Editing Thomas Jefferson (section)

====Jefferson–Hemings controversy====
{{Main|Jefferson–Hemings controversy}}
{{See also|Sally Hemings}}
[[File:Cock ca1804 attrib to JamesAkin AmericanAntiquarianSociety.png|thumb|An 1804 cartoon depicting Jefferson as a rooster and [[Sally Hemings]] as a hen]]

Claims that Jefferson fathered children with his slave Sally Hemings after his wife's death have been debated since 1802. In that year [[James T. Callender]], after being denied a position as [[postmaster]], alleged Jefferson had taken Hemings as a concubine and fathered several children with her.<ref>In 1853, [[William Wells Brown]] published a novel called ''[[Clotel; or, The President's Daughter]]'' alluding to Jefferson. This is the first novel in America published by anyone of African descent.[[#Hyland2009|Hyland, 2009]], pp. ix, 2–3.</ref> In 1998, a panel of researchers conducted a [[Y-DNA]] study of living descendants of Jefferson's uncle, Field, and of a descendant of Hemings's son, [[Eston Hemings]]. The results showed a match with the male Jefferson line.<ref>[[#Foster|Foster et al., 1998]]</ref>{{sfn|Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings A Brief Account}} Subsequently, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation (TJF) formed a nine-member research team of historians to assess the matter.{{sfn|Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings A Brief Account}} The TJF report concluded that "the DNA study&nbsp;... indicates a high probability that Thomas Jefferson fathered Eston Hemings".{{sfn|Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings A Brief Account}}<ref>[[#TJFConclusions|TJF: Report of the Research Committee on Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings – Conclusions]]</ref>{{efn|The minority report authored by White Wallenborn concluded "the historical evidence is not substantial enough to confirm nor for that matter to refute his paternity of any of the children of Sally Hemings. The DNA studies certainly enhance the possibility but&nbsp;... do not prove Thomas Jefferson's paternity".<ref>[[#TJFMinority|TJF: Minority Report of the Monticello Research Committee on Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings]]</ref>}} The TJF also concluded that Jefferson likely fathered all of Hemings's children listed at Monticello.{{sfn|Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings A Brief Account}}{{efn|Sally Heming's children recorded at Monticello included: "Harriet (born 1795; died in infancy); Beverly (born 1798); an unnamed daughter (born 1799; died in infancy); Harriet (born 1801); Madison (born 1805); and Eston (born 1808)".{{sfn|Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings A Brief Account}}}}

In July 2017, the TJF announced that archeological excavations at Monticello had revealed what they believe to have been Sally Hemings's quarters, adjacent to Jefferson's bedroom.<ref name="nbc">{{cite news |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/thomas-jefferson-sally-hemings-living-quarters-found-n771261 |first=Michael |last=Cottman |title=Historians Uncover Slave Quarters of Sally Hemings at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello |work=NBC News |date=July 3, 2017 |access-date=February 4, 2018 }}</ref><ref name="wapost">{{cite news |first=Krissah |last=Thompson |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/for-decades-they-hid-jeffersons-mistress-now-monticello-is-making-room-for-sally-hemings/2017/02/18/d410d660-f222-11e6-8d72-263470bf0401_story.html |url-access=subscription |title=For decades they hid Jefferson's relationship with her. Now Monticello is making room for Sally Hemings |newspaper=The Washington Post |date=February 18, 2017 |access-date=February 4, 2018 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180227035553/https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/for-decades-they-hid-jeffersons-mistress-now-monticello-is-making-room-for-sally-hemings/2017/02/18/d410d660-f222-11e6-8d72-263470bf0401_story.html |archive-date= February 27, 2018 }}</ref> Since the results of the DNA tests were made public, the consensus among most historians has been that Jefferson had a sexual relationship with Sally Hemings and that he was the father of her son Eston Hemings.<ref>
* {{cite journal |doi=10.1353/aq.2019.0017 |quote=The general consensus among historians now agrees with Madison Hemings's version of the relationship between his mother and father ... |title=Slave Life at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello |journal=American Quarterly |volume=71 |pages=247–264 |year=2019 |last1=Wilkinson |first1=A. B. |s2cid=150519408 }}
* {{cite magazine |last=Lepore |first=Jill |date=September 22, 2008 |title=President Tom's Cabin: Jefferson, Hemings, and a Disclaimed Lineage. |magazine=The New Yorker |quote=[T]oday most historians agree with the conclusion of a research committee convened by the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, at Monticello: Jefferson "most likely was the father of all six of Sally Hemings’s children." |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/09/22/president-toms-cabin |url-access=limited |access-date=November 21, 2019 |url-status=live |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20180620124734/https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2008/09/22/president-toms-cabin |archive-date= June 20, 2018 }}
* {{cite journal |quote=[T]he new scholarly consensus is that Jefferson and Hemings were sexual partners ... Whether Jefferson fathered all of Hemings's children is still unclear. |jstor = 2674361|title = Jefferson: Post-DNA|journal = The William and Mary Quarterly|volume = 57|issue = 1|pages = 125–138|last1 = Ellis|first1 = Joseph J.|year = 2000|doi = 10.2307/2674361|pmid = 18271151}}
* {{cite web |url=https://www.loa.org/news-and-views/819-updating-a-life-the-case-of-thomas-jefferson-and-sally-hemings |title=Updating a Life: The Case of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings |date=December 9, 2011 |work=[[Library of America]] |quote=Most historians now agree that a preponderance of evidence—genetic, circumstantial, and oral historical—suggests that Jefferson was the father of all of Sally Hemings's children.}}
</ref>

A minority of scholars maintain the evidence is insufficient to prove Jefferson's paternity conclusively. Based on DNA and other evidence, they note the possibility that additional Jefferson males, including his brother Randolph Jefferson and any one of Randolph's four sons, or his cousin, could have fathered Sally Hemings's children.<ref>[[#Hyland2009|Hyland, 2009]], pp. 30–31, 79; [[#TJHS|Thomas Jefferson Heritage Society]]</ref> In 2002, historian [[Merrill Peterson]] said: "in the absence of direct documentary evidence either proving or refuting the allegation, nothing conclusive can be said about Jefferson's relations with Sally Hemings."<ref name="Peterson 2002 p. 43">[[#Peterson2002|Peterson (2002), p. 43]]</ref> Concerning the 1998 DNA study, Peterson said that "the results of the DNA testing of Jefferson and Hemings descendants provided support for the idea that Jefferson was the father of at least one of Sally Hemings's children".<ref name="Peterson 2002 p. 43"/>

After Jefferson's death in 1826, although not formally [[manumission#United States|manumitted]], Sally Hemings was allowed by Jefferson's daughter Martha to live in [[Charlottesville, Virginia|Charlottesville]] as a [[free negro|free woman]] with her two sons until her death in 1835.<ref>[[#Reed97|Gordon-Reed, 1997]], pp. 657–660.</ref>{{efn|[[Annette Gordon-Reed]] notes that it would have been legally challenging to free Sally Hemings, due to Virginia laws mandating the support of older slaves and requiring special permission for freed slaves to remain within the state.<ref>[[#Reed97|Gordon-Reed, 1997]], pp. 658–659.</ref>}} The [[Monticello Association]] refused to allow Sally Hemings' descendants the right of burial at Monticello.{{sfn|CBSNews2019}}