ClydeR
09-07-2011, 11:44 AM
Claims that Thomas Jefferson fathered children by his slave Sally Hemings had circulated for almost 200 years when 1998 DNA tests showed descendants of one Hemings child were related to Jefferson. Conveniently timed during the Clinton-Monica scandal, it was supposedly proof that Jefferson, like Clinton, was brilliant but morally flawed.
The DNA test only proved that one of Hemings' children was fathered by one of potentially two dozen Jefferson men in possible proximity to Monticello at the time. But headlines were deceptively more emphatic. And popular culture, with many historians, has eagerly embraced the salacious prospect that a Founding Father bedded a slave mistress.
Now some historians are challenging the supposed consensus. Last week, a "Scholars Commission" released a 400-page book, The Jefferson-Hemings Controversy, disputing the assumption.
More... (http://spectator.org/archives/2011/09/07/challenging-the-jefferson-hemi)
This is what happens when you make assumptions based on reporting by the liberal media. Why don't they just do a better DNA test? Let's dig up Jefferson and get to work on it.
For no particular reason, free sandwiches and blessings from beyond...
Although lacking formal funding, the Scholars Commission, with the Thomas Jefferson Heritage Society, organized a news conference at the National Press Club, complete with sandwiches and drinks. The son of the late famed Jefferson scholar Dumas Malone even attended, almost as if to convey his father's blessing from beyond. The elder Malone, who always disputed the Sally Hemings story, famously completed the sixth volume of his magisterial Jefferson biography while in his ninth decade.
The DNA test only proved that one of Hemings' children was fathered by one of potentially two dozen Jefferson men in possible proximity to Monticello at the time. But headlines were deceptively more emphatic. And popular culture, with many historians, has eagerly embraced the salacious prospect that a Founding Father bedded a slave mistress.
Now some historians are challenging the supposed consensus. Last week, a "Scholars Commission" released a 400-page book, The Jefferson-Hemings Controversy, disputing the assumption.
More... (http://spectator.org/archives/2011/09/07/challenging-the-jefferson-hemi)
This is what happens when you make assumptions based on reporting by the liberal media. Why don't they just do a better DNA test? Let's dig up Jefferson and get to work on it.
For no particular reason, free sandwiches and blessings from beyond...
Although lacking formal funding, the Scholars Commission, with the Thomas Jefferson Heritage Society, organized a news conference at the National Press Club, complete with sandwiches and drinks. The son of the late famed Jefferson scholar Dumas Malone even attended, almost as if to convey his father's blessing from beyond. The elder Malone, who always disputed the Sally Hemings story, famously completed the sixth volume of his magisterial Jefferson biography while in his ninth decade.