The Thomas Jefferson Foundation, stewards of Jefferson's Monticello plantation near Charlottesville, VA, states unambiguously on its website, Monticello.org: "Years after his wife's death, Thomas Jefferson fathered at least six of Sally Hemings's children." Explore primary sources and scholarship about Sally Hemings, Thomas Jefferson, and their descendants through these Monticello.org links:
In November 1998, Nature published the results of an analysis of DNA from male-line descendants in the Jefferson and Hemings families. After reviewing the molecular evidence, the report's authors concluded that Thomas Jefferson likely was the father of Eston Hemings Jefferson, the sixth and last child of Sally Hemings.
In a column published in the same issue, historian Joseph J. Ellis (writing with geneticist Eric Lander) acknowledged that the DNA testing "offer[ed] strong evidence that Jefferson fathered at least one of Hemings' children." Ellis's National Book Award-winning bestseller American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson, published just two years earlier, included a five-page appendix in which the author expressed his doubt that Jefferson had fathered any of Hemings's children.
Find books about Sally Hemings, her family, and their relationship to Thomas Jefferson in the Library Catalog with the following Library of Congress subject headings:
