Genetic Basis on Whether Thomas Jefferson Fathered Children With His Slave

¶ … genetic basis for the accusation that Thomas Jefferson fathered a child with one of is slaves. The writer explores the DNA evidence that was examined and discusses the odds that it conclusively identifies Jefferson as the father. There were two sources used to complete this paper.

For many years rumors had circulated that Thomas Jefferson fathered a child with a certain slave. It was handed down through the folklore lines as fact and commonly accepted among many African-American groups. As technology became more advanced and mankind had the ability to test such stories it became evident that it was a wives tale. Thomas Jefferson did not father a child by the slave in question, however, it was discovered that he did indeed father a different child by the same slave. Historical folklore has always accepted that Jefferson was the father of Sally Heming's firstborn son. Evidence has proven however, that he did not but he did in fact father her last born son, Eston Hemings (Slave, 1998).

Before the study was conducted there were many variations to the story of who fathered Hemings children. Not only was Thomas Jefferson the suspected father, but his nephews, Samuel and Peter Carr have also been accused of fathering the slave's children. A recent and in depth study has proven conclusively that the nephews had nothing to do with the fathering of Heming's children, and Jefferson did not father the first child but DID father the last son the slave gave birth to. The study was conducted using a detailed analysis of variations on genetic DNA. The Y chromosome was specifically addressed in the effort to determine the parentage of Heming's children. The Y chromosome is inherited exclusively through the males in the family which allowed a direct link to be traced from the son to the father (Slave, 1998).

The claim that Thomas Jefferson fathered at least one child by his slave Sally Hemings got a big boost in credibility when scientists announced in Nature that they had found DNA sequences in the Y chromosome of the Jefferson family that matched DNA from the Hemings family. The finding set off a flood of news reports declaring that the third U.S. president had, as rumored, fathered an illegitimate child by Sally Hemings (Eliot, 1999). "

Naysayer of the theory point to the belief that several male relatives of Jefferson's could have been the father and the same trail of Y chromosome evidence would have appeared. Because none of the possible fathers are still alive it is impossible to conduct a current DNA sample study from them or the children in question.

Advocates point to the fact that Jefferson lived with his slave, Heming on a plantation in North Carolina, while detractors remind scientists that Jefferson would have been 65 at the time the conception occurred if he was the father. Another possibility according to some is that Jefferson's brother "Randolph, 12 years his junior, who lived 20 miles away. Other candidates, Barger suggests, are Randolph's sons, all of whom lived near Monticello, visited from time to time, and had the same Y chromosome as their father and uncle. Barger notes that one unsubstantiated account mentions that Randolph's son, Isham, spent his adolescence at Monticello, and that one contemporary recalled that Randolph liked to party in the slave quarters at night (Eliot, 1999)."