THE
MONTICELLO
ASSOCIATION

Sally Hemings

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.

[Note - Because of the wide diversity of opinion on this issue and to better inform all our web site visitors, we have included information reflecting that diversity of opinion. Such opinions represent the views of their respective authors and not the Monticello Association.]

Items of Interest

Overview

The Hemings-Jefferson Controversy: A Brief Account
(Link to the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation website)

The DNA Testing

   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, 1999

     DNA Doesn't Link Jefferson, Woodson

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)

Jefferson's DNA and Sally Hemings
(Eyler Robert Coates, Sr.)

The Jefferson-Hemings Circumstantial Evidence
(Eyler Robert Coates, Sr.)

2002 Annual Meeting

Meeting Minutes

2001 Annual Meeting

Meeting Minutes

Final Report - Membership Advisory Committee

Election Procedures Committee - Report

2000 Annual Meeting

Interim Report - Membership Advisory Committee

Meeting Minutes

1999 Annual Meeting

Comments from James Truscott following the 1999 Annual Meeting.

Meeting Minutes

Legal Information

Virginia Code
Meaning of child and related terms
Evidence of paternity
How parent and child relationship established
Admission of genetic tests
Evidence relating to parentage

Black'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 Study

Report 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).

Minority Report

Response to the Minority Report

Announcement from James Truscott - 27 January 2000

Responses to Foundation Study

Research Report on the Jefferson-Hemings Controversy, A Critical Analysis, by Eyler Robert Coates, Sr.

Thomas Jefferson Heritage Society Scholar's Commission  Report

Complete Report

National Genealogical Society

National Genealogical Society Quarterly, v.89 #3

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.

Other Resources:

Thomas Woodson Family Website

The Thomas Jefferson Heritage Society

 

Guide