Founding Father

NewMexiKen sees from USATODAY that the Descendants of Jefferson, Hemings hold Ohio reunion. Seems like a good time to sum up that whole business.

1. Jefferson’s wife, Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson, died in 1782.

2. Sally Hemings was possibly Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson’s half-sister (that is, Martha and Sally may have had the same father).

3. The 1998 DNA test proved that a Jefferson male fathered at least one of Sally Hemings’ children. There were nine Jefferson males with proximity to Sally Hemings during the years her children were born.

4. In January 2000, a committee formed by the Thomas Jefferson Foundation reported that:

the weight of all known evidence – from the DNA study, original documents, written and oral historical accounts, and statistical data – indicated a high probability that Thomas Jefferson was the father of Eston Hemings, and that he was perhaps the father of all six of Sally Hemings’ children listed in Monticello records – Harriet (born 1795; died in infancy); Beverly (born 1798); an unnamed daughter (born 1799; died in infancy); Harriet (born 1801); Madison (born 1805); and Eston (born 1808). (Monticello.org)

5. According to Monticello.org, “Thomas Jefferson freed all of Sally Hemings’ children: Beverly and Harriet were allowed to leave Monticello in 1822; Madison and Eston were released in Jefferson’s 1826 will. Jefferson gave freedom to no other nuclear slave family.”

6. The Hemings family claims Jefferson but is unwilling to permit DNA matching with the remains of a grandson of Sally Hemings.

7. Monticello.org concludes:

Although the relationship between Jefferson and Sally Hemings has been for many years, and will surely continue to be, a subject of intense interest to historians and the public, the evidence is not definitive, and the complete story may never be known. The Foundation encourages its visitors and patrons, based on what evidence does exist, to make up their own minds as to the true nature of the relationship.