If there’s compelling evidence that Jefferson fathered her children, then we’ll just have to lump it. I’m not suggesting, of course, that we brazen it out with lies. The argument can still be made that there’s doubt, though, and if people at Free Republic won’t make it, I don’t know where it will be made.
Even excessively lengthy posts can’t cover this topic adequately, of course. For persons with some time to dedicate to this matter, though, I call your attention to the site I mentioned before — https://jeffersondnastudy.com/rebuttal-to-tjmf-report/ . I’ll mention too The Jefferson-Hemings Controversy: Report of the Scholars Commission, a study published in 2001 and updated in 2011. https://www.amazon.com/Jefferson-Hemings-Controversy-Report-Scholars-Commission/dp/0890890854 (I don’t see a complete copy on the net.) Also I’ll mention another net site that contests many of the claims in the mainstream media and the educational establishment (neither of which, in my opinion, can be trusted) — https://www.tjheritage.org/dna-hemings/ .
Knowing how much b***s**t there is in both the media and academia, I’m not inclined to accept their claims unless logically compelled to do so.
I’ve meant to reply to some of your well-thought-out replies to me on this thread, but got preoccupied, my apologies. I’m going to go ahead and lay out just why I find these claims suspicious to the point of strongly doubtful, and it springs to an extent from personal experience in my own genealogical research.
I’ve made mention in a previous reply that individuals of mixed heritage were not particularly well treated in Virginia, and that can be verified fairly easily via means as simple as census records among other sources. This somewhat hostile environment led to certain behaviors among those who did not flee, to North Carolina or Tennessee or to some redoubt way back in the hills of what later became Kentucky or West Virginia, or wherever. The opposition to the planter societies (and to an extent the State Church) of each is correctly attributed to Scotch-Irish who populated and continue to populate southern Appalachia to an almost but not entirely overwhelming degree, above and beyond the native tribes. There were also these people, and they had their own reasons to resent planter society as well you can imagine I’m sure.
While in Virginia, and certainly elsewhere too but it was particularly noteworthy in Virginia, they adopted strategies to survive, I’ve likened this somewhat to “protective coloration” as exists elsewhere in creation, whether that was to appear as something benign, to disappear entirely, to appear larger or as a predator, etcetera. I’m sure you can think of a few examples in the animal kingdom. For “mulattoes” in Virginia, that could mean a few different things, most notably “passing” for white among those who could.
But, there was also a sort of appeal to prestige and authority among some in order to protect themselves, and not just merely “passing” but status-seeking is present here. I have good reason to doubt legends that bestow status, having discredited a few among my own lines. To me, status-seeking is an immediate red flag and suspicious until proven otherwise, whereas such legends that do not confer any perceivable advantage are less so, and those that do not remotely confer any advantage at all to the point of disadvantage, I go into under the assumption that they’re fairly credible.
Such legends tend to grow over time, particularly time measured in centuries. Whether this was intentional or not I’m not going to speculate, but I tend to take a charitable view and term it “confabulation,” which would essentially be misremembering in a favorable light, compounded by the retelling. That, to me, is forgivable and understandable. But, it’s not when the harsh light of day is shown upon it and strong disagreement is fostered due to putting other individuals in a potentially bad light while seeking status for oneself. That, I have a problem with, and that is what I see here.
If I’m ever proved wrong I will certainly back down and issue a mea culpa. But, I won’t lie about this, I’ve seen it before and it seems like self-aggrandizement to me. That is the source of my doubt.