Definitive Jefferson Paternity Evidence
New DNA analysis confirms Thomas Jefferson fathered children with enslaved Sally Hemings.
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A new DNA analysis provides the strongest evidence yet that Thomas Jefferson fathered children with Sally Hemings, a woman he enslaved at Monticello. Researchers analyzed DNA recovered from a packet of Jefferson’s hair and compared it with genetic samples from Jefferson family descendants and descendants of Hemings’s children, Madison and Eston. The team concluded there was less than a 0.001 percent chance Jefferson was not the father of both men, addressing objections that earlier Y-chromosome evidence could have pointed to another Jefferson male relative. The findings culminate 15 years of research led by Smithsonian scholar Richard Kurin and are detailed in his new book, History by a Hair. The conclusion intensifies the historical reckoning over the contradiction between Jefferson’s declaration that “all men are created equal” and his enslavement of hundreds of people, including Hemings and their children.
Key Points
1
Jefferson never publicly acknowledged a relationship or children with Hemings, while his family denied his paternity and suggested that his nephews or other relatives could have fathered her children.
2
The researchers compared Jefferson’s DNA not only with Hemings descendants but also with genetic samples from 13 living descendants of Jefferson’s family, strengthening the case against the earlier argument that another Jefferson male might have been the father.
3
Scientists developed an innovative method to recover DNA from multiple rootless hair samples, allowing them to obtain usable genetic information from the packet preserved at Monticello after the initial single strand from Jefferson’s Bible yielded no definitive results.
4
Jefferson enslaved more than 600 people at Monticello and his other properties, adding broader historical context to the contradiction between his political ideals and the findings about Hemings’s children.
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Richard Kurin said his interest in resolving the question began in 2011, after he learned from a documentary about the single strand of Jefferson’s hair found in his personal Bible; the resulting book, History by a Hair, was scheduled for release on Sept. 22.
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