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A centuries-old question over Thomas Jefferson’s relationship with Sally Hemings, a woman he enslaved, is back in the spotlight — and new DNA evidence reinforces what historians have long concluded.
The Thomas Jefferson Foundation, which owns and operates Monticello, addressed the new findings in a recent statement ahead of the publication of anthropologist Richard Kurin’s book, “History by a Hair.”
The book details an effort to analyze strands of hair linked to Jefferson, including hair discovered between the pages of an unpublished manuscript associated with him.
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Using those genetic comparisons, researchers modeled competing paternity scenarios involving Jefferson, plus his brother Randolph and Randolph’s sons.
The analysis found the odds that Jefferson fathered neither Madison Hemings nor Eston Hemings were less than one in 1,000.
Strands of hair linked to Thomas Jefferson, shown above, were analyzed using advances in genomic sequencing — providing new DNA evidence about his relationship with Sally Hemings. (Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello)
In a statement, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation said the findings reinforce, rather than rewrite, the historical record.
“The study doesn’t change what we know about Thomas Jefferson, Sally Hemings, their children or their world,” the foundation said. “But it offers occasion to reflect on how we came to know it, and why we share that knowledge.”
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“Together, these histories give us a fuller picture of Monticello, of Jefferson and his world, and of the generations of Americans who have worked to realize the Declaration’s promise,” the foundation added.
Fox News Digital reached out to the Thomas Jefferson Foundation for further comment.
Researchers used modern genomic sequencing techniques to recover Jefferson’s DNA from strands of hair linked to the nation’s third president. (GraphicaArtis/Getty Images)
Leigh Fought, professor emerita of history at Le Moyne College in DeWitt, New York, and author of the book “Sally Hemings: Given Her Time,” also said the new evidence reinforces what historians had already known.
“This should close the case with a lock,” Fought, who was not involved in the study, told Fox News Digital.
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“I was already positive that the case should have been closed. No other historical event, especially of that time, has had to amass this much evidence to say it happened.”
Rumors that Jefferson fathered children with Hemings circulated during his lifetime and persisted for generations, Fought said, while a 1998 DNA study largely settled the question for historians.
The Thomas Jefferson Foundation said new DNA findings reinforce rather than rewrite what historians have concluded about Jefferson and Hemings. (Edwin Remsburg/VW Pics via Getty Images)
The 1998 study found a genetic link between a male-line descendant of Hemings’ son Eston and the Jefferson male line.
Fought said skeptics continued to advance alternative theories, including that Jefferson’s brother, Randolph, could have been the father of Hemings’ children — an explanation she said the new evidence rules out.
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“This evidence says that’s not true either. It was definitely [Thomas] Jefferson,” Fought said.
Beyond resolving questions about the paternity of Hemings’ children, the expert said the story offers an opportunity to focus on Hemings herself and the choices she faced while she was enslaved at Monticello.
“When you study history, you study humanity. And you shouldn’t study it for heroes.”
“She’s an unbelievably fascinating woman, partly because of the mystery of her as a person,” the historian said, noting that not many records of her survive.
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Despite her circumstances, Fought said Hemings did what she could to secure a better future for her children.
“Here’s probably one of the most powerful men in the country and certainly one of the most recognizable men in American history,” she said.
Questions surrounding Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings date back to Jefferson’s lifetime. Those questions continued to swirl for generations after his death. (iStock)
“And here she was giving birth to his children, and she was one of the most powerless types of people in the country.”
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“She took what little agency she had and made sure that her children were going to have a better life,” Fought said. “They were going to be free.”
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Fought said Jefferson’s legacy should be viewed in all of its complexity.
“When you study history, you study humanity,” she said.
Monticello is central to the history of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, whose relationship has been studied for generations. (USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect)
“If you think Jefferson was awesome, you can still keep thinking he’s awesome, but he also did this thing,” added Fought.
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“And you can think what you want to think about that. And that’s life.”