New DNA analysis adds evidence Jefferson fathered children with Sally Hemings
New DNA analysis adds evidence Jefferson fathered children with Sally Hemings
asserted
Jefferson → add → Hemings
For more than 200 years, one question about the nation's third president has lingered: Did Thomas Jefferson father children with Sally Hemings, a woman 30 years his junior whom he held in slavery?
asserted
he → linger → slavery
"Thomas Jefferson wrote the most famous phrase in American history — 'All men are created equal' — and yet, if he bore children with Sally Hemings who were born into slavery, it seemed like a paradox and a contradiction," Richard Kurin told NPR's Michel Martin for Morning Edition.
asserted
Kurin → write → Edition
Kurin, a distinguished scholar and ambassador-at-large for the Smithsonian Institution, spent 15 years searching for Jefferson's DNA in an effort to answer the paternity question.
asserted
Kurin → spend → question
The investigation began with strands of hair found in Jefferson's personal Bible and eventually involved scientists, archaeologists, genealogists, forensic experts and Jefferson's and Hemings' descendants.
asserted
investigation → begin → scientists
The investigation's twists, as well as the science behind it, are detailed in Kurin's new book, History by a Hair.
asserted
twists → detail → Hair
Allegations that he fathered children with Hemings emerged in the late 1700s and early 1800s and have been debated by family members, biographers and historians ever since.
asserted
he → father → members
Kurin and his team were not the first to turn to DNA.
asserted
Kurin → turn → DNA
In the late 1990s, pathologist Eugene Foster and colleagues analyzed Y chromosome markers from Jefferson's family descendants and a descendant of Eston Hemings.
asserted
Foster → analyze → Hemings
"He [Foster] found contemporary descendants who had the Jefferson Y chromosome, and then he found the descendant of Eston Hemings, Sally Hemings' youngest son.
asserted
he → find → Hemings
Coupling the historical evidence with that DNA evidence, it convinced, I think, most historians and a lot of people that Thomas Jefferson was indeed the father of Sally Hemings' children," Kurin said.
asserted
Kurin → couple → children
But others objected by noting that the DNA results then could point to any Jefferson male, such as a cousin, brother or nephew.
uncertain
results → object → cousin
Outside of science, other questions remained.
asserted
questions → remain → science
"Some have said, 'Well, you know, she was enslaved.
asserted
she → say → ?
It had to be coercive.
asserted
It → have → ?
It by definition had to be rape because she can't consent," Kurin said.
asserted
Kurin → have → definition
"Other people have said, 'Well, here was a young woman 30 years younger than Jefferson who had tremendous agency,'" he added.
asserted
he → say → agency
Kurin enlisted Beth Shapiro, a MacArthur fellow who works with ancient DNA from extinct species, and Richard "Ed" Green, an expert in paleogenomics and forensic genomics.
asserted
who → enlist → paleogenomics
Kurin said his project focused on scientific evidence void of "moralizing or judging Jefferson" in their quest for answers.
asserted
project → say → answers
In his time, Jefferson kept more than 600 enslaved people who cultivated tobacco and mixed crops and ran his primary home and plantation, Monticello, near Charlottesville, Virginia.
asserted
who → keep → Charlottesville
About five years into the investigation, Kurin and his team discovered that the strands of hair found in Jefferson's Bible did not belong to Jefferson.
asserted
strands → discover → Jefferson
But Kurin kept looking.
asserted
Kurin → keep → ?
He went back to Monticello and pulled from a packet of hair that was not in the initial inventory.
asserted
that → go → inventory
"A rich lock of hair," Kurin said.
asserted
Kurin → say → hair
"You open up the packet, and here is Thomas Jefferson's hair, like a nice lock of hair staring in the face — looked very rich and that hair yielded DNA," Kurin said.
asserted
Kurin → open → DNA
The packet was labeled as Jefferson's hair, cut the day he died, July 4, 1826.
asserted
he → label → hair
"That was the, you know, the key to sequencing his DNA," Kurin said.
asserted
Kurin → know → DNA
With this new DNA sample, the results appeared to be conclusive.
asserted
results → appear → sample
"We know that there are descendants of Madison Hemings and Eston Hemings that have a whole lot of Thomas Jefferson DNA," Kurin said, referring to Sally Hemings' two youngest surviving sons.
asserted
Kurin → know → sons
"You actually had Hemings descendants that had more Thomas Jefferson DNA than the known Jefferson descendants."
asserted
that → have → descendants
He added: "I wouldn't make it a rule that the Hemings necessarily have more, but the Hemings certainly had more than was expected."
asserted
Hemings → add → more
Asked whether the findings answer the question of whether Jefferson fathered children with Hemings, Kurin said yes.
asserted
Kurin → ask → Hemings
The DNA speaks for itself."
The researchers were able to identify descendants of Madison Hemings and Eston Hemings, but not of Sally Hemings' other surviving children, Harriet Hemings and Beverly Hemings.
asserted
researchers → speak → children
"Her two other children, Harriet and Beverly, a boy and a girl, basically ran off from Monticello," Kurin said.
asserted
Kurin → run → Monticello
"Jefferson let them run off in 1822.
asserted
them → let → 1822
They went to Washington, D.C.
asserted
They → go → Washington
They passed as white, and they had families, and so nobody knows about their descendants."
asserted
nobody → pass → descendants
Kurin hopes to make Thomas Jefferson's genome publicly available, which could help others trace connections to his family.
uncertain
others → hop → family
"They may end up rediscovering a heritage that was obscured.
uncertain
that → end → heritage
This story is not over yet," he said.
asserted
he → say → ?
…and 2 more, not listed.
The Aporia
