The Monticello Association
The Monticello Association and many historians have felt that history did not support the claim that Thomas Jefferson fathered children by Sally Hemings. Recently new historical accounts have been written and DNA testing has been done as reported in Nature magazine.
This has opened the question for further review. The Executive Committee of the Monticello Association at its annual meeting in May 1999 announced that a committee had been formed to further investigate these new findings and to determine their impact on membership in the Association and/or burial in the family graveyard at Monticello. The committee will have a report by the time of the 2000 Annual Meeting.
Background
The Monticello Association is a non-profit organization of lineal descendants of Thomas Jefferson, third president of the United States, who was also the designer, builder, owner and principal resident of Monticello. The Association's purposes are stated in Article II of its Constitution. Somewhat abbreviated, they are:
(A) (first) To preserve and care for the graves and grounds of the Monticello graveyard, (second) to protect and perpetuate the reputation and fame of Thomas Jefferson and (third) to encourage association and friendship among Mr. Jefferson's descendants;
(B) to defend the property rights of the lineal descendants of Colonel Thomas Jefferson Randolph as owners of the original Monticello graveyard; and
(C) to affirm the rights of the descendants of Thomas Jefferson to burial in the addition to the Monticello graveyard as provided in the covenant under which this property was deeded.
In order to better understand this issue, it would be very helpful to first read the documents in our History section and/or the Interim Report.
Items of Interest
- Overview
- The DNA Testing
- Responses to the DNA Testing
- 2002 Annual Meeting
- 2001 Annual Meeting
- 2000 Annual Meeting
- 1999 Annual Meeting
- Legal Information
- Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation Study
Minority Report- Responses to Foundation Study
- Thomas Jefferson Heritage Society Scholar's Commission Report
- National Genealogical Society Quarterly
- Other Resources
- OpEd Page - Selected articles about the Jefferson/Hemings controversy
- Press Page - Selected articles from the media
The Hemings-Jefferson Controversy: A Brief Account - Link to the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation website
The journal Nature contains the following articles, which are available to users who create a free account on their web site at http://www.nature.com/nature:
Eugene A. Foster et al., "Jefferson Fathered Slave's Last Child," November 5, 1998
Eric S. Lander and Joseph J. Ellis, "Founding Father," November 5, 1998
Eugene A. Foster et al., letter to editor, January 7, 1999DNA Doesn't Link Jefferson, Woodson (currently broken)
Responses to the DNA Testing
Why the Jefferson Scholars Were the Last To Know - Annette Gordon-Reed, author of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy
The Truth About the Thomas Jefferson DNA Study - Herbert Barger (currently broken)Jefferson's DNA and Sally Hemings - Eyler Robert Coates, Sr (currently broken)
The Jefferson-Hemings Circumstantial Evidence - Eyler Robert Coates, Sr. (currently broken)
Final Report - Membership Advisory Committee
Interim Report - Membership Advisory Committee
Comments from James Truscott following the 1999 Annual Meeting
Legal Information (links currently broken)
Virginia Code
Meaning of child and related terms
Evidence of paternity
How parent and child relationship established
Admission of genetic tests
Evidence relating to parentageBlack's Law Dictionary definition of "descendant"
A Study of the Intersection of DNA Technology, Exhumation and Heirship Determination as It Relates to Modern-Day Descendants of Slaves in America, by Helen Bishop Jenkins
(This is a link to an Alabama Law Review article. The formatting leaves something to be desired. A MS Word version is available from the webmaster of this site.)
Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation StudyReport of the Research Committee on Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings
(There is both a web-based version of the report and an Adobe Acrobat file (pdf).Response to the Minority Report
Announcement from James Truscott - 27 January 2000
Research Report on the Jefferson-Hemings Controversy, A Critical Analysis, by Eyler Robert Coates, Sr.(link broken)
Thomas Jefferson Heritage Society Scholar's Commission Report
National Genealogical Society Quarterly, v.89 #3 (Articles available online to NGS members or in genealogy libraries)
A special edition of the NGS Quarterly. Did Thomas Jefferson or did he not father the children of his quadroon slave, Sally Hemings? Writers in this special edition explore this man and this riddle.