CONVERSATIONS ON JEFFERSON AND JEFFERSONIAN POLITICS
False TJ-SH Information on the Internet
Eyler Coates
There is an amazing amount of dubious and outright false information that is published on the Internet regarding the alleged affair between Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings. It is not possible to outline it all here, but the following samples will illustrate how freely misinformation is disseminated by reputable-appearing sources. The items are quoted below with comments indented.
The following examples are extracted from the article, 'Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings' by Dorothy C. Wertz, PhD, which appeared in GeneLetter, dated May 1, 2001:
August 17, 2001
"James Callender alleged that Jefferson had children by his house slave, Sally Hemings. Jefferson never denied the allegation."
The statement that "Jefferson never denied the allegation" is false. In a letter to Robert Smith, dated July 1, 1805, Jefferson denied all the charges made against him by his political enemies except one, and that one had nothing to do with Sally Hemings.
"Jefferson's paternity wasn't news to Sally's four surviving children, William Beverly, Harriet, James Madison, and Thomas Eston. She had informed all of them, according to Madison's memoirs, which appeared in the Pike County, Ohio, Republican in 1873."
False. It is amazing that paternity proponents should constantly make statesments similar to this. Any person can read Madison's "memoirs" (they are included in the books by Annette Gordon-Reed, and Fawn Brodie, as well as the TJHS book The Jefferson-Hemings Myth: An American Travesty) and see that he nowhere states that Sally told him or his siblings that Thomas Jefferson was their father. In fact, there is good evidence indicating that Sally did NOT tell any of them that (see The Children of Sally Hemings).
"Most historians vigorously denied such claims in order to protect Jefferson's reputation."
Such a judgment on the motives of "most historians" is speculative at best, but it is much more likely that historians considered the evidence against Thomas Jefferson rather flimsy, and the evidence for someone else being the father much stronger (see Comment on past historians). There were many historians, such as Henry Adams, who were critical of Jefferson and in no way tried to protect his reputation, but who nevertheless considered Callender's charges without merit. Other historians living today, such as Forrest McDonald, who would hardly be considered "pro-Jefferson," after carefully reviewing all the evidence, have concluded flatly that it did not happen (see The Scholars Commission Report).
"The DNA tests, done in 1998, show that Eston Hemings, Sally's youngest child, was probably Jefferson's son."
Incorrect. The DNA tests were of the Y chromosome only, and it was impossible that those tests could indicate any "probability" whatsoever with respect to any individual Jefferson being the father. Those tests indicated ONLY that "some" Jefferson male was the father. Dr. Eugene Foster, who performed the tests, has admitted that this evidence does not point to Thomas Jefferson any more than to any of two dozen other Jefferson males living in Virginia at the time.
"DNA from Eston's descendants matched DNA from Jefferson's paternal uncle's descendants on all points, showing that Jefferson's father, Peter, was also Eston's ancestor."
This is not an accurate statement. The DNA match only showed that "some Jefferson" was the father, and that Eston may or may not have been descended from Thomas Jefferson's father, Peter. The tests were done on descendants of Peter's brother, Field, and any Jefferson descended from him could have been the father also, as far as the DNA test results are concerned.
"there is no historical evidence that Randolph was ever at Monticello when Sally conceived,"
This is not correct. There is a letter from Thomas Jefferson to his brother, Randolph, who lived just 20 miles away, inviting Randolph to come to Monticello to visit his twin sister, and this invitation was issued just a few days before the probable date of Eston's conception. Randolph was known to visit Monticello frequently, but if we accept the specious argument that Randolph was there only when his presence could be documented, then it must be concluded that he went more than a decade without ever visiting his brother or writing to him.
"her [Sally's] brother, a French-trained chef who also made a bargain with Jefferson before returning."
There is no evidence suggesting that James made any kind of bargain before returning from France to America. Such a bargain, made in France, was indicated in the movie, "Jefferson in Paris," however. While it is true that Annette Gordon-Reed makes the following statement in her book, Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy: "Madison Hemings next stated that his mother and her brother James at some point declined to return to the United States" (pg. 24), the truth is at no point in Madison's "Memoirs" does he even mention the fact that James was in France at the same time as Sally! Jefferson did make an agreement with James many years later in Philadelphia on September 15, 1793, to free James once he had trained another cook, but that was almost four years after they had left Paris (see Jefferson's Farm Book, edited by Betts, pg. 15). James was freed February 5, 1796.
"She was already pregnant with her first child, reported by Madison to have been a daughter named Harriet who died in infancy."
Incorrect. Madison in his "memoirs" does not specify the name or the sex of the child that allegedly was born in 1790 after Sally returned from France. This was alleged to be Tom (Hemings) Woodson by others. Sally's first child to be named Harriet was born in 1795, five years after Sally returned from France, but that child died shortly after birth. The second child named Harriet was one of Sally's four children who survived to adulthood, and was born in 1801.