[Al Simmons]

"Sally Hemmings was half white, the half sister of his wife. She probably looked A LOT like his dead wife."

Bingo. You just nailed the most crucial piece of circumstantial evidence, completely omitted by the above hagiography.

Jefferson, as I recall, was deeply grieved by his wife's untimely death. Her half-sister was, by all accounts, a dead-ringer, younger, and a slave to boot (the easier to keep the matter quiet.) Does anyone think Jefferson was celibate for the rest of his life after his wife's death?

Her kids (some anyway) were reputedly red haired and freckle-faced. I admit that either Jefferson or his brother could have been the fathers. Based on the above,my dime is on Jefferson. After all, she was HIS slave, not his brother's, right?

[cyborg]

That's why I think it was him. Of course people are welcomed to disagree with me but as you say, she was his slave not his brother's slave.