Posted on 08/31/2011 9:24:49 AM PDT by tellw
In a book due out Thursday, eminent scholars say it's unlikely that Thomas Jefferson fathered Sally Hemings' children, disputing a decade's worth of conventional wisdom that the author of the Declaration of Independence sired offspring with one of his slaves.
The debate has ensnared historians for years, and many thought the issue was settled when DNA testing in the late 1990s confirmed that a Jefferson male fathered Hemings' youngest son, Eston. But, with one lone dissenter, the panel of 13 scholars doubted the claim and said the evidence points instead to Jefferson's brother Randolph as the father.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
They didn't call him RANDY for nothing!
IMHO, Jefferson would have owned up to it...but he’d never rat out his bro.
The claim was pushed hard for one reason, to make Bill Clinton seem ok. TJ did it, and we love him, so let's overlook Clinton. Then it just stuck, facts notwithstanding.
This is just another lie (one among thousands) that progressives have been telling us for years.
This is just another lie (one among thousands) that progressives have been telling us for years.
As I remember it, Randolph was a bit limited in intellect and was more likely to be found at the slave quarters than at the main building. The evidence has pointed to him for a while, but the MSM only want TJ to be the father when it could have been any number of Jefferson men.
Ann Coulter was all ovver this back when “How to talk to a Liberal, If You Must” was published. Just read the chapter “Sally does Monticello”.
As she said, oral histroy Claims Thomas as the father, but would you want to claim a former president as your father, or the President’s half-wit brotherwho, according to the account of one of Jefferson’s slaves “He don’t have much more sense than Isaac”. Also, the brother was well known to spend most of his time at the slave quarters. Again, Coulter covered it in her book.
Remember, he's one of their FOUNDERS (Jefferson/Jackson/Day = "clues") and they really want him to be smart enough to do that.
I might have to amend my about page depending on what the evidence shows.
Bookmark.
This thread is the first time that I’ve heard of the TJ brother angle, which casts doubt on the whole premise.
Imagine that, I have to go to FR to get this point of view.
Mama’s baby. Daddy’s maybe.
Apparently memories are short here. The entire Hemmings story was known to be false at the time it was pushed into prominence during the Monica Lewinski scandal. The purpose of the smear of Jefferson was to “normalize” Clinton’s behavior (see - a great President like Jefferson had “human” failings, so we would be narrow-minded and puritanical to be hard on Billy Jeff Clinton).
Jefferson wasn’t a racist ?
The Washington Times has this as a front page story but I have not seen it anywhere else. Maybe the WSJ will catch onto it. I also emailed the link to Drudge and RealClearPolitics.com
Another po-mo smear debunked.
Yes, it was a cover for Clinton, and lest we forget, was the cover page in Time Magazine the week before the election, if I recall correctly. Maybe it was just a coincidence. Yeah, right.
The issue is settled.
TJ could or couldn't have been the father.
Same here. I never considered that Thomas Jefferson had a brother Shoot could have been a nephew, or anyone. Duh.
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