9,11,10,15,13,7 (3)5, (1)14, (3)32, (4)16
- J49 0000001 15,12,4,11,3,9,11,10,15,13,7 (3)5, (1)14, (3)32, (4)16
- J50 0000001 15,12,4,11,3,9,11,10,16,13,7 (3)5, (1)14, (3)32, (4)16
----
Hemings:
- H21 0000001 15,12,4,11,3,9,11,10,15,13,7 (3)5, (1)14, (3)32, (4)16
----
Carr:
- C27 0000011 14,12,5,12,3,10,11,10,13,13,7 (1)17, (3)36, (4)21
- C29 0000011 14,12,5,11,3,10,11,10,13,13,7 (1)17, (3)37, (4)21
- C31 0000011 14,12,5,12,3,10,11,10,13,13,7 (1)17, (3)36, (4)21
----
Woodson:
- W55 0000011 14,12,5,11,3,10,11,13,13,13,7 (1)16, (3)27, (4)21
- W56 0000011 14,12,5,11,3,10,11,13,13,13,7 (1)16, (3)27, (4)21
- W69 0000011 14,12,5,11,3,10,11,13,13,13,7 (1)16, (3)27, (4)21
- W70 1110001 17,12,6,11,3,11,8,10,11,14,6 (0)1, (3a)3, (1a)11, (3a)30, (4a)14, (4)2
- W61 0000011 14,12,5,11,3,10,11,13,13,13,7 (1)16, (3)28, (4)20
Allele assignments
| DYS 393 |
DYS 390 |
DYS 19 |
DYS 391 |
DYS 388 |
DYS 389I |
DYS 392 |
DYS 389II |
DXYS 156Y |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 | 24 | 15 | 10 | 12 | 12 | 15 | 27 | 12 |
Results of re-testing the original Jefferson descendant samples for additional STR markers were published by King, et al. in 2007. Together with DXYS 156Y (which was not included in the new panel), this gives the extended DNA signature:
| DYS 393 |
DYS 390 |
DYS 19 |
DYS 391 |
DYS 388 |
DYS 439 |
DYS 389i |
DYS 392 |
DYS 389ii |
DYS 437 |
DYS 460 |
DYS 438 |
DYS 461 |
DYS 462 |
DYS 436 |
DYS 434 |
DYS 435 |
DXYS 156Y |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 13 | 24 | 15 | 10 | 12 | 12 | 12 | 15 | 27 | 14 | 10 | 9 | 11 | 13 | 12 | 11 | 11 | 12 |
(Note: the value of DXYS 156Y was reported as 7 in the original paper. This is believed to translate to 12 in the convention now used by DNA testing labs and online databases).
T (formerly K2) haplogroup
In addition to the Hemings controversy, the study team was interested in the Jefferson male line DNA because it was found to belong to K2, a haplogroup that is rare for Europeans. Because of this, they studied the K2 haplogroup and its origins in the UK.The highest concentrations of the K2 haplogroup are found today among the people of the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
and Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
, but researchers believe the haplogroup originated in Asia. It is highest among the Fulbe peoples of West Africa
West Africa
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the UN definition of Western Africa includes the following 16 countries and an area of approximately 5 million square km:-Flags of West Africa:...
. In lower concentrations, it appears in East Africa and in the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
.
Researchers wondered about the path of migration to produce small numbers of K2 individuals who came to reside in the UK and elsewhere in Europe. In 2007 King, et al. at the University of Leicester
University of Leicester
The University of Leicester is a research-led university based in Leicester, England. The main campus is a mile south of the city centre, adjacent to Victoria Park and Wyggeston and Queen Elizabeth I College....
conducted DNA testing through a surname study of people named Jefferson. Testing 85 randomly selected men from the UK with the surname Jefferson, the team found that they could be classified by a number of different haplogroups. This suggested that the surname originated independently multiple times from different unrelated founders. (This is likely as the surname means simply Jeff's or Jeffer's son.)
Two of the 85 men, with paternal grandfathers from Yorkshire
Yorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
and the West Midlands
West Midlands (region)
The West Midlands is an official region of England, covering the western half of the area traditionally known as the Midlands. It contains the second most populous British city, Birmingham, and the larger West Midlands conurbation, which includes the city of Wolverhampton and large towns of Dudley,...
, respectively, and no known familial links to the USA, were found to belong to haplogroup K2. These two showed a perfect 17/17 match for STR
STR
STR, StR, Str or str may stand for:*Short tandem repeat, in DNA testing*Special Theory of Relativity, Einstein's theory*S. T...
values of the descendants of Field Jefferson. This shows that the rare haplotype existed among other men and families in England, so confirmed Jefferson's commonly accepted family origins there.
Researchers at Leicester state that the background level of the K2 haplogroup (now called Haplogroup T) in the UK is typical of the random dispersal of small numbers of uncommon haplogroups throughout the world. It could have had any ancient origin of arrival in the UK. Given known migration patterns, some researchers think it possible that Jefferson had a Sephardic Jewish ancestor from Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
or Portugal
Portugal
Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...
, or an even more ancient ancestor in Europe with origin in Phoenicia
Phoenicia
Phoenicia , was an ancient civilization in Canaan which covered most of the western, coastal part of the Fertile Crescent. Several major Phoenician cities were built on the coastline of the Mediterranean. It was an enterprising maritime trading culture that spread across the Mediterranean from 1550...
or the Levant
Levant
The Levant or ) is the geographic region and culture zone of the "eastern Mediterranean littoral between Anatolia and Egypt" . The Levant includes most of modern Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Israel, the Palestinian territories, and sometimes parts of Turkey and Iraq, and corresponds roughly to the...
. Dr. Michael Hammer
Michael Hammer
Michael Martin Hammer was an American engineer, management author, and a former professor of computer science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology , known as one of the founders of the management theory of Business process reengineering .- Biography:Hammer, the child of Holocaust...
, a geneticist at the University of Arizona
University of Arizona
The University of Arizona is a land-grant and space-grant public institution of higher education and research located in Tucson, Arizona, United States. The University of Arizona was the first university in the state of Arizona, founded in 1885...
, found an exact match with this sample with a Moroccan
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
Jew. Additionally, his database contained close matches with two other Middle Eastern Jews and an Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
ian.
"The haplogroup has probably been present for centuries in the 'indigenous' population of western Europe," says Professor Jobling (of the University of Leicester), "and is not exclusive to the Middle East and Africa." According to limited data from commercial testing of people in the European nations, men in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
may have the highest frequency of haplogroup T, with as many as 3.9% of Italian males belonging to this haplogroup. Approximately 3% of Sephardi Jews
Sephardi Jews
Sephardi Jews is a general term referring to the descendants of the Jews who lived in the Iberian Peninsula before their expulsion in the Spanish Inquisition. It can also refer to those who use a Sephardic style of liturgy or would otherwise define themselves in terms of the Jewish customs and...
and 2% of Ashkenazi Jews
Ashkenazi Jews
Ashkenazi Jews, also known as Ashkenazic Jews or Ashkenazim , are the Jews descended from the medieval Jewish communities along the Rhine in Germany from Alsace in the south to the Rhineland in the north. Ashkenaz is the medieval Hebrew name for this region and thus for Germany...
belong to haplogroup T.
Conclusions
With this new evidence, formerly skeptical biographers such as Joseph EllisJoseph Ellis
Joseph John Ellis is a Professor of History at Mount Holyoke College who has written histories on the founding generation of American presidents. His book Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation received the Pulitzer Prize for History in 2001.-Background and teaching:He received his B.A...
and Andrew Burstein publicly said they had changed their opinions and acknowledged Jefferson's paternity of Hemings' children. As Burstein said in 2005,
[T]he white Jefferson descendants who established the family denial in the mid-nineteenth century cast responsibility for paternity on two Jefferson nephews (children of Jefferson’s sister) whose DNA was not a match. So, as far as can be reconstructed, there are no Jeffersons other than the president who had the degree of physical access to Sally Hemings that he did.In addition, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, which operates Monticello, issued its own report in 2000 supporting Jefferson's paternity. Dr. Daniel P. Jordan, president of Monticello, committed at the time to incorporate "the conclusions of the report into Monticello's training, interpretation, and publications." The Foundation has published new articles and monographs on the Hemings descendants reflecting the new evidence, and installed exhibits at the facility showing Jefferson as father of the Sally Hemings children. In February 2000, PBS Frontline produced a program about the issues. It noted in its overview of material published about Jefferson-Hemings:
"More than 20 years after CBS executives were pressured by Jefferson historians to drop plans for a mini-series on Jefferson and Hemings, the network airs, "Sally Hemings: An American Scandal." Though many quarreled with the portrayal of Hemings as unrealistically modern and heroic, no major historian challenged the series' premise that Hemings and Jefferson had a 38-year relationship that produced children."
Minority view
There was intense interest in the study and its implications for American understanding of Jefferson and that period. A minority has continued to reject the conclusions of the consensus. In response to a PBS Frontline special on the DNA study, John H. Works, Jr., a Jefferson descendant and a past president of the Monticello AssociationMonticello Association
Founded in 1913, the Monticello Association is a non-profit organization of the lineal descendants of Thomas Jefferson, 3rd president of the United States. Jefferson was the designer, builder, owner and principal resident of Monticello in Charlottesville, Virginia. Historically the Association has...
, a lineage society, wrote that DNA tests indicated that any one of eight Jeffersons could have been the father of Eston. The eight possibilities identified by the DNA tests are Thomas, Randolph (Jefferson's brother); Randolph's five sons, who were in their teens or 20s when Sally Hemings was having children; and a cousin George. The memo noted that Dr. Foster said that the title of the article, as published by Nature: "Jefferson Fathered Slave’s Last Child," was misleading. The team had concluded that Jefferson's paternity was the simplest explanation and consistent with historic evidence, but the DNA study could not identify Thomas Jefferson exclusively of other Jefferson males.
In 1999 the newly formed Thomas Jefferson Heritage Society (TJHS) commissioned its own report. (Its founder and current Director Emeritus Herbert Barger, a family historian, had assisted Dr. Eugene Foster by finding descendants of the Jefferson male line, Woodsons and Carrs for testing for the DNA study.) Its Scholars Commission, which included Lance Banning
Lance Banning
Lance Banning was an American historian who specialized in studying the politics of the United States' founding fathers. He taught mostly at the University of Kentucky.-Life:...
, Robert F. Turner and Paul Rahe, among others, concluded in 2001 there was insufficient evidence to determine that Jefferson was the father of Hemings's children. Their report suggested that his younger brother Randolph Jefferson
Randolph Jefferson
Randolph Jefferson was the younger brother of Thomas Jefferson. He was Thomas' only brother to survive infancy, and was a twin to Anna Scott, Thomas' youngest sister. Randolph was 12 years younger than Thomas. He married his first cousin Anne Jefferson Lewis in 1780 or 1781 and they had four sons...
was the father, and that Hemings may have had multiple partners. But, Paul Rahe published a minority view, saying he thought Jefferson's paternity of Eston Hemings was more likely than not. In turn, the TJHS report was directly criticized as poor scholarship in the National Genealogical Society
National Genealogical Society
The National Genealogical Society is a genealogical interest group founded in 1903 in Washington, D.C.. Its headquarters are in Arlington, Virginia....
Quarterly, which reported that the historical, genealogical, and DNA evidence were sufficient to conclude that Thomas Jefferson was the father.
The historian Alexander Boulton reviewed the TJHS report and The Jefferson-Hemings Myth: An American Travesty, published by the TJHS. In the William and Mary Quarterly
William and Mary Quarterly
The William and Mary Quarterly is a quarterly history journal published by the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture. It covers the history of colonial North America and the "Atlantic world" from the fifteenth to the early nineteenth centuries, including the Caribbean, West...
, he noted that Randolph Jefferson had never been seriously proposed as a candidate by historians until after the DNA study of 1998 showed a genetic match between the Hemings descendant and the Jefferson line. He noted "previous testimony had agreed" that Hemings had only one father for her children, so criticized the idea that she had multiple partners for her children. Jeanette Daniels, Marietta Glauser, Diana Harvey and Carol Hubbell Ouellette conducted separate research and in 2003 documented that Randolph Jefferson was seldom at Monticello.
In 1999, after meeting his Hemings' cousins on a TV interview show, Lucian Truscott IV invited them to that year's annual meeting of the Monticello Association
Monticello Association
Founded in 1913, the Monticello Association is a non-profit organization of the lineal descendants of Thomas Jefferson, 3rd president of the United States. Jefferson was the designer, builder, owner and principal resident of Monticello in Charlottesville, Virginia. Historically the Association has...
, the Jefferson lineage society. The Association decided to commission its own report to determine whether it would admit Hemings' descendants to the lineage society. In contrast to the conclusions of the certified genealogists of the National Genealogical Society
National Genealogical Society
The National Genealogical Society is a genealogical interest group founded in 1903 in Washington, D.C.. Its headquarters are in Arlington, Virginia....
, the 2002 report concluded the evidence was insufficient to establish Jefferson's paternity. The majority of Association members voted against admitting the Hemings descendants. (Truscott IV noted in a 2001 article in American Heritage
American Heritage
American Heritage can refer to:* American Heritage * American Heritage * The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language* American Heritage Rivers* American Heritage School -See also:...
that the Association did not have such strict documentation standards before the DNA study and he could as easily have enrolled his cat as his daughter.)
Search for Common Ground
In 2001, before the Monticello Association vote, Lucian Truscott IV had written:"I pray that we will be fair to our cousins and to ourselves and to our history and to the memory not only of Thomas Jefferson but of Sally Hemings, and that we will do the right thing. Standing together, we are ancient evidence of the lie at the heart of racism, because in the words of Thomas Jefferson, we were created equal.
We are Jefferson’s children. We are a family."
In 2010, Shay Banks-Young and Julia Jefferson Westerinen (descended from Sally Hemings' sons Madison and Eston, respectively, they identify as African American and white), and David Works (brother of John H. Works, Jr., and descended from Martha Wayles), were honored with the international "Search for Common Ground" award for "their work to bridge the divide within their family and heal the legacy of slavery." The three have spoken about race and their extended family in numerous appearances across the country. After organizing a reunion at Monticello in 2003 of both sides of the Jefferson family, they organized "The Monticello Community", for descendants of all who lived and worked there during Jefferson's lifetime. In July 2007, the 3-day Monticello Community Gathering brought together descendants of many people who had worked at the plantation, with educational sessions, tours of Monticello and Charlottesville, and other activities. It was organized by descendants of both sides of Jefferson's family, as well as of others who had worked there.
Shay Banks-Young, a descendant of Madison Hemings
Madison Hemings
Madison Hemings, born James Madison Hemings , was born into slavery as the son of the mixed-race slave Sally Hemings; he was freed after the death of his master Thomas Jefferson. Based on historical evidence, most historians believe that Jefferson, United States president, was his father...
, had grown up with a family tradition of descent from Jefferson. David Works had originally resisted the new DNA evidence, but after he read the commissioned reports, he became convinced of Jefferson's paternity and voted in favor of admitting the Hemings' descendants to the Monticello Association.
Julia Jefferson Westerinen is descended from Eston Hemings Jefferson. After he moved his family to Madison, Wisconsin in 1852, they all took the surname Jefferson and entered the white community. His descendants married and identified as white from then on. In the 1940s, Julia's father and his brothers changed the family oral tradition and told their children they were descended from an uncle of Jefferson, as they were trying to protect them from racial discrimination. In the 1970s, a cousin, Jean Jefferson, read Fawn Brodie's biography of Jefferson and recognized Eston Hemings' name from family stories. She contacted Brodie and learned the truth about their descent. This enabled tracking down the family to gain a descendant for DNA testing. Julia's brother, John weeks Jefferson, was the Eston Hemings' descendant tested; his DNA matched that of the Jefferson male line.
External links
- "The History of a Secret: A chronology of how the Jefferson-Hemings story was long dismissed by historians as legend, lie or worse", Jefferson's Blood, PBS Frontline, 1999
- "More Britons with Jefferson surname found to be haplogroup K2", BBC - UK
- Defining the Possible Link Between Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, University of Virginia
- "Web resources on the Hemings Controversy", Monticello Website (Thomas Jefferson landmark)
- "The Monticello Community", Official Website
- Herbert Barger, Thomas Jefferson - Sally Hemings: the truth about a founding father/ "The DNA Study", n.d., Thomas Jefferson- Sally Hemings blog, articles cited on first page, 2002-2003
- "Famous DNA", International Society of Genetic Genealogy