It's not a hoax; the DNA tests were conclusive. Moreover, I can't picture how something like that amounts to any sort of a "smear" against Jefferson. The only people in the picture deserving of "smearing" are a number of neo-antebellum southern "historians" who apparently are still in denial over it.
It's not a hoax; the DNA tests were conclusive.
Of course it's a hoax. The DNA tests were only conclusive in disconfmirming that any Jefferson male was the father of slave Thomas C. Woodson, who is the main pillar of the story. And so, anyone who claims that DNA tests proved Thomas Jefferson was the father of any of Sally Hemings' children, is perpetuating the hoax. The author of the original story, later admitted that it was inaccurate.
It's also a hoax, because documentary evidence was deliberately altered, in order to support the paternity claim. And it's a hoax, because supporters of the paternity claim have harassed and race-baited anyone failing to roll over. And it's a hoax, because supporters of the paternity claim have used different rules of evidence for adjudging claims supporting their story, than they have for adjudging claims that contradict their story.
Moreover, I can't picture how something like that amounts to any sort of a "smear" against Jefferson.
I can't either, but it clearly functions as one for the hoaxers.
The only people in the picture deserving of "smearing" are a number of neo-antebellum southern "historians" who apparently are still in denial over it.
I don't know which historians you are referring to, or why you use scare-quotes, when it is the hoaxers who are pseudo-historians.
BTW, did you bother reading the article through?