THE MCLAUGHLIN GROUP
TAPED FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20, 1998
mclaughlin.com
How sad to see this Thanksgiving the besmirchment of Thomas Jefferson. Three weeks ago, a small group of British and American researchers claimed that they had uncovered DNA evidence proving that Thomas Jefferson fathered a child with his slave. As soon as the press got the word, they spread the explosive news worldwide, without taking the trouble to judge whether the scholarship was faulty or not.
In point of fact, the Jefferson research has crippling defects. One, no DNA was used from Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson has no male line. Field Jefferson's living male descendant supplied the DNA sample. Who is Field Jefferson? Thomas Jefferson's uncle, his father's brother. Thomas Jefferson himself, as noted, had no male heirs, therefore supplied no DNA. The DNA from Field Jefferson's descendant was compared with the DNA from descendants of slave Sally Hemings' son, Eston, and it matched.
Number two: At best, the DNA match means only that a Jefferson fathered Hemings' child. But here are the Jefferson males who could have impregnated Sally Hemings: Field Jefferson had four sons, Thomas, Peter Field, George and John, all of whom were Thomas Jefferson's contemporaries. Those four then had their own sons, 11 in all: Field, John, Samuel, Alexander, Archer, Thomas, George, John Garland (sp), Peter, Thomas Broom (sp), and John Picnod (sp), all of whom were Sally Hemings' contemporaries, and were at Monticello regularly, especially when Thomas Jefferson was there.
Okay, moving on. Besides Thomas Jefferson's uncle, Field Jefferson, and his male line, Thomas Jefferson's younger brother, Randolph, also figures in the picture. Randolph or one of Randolph's six sons could have fathered Eston. Randolph and his sons, Isham (sp), Thomas, Field, Robert, James and John, all Sally Hemings' exact contemporaries, lived at Snowden (sp) Plantation, fewer than 20 miles down the road from Monticello and visited Monticello all the time.
Three: Illegitimacy. Any intruder anywhere in the line of descent could invalidate the findings, showing a DNA match with no Thomas Jefferson paternity.
One distinguished Jefferson biographer has spoken out against the study's reckless conclusion:
WILLARD STERN RANDALL (JEFFERSON BIOGRAPHER): (From videotape.) And as long as there are other possibilities of people who had access to Sally Hemings, the case would be thrown out of court -- |
