(01-19-2015 10:59 PM)nomad2u2001 Wrote: There are a bunch of men who've actually owned people with illegitimate children by said people, and they are considered national heroes and they have many more memorials.
Thomas Jefferson was a mix of good and bad like everyone else. If for no other reason, simply writing the Declaration of Independence should be enough (and so far, has been enough) to ensure his fame for several centuries. But the sad reality is, he was a dud as Governor of Virginia and a dud as President of the United States. The President whom Jefferson served as Secretary of State (Geo. Washington) started out with a favorable opinion of him, but eventually concluded that Jefferson was dishonest and after that, refused to speak to him for the rest of his life (6-7 years). Even with the financial advantages of slave-labor, Jefferson's plantation Monticello slowly withered and fell apart while he stared into his telescopes and wrote letters to his friends in Paris. (In stark contrast to Washington's plantation Mt. Vernon). Jefferson's contemporary analysis of the French Revolution -- he was in the country when it started and the 5 years leading up to it -- is embarrassingly contradictory and naïve, and has been graciously allowed to fade into obscurity.
But for all that, there is just no proof that Jefferson fathered children by his slaves. That story was invented by Jefferson's political enemies in the campaign of 1800, but was never substantiated. After the campaign ended, the story went away and didn't "come back" until Jefferson had been dead for a long time. About 20 years ago, genetic testing on the heirs of Sally Hemings proved that they were
related to Jefferson but did not prove that they were
descended from Jefferson. There were other men in Jefferson's family -- one in particular, but I forget his name -- that were known to spend a lot of time with female slaves. It is remarkable how so many people seemingly
Want that story to be true, and take offense when confronted with the evidence that it is probably not true.
