Did Thomas Jefferson have Children by His Slave Sally Hemings?

   First, this tidbit series is indebted to one of my favorite historians David Barton, and his incredible book “The Jefferson Lies”. It’s a ‘must read’. The quotes with page numbers only in this tidbit are from this book.
   Second, the question that requires an immediate answer is: Why is this important? In short, this issue is critical because it is imperative to expose the liberal/progressive motive behind their attack on America’s Founding Fathers:  
           1.Possess power
           2.Recreate America*
           3.Reject God/The Bible**
   In other words, their mindset is to usurp political power by any means, in order to recreate America, and to ultimately reject God. In the liberal mind, one of the methods to accomplish these three objectives is to discredit the Founding Fathers using historical revisionism. For example, if George Washington can be discredited because he owned slaves; or Thomas Jefferson can be discredited because he not only owned slaves, but raped them, then liberals believe they have the high moral ground to reject the Founders; and with them, the Christianity they so boldly embraced and used to create this nation. Here we go!
   There are three bodies of evidence used to accuse Thomas Jefferson of fathering children with his slave Sally Hemings:
           1.1998 DNA evidence
           2.Oral Tradition evidence
           3.Published newspaper reports from Jefferson’s day
 
1.1998 DNA Evidence. In 1998, the science journal ‘Nature’*** released the blockbuster results to the world that DNA had positively linked Thomas Jefferson to the children of his slave Sally Hemings, and thereby ‘scientifically’ confirming a 200-year old rumor. “In the two weeks following that announcement, 221 printed articles repeated the claim, embedding it deeply in the minds of Americans”(pg35). For example,
--“…The DNA tests end nearly two centuries of speculation… it now likely appears Jefferson fathered four or five children by Hemings.”      
                    -USA Today
--“Did the author of the Declaration of Independence take a slave for a mistress? DNA tests say yes…”             -U.S.News & World Report
--“Genetic testing almost certainly proves that our third president fathered at least one child by Sally Hemings.”           -Washington Post
--“DNA Test finds evidence of Jefferson Child by slave.        
                                   -New York Times
   How did America respond to this blockbuster information? Predictably, people began to call for Jefferson’s image to be removed from our coins; dismantle the Jefferson memorial in Washington D.C.; and finally, to remove of his face from Mount Rushmore.

   What is the answer to the irrefutable, undeniable ‘scientific’ DNA information proving Thomas Jefferson raped and fathered children with his slave Sally Hemings?

Only 8 weeks after the initial DNA story was released, the initial ‘Nature’ article was “pulled and rewritten, quietly and without fanfare”(pg32). Eugene Foster, who originally conducted the DNA testing, and authored the ‘Nature’ article, republished in the same ‘Nature’ journal concluding his testing had ‘NOT’ proven that Jefferson had fathered any children by Hemings!!
   Historian David Barton writes, “It turned out that the results had been dramatically overstated: there were 26 Jefferson males living in the area, of whom ten might have been the father of the Hemings child, and Thomas was only one possibility”(pg32).
 
What happened?
 
   Genetic DNA paternity testing requires a Y chromosome from a male descendant, because it remains the same in males from generation to generation. Here is the first problem: Thomas Jefferson had only one male descendant, a son, who died at birth!! What the researchers did not tell the media and the public is that they chose instead to use the DNA from the descendants of Field Jefferson, Thomas’ uncle!! Barton writes, “Therefore on the basis of DNA testing, the most that the researchers could conclusively say was that ‘some’ Jefferson male, and I repeat, there were 26 Jefferson males living in the area at the time—had a relationship with Sally Hemings that resulted in the birth of Eston” (pg38). In other words, it was true that the researchers indeed found a Y chromosome common to the entire Jefferson family in the descendants of Sally Hemings, but incredibly, what they willfully chose to suppress (Rom1:18) is that the genetic results could apply to anywhere between 10-26 Jefferson males!
    In addition, a commission of PhD scholars from Harvard, U. of Virginia, U. of North Carolina, U. of Kentucky, U. of Indiana, and others, examined this issue and concluded: “There are at least ten possible fathers for Sally Hemings’ children who could have passed down genetic material that might produce children physically resembling Thomas Jefferson and who are thought to have visited Monticello regularly during the years of Sally Hemings was having children” (pg38). Moreover, this distinguished group wrote, “the case against some of Thomas Jefferson’s relatives appears significantly stronger than the case against him.”
    In conclusion, the DNA testing that supposedly ‘irrefutably’ convicted Thomas Jefferson of impregnating Sally Heming is suspect because:
           1.They did not use Thomas Jefferson’s own DNA
           2.They substituted the DNA of Field Jefferson, his uncle
          3.They did not test the DNA of the rest of the Jefferson males living
              in that area!
 
Beware...this is the authentic face of liberalism!
 
* This means to change laws, traditions, mores, in other words, remove the Judaeo/Christian ethic
** Install a false god.
***-Eugene A. Foster, “Jefferson Fathered Slave’s last Child,” Nature, November 5, 1998, Vol.396, 27-28.
-Eric Lander and Joseph Ellis, “Founding Father,” Nature, November 5,1998, Vol.396,1.
 
QuoteBit
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