Now, with a new book, History by a Hair: Thomas Jefferson, Sally Hemings & Solving a 200-Year-Old Mystery, and a DNA study alleging a further genetic match to Jefferson’s “clipped” hair, the debate has reignited.
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debate → solve → hair
It has been said that journalism “is the first rough draft of history.”
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journalism → say → history
Some truth lies in this statement.
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truth → lie → statement
Unfortunately, this standard has been misapplied to the current controversy: whether Jefferson had an affair with his 14-year-old slave, Sally Hemings.
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Jefferson → misapply → slave
The debate has now dissolved into a second and third draft of a politicized novel.
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debate → dissolve → novel
Jefferson is, as Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Virginius Dabney once wrote, “one of the principal historical victims of the current orgy of debunking” our heroes.
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Dabney → win → heroes
A small universe of historians contends that whether the consanguinatory allegations are true is a peripheral issue, because Jefferson’s renown as a votary of liberty is so monumental that nothing can affect it.
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nothing → contend → it
Yet the “Sally” sexual allegations have permeated the national consciousness and remain a demonizing blot on Jefferson’s character.
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allegations → permeate → character
In the interest of fairness and historical accuracy, the scientific and historical allegations need to be appraised, and, if proven false, vigorously refuted.
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allegations → need → fairness
No other person in the public domain has been studied, debated, and written about more than the man who penned the charter of American independence.
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who → study → independence
Of all the Founding Fathers, Jefferson, statesman, diplomat, naturalist, apostle of freedom, has fared the worst at the hands of barbed revisionists.
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Jefferson → fare → revisionists
In fact, Jefferson’s personal reputation has been all but assassinated for the last 20 years, since the 1998 DNA match.
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reputation → assassinate → match
The face on Mount Rushmore has been vilified as a slave-owning hypocrite, misogynist, and racist.
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face → vilify → hypocrite
It is beyond the scope of this article to address the major problems with the new scientific conclusions, but serious problems remain.
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problems → address → conclusions
For example, the strength of the new DNA study depends on several separate links in an evidentiary chain.
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strength → depend → chain
The new study describes hair that was “clipped” from Jefferson shortly after his death, placed in paper, and preserved for 250 years.
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that → describe → years
That alone presents monumental problems with what, in the law, is called “chain of custody”: Who handled the hair over nearly two centuries?
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Who → present → centuries
Was every transfer documented?
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transfer → document → ?
Were other Jefferson family hairs stored nearby?
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hairs → store → ?
Was there any independent genetic method for establishing that the particular hairs tested actually belonged to Thomas Jefferson rather than another family member?
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hairs → establish → member
Moreover, ancient hair DNA presents enormous scientific problems.
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DNA → present → problems
A “cut” hair normally contains little or no intact nuclear tissue compared with a freshly “plucked” hair containing root material.
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hair → cut → material
With material approximately two centuries old, degradation, fragmentation, and environmental contamination become major concerns.
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degradation → become → material
The question then becomes not merely “Was DNA detected?” but “How much authentic endogenous DNA was recovered, at what coverage, and how confidently can contaminating DNA be excluded?”
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DNA → become → ?
And finally, a reconstructed genome — the genome consists of 23 pairs of chromosomes located in the cell’s nucleus — is not necessarily equivalent to sequencing pristine DNA from Jefferson himself.
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genome → reconstruct → Jefferson
There was no reconstructed genome from other more likely paternity candidates, such as Jefferson’s younger, unknown brother, Randolph Jefferson, and Jefferson’s lascivious nephew, Peter Carr, who admitted to having an affair with Hemings.
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who → be → Hemings
In fact, Jefferson’s overseer at Monticello, Edmund Bacon, specifically stated that he saw another man, not Jefferson, coming out of Hemings’s cabin “many a morning,” implying Carr.
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man → state → Carr
Finally, one Hemings relative who participated in the new DNA research for the book proclaims that the scientists lost her trust, prompting her to remove her DNA from the study.
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scientists → participate → study
Mary Brady-Atkins, Hemings’s 98-year-old great-great-great-granddaughter, cited serious concerns that the book is being published hastily, before its conclusions could be vetted by any peer-reviewed journal.
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conclusions → cite → journal
“It is with regret that I write to withdraw my consent to participate in the above study, effective immediately,” she wrote to the lead researchers on Aug. 24.
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she → write → Aug.
I have long questioned whether the case against Jefferson has been stated with more certainty than the evidence permits.
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evidence → question → certainty
In my view, the misleading science ignores all of the other overwhelming historical facts and evidence that directly point to two other more probable candidates for the sexual affair with Hemings: Randolph Jefferson and Carr.
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that → ignore → Hemings
In fact, the Hemings “story” can be made authentic only by an incredible suspension of disbelief.
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story → make → disbelief
The allegation consists of a mixture of gossip, hearsay, and speculation, bordering on willful opacity.
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allegation → consist → opacity
One would have to assume Jefferson transformed himself into a schizophrenic Jekyll and Hyde to maintain two different families and lead an emotionally repressed double life.
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Jefferson → have → life
For example, the science all but ignores Randolph Jefferson, who would have the identical Jefferson Y chromosome as his older brother, which matched the DNA.
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which → ignore → DNA
Randolph Jefferson had a reputation for socializing with Thomas Jefferson’s slaves and was expected at Monticello approximately nine months before the birth of Eston Hemings, Sally Hemings’s son, who was the DNA match for a “male Jefferson.”
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who → have → Jefferson
Randolph Jefferson had all sons.
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Jefferson → have → sons
Thomas Jefferson had all daughters with his beloved wife, Martha.
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Jefferson → have → wife
Until 1976, the oral history of Eston Hemings’s family held that they descended from a Jefferson “uncle.”
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they → hold → uncle
…and 26 more, not listed.
The Aporia
