[LS]

Um, not this has not been "disproved." If you look at a recent issue of the William & Mary Quarterly---merely the journal of colonial and early American history---you'll see that the debate is quite hot. I definitely wouldn't say the Sally Hemmings people have won, but they are much closer than they were 20 years ago, and, as best as I can keep up with the developments, without question "a" Jefferson fathered one of the Hemmings kids. The question is, which Jefferson?

[blam]

"I definitely wouldn't say the Sally Hemmings people have won, but they are much closer than they were 20 years ago, and, as best as I can keep up with the developments, without question "a" Jefferson fathered one of the Hemmings kids. The question is, which Jefferson?"

That's pretty much my take on the situation too. I read a report last week that stated that most African-Americans are 25% Caucasian...someone was doing something way back when.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

as best as I can keep up with the developments, without question "a" Jefferson fathered one of the Hemmings kids. The question is, which Jefferson?

. . . and as I understand it, the one "Hemmings kid" evidently fathered by a Jefferson was conceived after Thomas Jefferson had returned from Europe--and after TJ been accused of fathering older Hemmings kids. Which charges the DNA tests now indicate were not correct.

And after TJ was older than he had been when he apparently had not been intimate with Hemmings.

One can certainly understand a desire of a decendant of "a" Jefferson to believe him/herself to be a decendant of "the" Jefferson. And the incentive of the race hustlers to promote that view is no less patent.

But IMHO delegitimating the writings of TJ--the Declaration of Independence being chief among them--is a deeply unpatriotic project. But then, it was convenient at the time for x42 . . .

[George W. Bush]

The question is, which Jefferson?

There is actually no question at all until they prove it was the Jefferson. It's nothing but a speculative race-baiting exercise in political correctness until they prove that Thomas fathered those children.

This whole business is actually trite and uninteresting. What difference would it make? Jefferson is interesting and relevant to American history. Who he was or wasn't boinking isn't.

There's no indication that his sex partner(s) influenced his political life or thinking.