“Did he really have children by his slave, Sally Hemings? “
Yeah, he probably did have children with his sister-in-law, Sally Hemmings. She was his wife’s half sister and was raised in their household, so though her status was slave, she was part of the household and one of several unacknowledged family members.
The DNA evidence doesn’t support it. More likely: just a lie intended to “normalize” Clinton/Lewinski affair.
“Yeah, he probably did have children with his sister-in-law, Sally Hemmings. She was his wife’s half sister and was raised in their household, so though her status was slave, she was part of the household and one of several unacknowledged family members.”
I’ve read compelling evidence that it was a brother who would often visit, and I couldn’t care less either way, but I think they’re in a rush to judgment as far as Thomas himself is concerned. The “half-sister” relationship you mention only makes me more skeptical; that makes him really freaky if he did sire children with her.
The "family tradition" that Jefferson was the father of Hemings's children was pretty much disproved by the DNA tests (although before the reporters got to them the family believed that "an uncle" not Thomas Jefferson was the father).
One of her six children did have a male Jefferson in his ancestry, but the time does not line up with Thomas Jefferson. The consensus is that the father was probably his brother Randolph (and hence the "uncle" of Jefferson's daughters), but there are at least three other male Jefferson candidates other than Thomas who were present around the time of conception.
So, yeah, it was a campaign to make Bill Clinton look not so awful by trashing Jefferson.
Very interesting — I didn’t realize Hemmings was his sister-in-law.