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American Morning
Debate Continues Over Possible Thomas Jefferson-Sally Hemings Children
Aired April 13, 2001 - 09:22 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Today marks the 258th anniversary of the birth of Thomas Jefferson. And today, there are new questions about whether the nation's third president fathered children by slave Sally Hemings. This controversy has swirled for quite some time, sometimes in the open and sometimes not.
CNN's Jeanne Meserve joins us now from our Washington bureau. She's got some more details for us.
Good morning -- Jeanne.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Leon.
This new report says Thomas Jefferson probably did not father Hemings' children. But Hemings' descendants reject its conclusions.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MESERVE (voice-over): It is the kind of recognition descendants of Sally Hemings have sought for years: inclusion in a White House ceremony honoring Thomas Jefferson. They believe, along with many historians, that their forbearers were the offspring of Jefferson and his slave, a tangible reflection of the third president's contradictory legacy.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The same Jefferson who denied racial equality spoke ringing words of equal rights.
MESERVE: But as the president spoke, a new study was unveiled disputing the Hemings-Jefferson connection.
DAVID MAYER, JEFFERSON-HEMINGS COMMITTEE: The evidence in favor of Jefferson's paternity is extremely flimsy. It's an incredibly weak case.
MESERVE: This group of scholars concludes that Jefferson probably was not the father to any of Hemings' children.
DNA tests have proven that some member of the Jefferson family fathered Hemings' youngest child, Eston, but not necessarily Thomas Jefferson. These historians say Jefferson's correspondence indicates Hemings was only a minor figure in his life, that the historical record shows no special treatment of Hemings or her children.
Hemings did conceive her children during times Jefferson was at Monticello, but this study says Jefferson relatives would have come to visit when he was home. They say that until recently the oral history was that "an uncle" of Jefferson's was Eston's father, and they speculate that might have been a reference to Jefferson's brother Randolph.
PROF. ROBERT TURNER, JEFFERSON-HEMINGS COMMISSION: We found several letters that refer to Randolph Jefferson, as "Uncle Randolph is coming to visit, Uncle Randolph is here." So Randolph Jefferson was the one person that we known of that was routinely known as Uncle at Monticello.
MESERVE: Though the others insist their Jefferson research is unbiased, the report was commissioned by Jefferson descendants upset at claims that Jefferson fathered Hemings children.
JOHN HAMILTON WORKS, JEFFERSON DESCENDANT: How can the same man who wrote about all these great American ideals at the same time quietly be having an affair with someone who was a child? That makes him a liar, a fraud, and a hypocrite to many people.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MESERVE: But one Hemings descendant to whom I spoke says this report only shows that some people will never accept that Jefferson had children with a black woman. It does not change who I am, she said, he is my grandfather six generations back -- Leon.
HARRIS: Jeanne, what about some of the others who have been saying all along that Jefferson did father these other children? What are they saying about this new report?
MESERVE: I spoke to Dr. Eugene Foster, who wrote up the original, 1998 DNA testing, and he agrees that it does not say conclusively that Thomas Jefferson was the Jefferson who fathered Hemings' son Eston. Because the scientific evidence is not conclusive, it comes down to how you weigh and interpret the historical evidence. He believes that Thomas Jefferson probably was the father, and a panel of experts at Monticello, Jefferson's home, has gone even farther, saying that there's a high probability that Jefferson fathered all of Hemings' children.
So the argument rages. It is possible, though, that we may have a definitive answer down the road sometime. The human genome is being mapped. DNA testing is always improving. We may know someday definitively whether Hemings' children were also Thomas Jefferson's children -- Leon.
HARRIS: Until then, someone's going to have to dig up a 258- year-old family photo. That's the way it looks.
Jeanne Meserve, in Washington, thanks much.
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