Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings (Part 1) – The Left Spins Another Yarn to Trash the Founders

Flopping Aces ^ | 10-06-24 | Brother Bob

[Jamestown1630]

I have always believed that if a Jefferson man was involved with Hemings, it was Randolph. It’s in character for him, but not at all for Thomas.

[nathanbedford]

This account is not scholarship but a regrettable example of disputation emerging in support of the desired premise. The real truth is that the great weight of evidence is that Thomas Jefferson in fact conducted a long-term relationship with Sally Hennings and fathered several children with her.

[Jamestown1630]

I don’t believe that.

I do believe that Thomas may have sometimes facilitated Randolph’s relationship with her.

[Theophilus]

Whether he did or didn’t the relentless obsession with the subject gives lie to the gaslighting notion that the private lives of public figures don’t matter.

[coloradan]

I don’t understand how leftist historians can use sexual dalliances as a smear against anyone, when they simultaneously hold all such activities to be sacred. Maybe Jefferson was just polyamorous, if not also some other letters of the alphabet.

Oh yeah, double standards. Forgot about that. Nevermind. Sexual dalliances are only sacred when they are undertaken by those on the left. Otherwise they are symptomatic of bad moral judgment and should subject the participants to cancellation, etc.

If it weren’t for double standards, some people wouldn’t have any standards at all.

[Jamestown1630]

In politics if there are not true stories to tell, they’re made up anyway.

[Jamestown1630]

This has much more to do with race, than with sex.

[sauropod]

.

[Verginius Rufus]

Before the DNA evidence was published, a lot of scholars pointed to two of Jefferson's nephews, who had the last name Carr, at the potential father or fathers of Sally's children. Not all of her 6 children had descendants whose Y-DNA can be traced to the present. I think one or two had descendants bearing the Jefferson Y-DNA (which of course could be from Randolph or another Jefferson male), but one had different Y-DNA which could go back to the Carr family.

Nevertheless the claim was made that all 6 of Sally's children were by Thomas Jefferson.

Madison Hemings, one of Sally's sons, told a newspaper in Ohio about 1873 that Jefferson was his father (but never treated him as a son). He also told the census taker in 1870 that he was the son of Thomas Jefferson and the census taker wrote that in the margin--I have seen the census record.

So Sally may have told him that (he could not know on his own, of course). But we have to credit Madison Hemings with being truthful (and not trying to claim famous ancestry).

[Jamestown1630]

If you were in Sally’s position, who would you claim as the father of your child/children - the illustrious Thomas, or the relatively simple-minded Randolph?

[Fai Mao]

The truth is also that he did so after the death of his wife and that by law he was forbidden to marry Sally Hemming.

Sally Hemming was, in actuality, the first Black FLOTUS.

[Bull Snipe]

bkmk

[Chewbarkah]

Please walk us through the “great weight of evidence” that TJ conducted a long-term relationship with Sally Hemmings.

The DNA evidence is not definitive (and portions of the results are removed from consideration by the privacy desires of one “descendant”). The “family tradition” evidence is hearsay by people who likely believed it, but didn’t know, and was recorded by a black journalist with bias against TJ. Bacon’s refutation of the charge is usually dismissed. James Callender’s screeds are easily explained as the fruit of politics and personal animus. Etc. Though I am not a Jefferson worshipper who thinks him incapable of being guilty of the accusations, a “great weight of evidence” is something I’m eager to see.

[Jamestown1630]

She wasn’t ‘FLOTUS’ as she wasn’t married to him; he had no official FLOTUS, but his daughter, Martha, served as his unofficial one in the White House.

[JBW1949]

So the left openly admit that they have a problem with interracial sex... They openly admit that they are racists....

[Mr Rogers]

“The real truth is that the great weight of evidence is that Thomas Jefferson...”

Nope. Not even close. I’ve taken the time to read several books and look at the arguments pro and con, and it is very UNLIKELY that TJ had sex with Sally Hemmings.

[Verginius Rufus]

Sally was the half-sister of Jefferson's wife. I think her ancestry was 3/4ths white. Some of her descendants were able to "pass" as white.

Jefferson was in debt when he died and couldn't have freed all of his slaves if he had wanted to, but did manage to free Sally's close relatives--but not Sally herself. Maybe the understanding was that she would live with one of her children and would not be required to work for any of the Jeffersons.

[Jamestown1630]

The personal correspondence between Thomas and Randolph is also a useful source, and gives itself to some interesting subtextual study.

[Jamestown1630]

I think Jefferson would have wanted to free the slaves if he could have done; while living he was known to ‘look the other way’ when slaves went missing, as soon as he knew that they were doing alright on their own.