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DNA evidence presented in 1998 linking Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings set
off a new wave of scholarly and popular reappraisals of Thomas Jefferson. But
even before the reports of Dr. Foster's DNA findings, America seemed in the
midst of a Jefferson resurgence Who was Thomas Jefferson?
An American sphinx? A slaveholding hypocrite? Every generation of Americans
since the Revolution has looked to understand Jefferson in order to understand
itself.
In this section, FRONTLINE presents some of the latest reappraisals of
Jefferson; samples some "pre-DNA" views of Jefferson; and collects extensive
primary resources on Jefferson for new explorations.
Jefferson Revealed? · Jeffersonian Legacies · Jefferson's Life and Work
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For Joseph J. Ellis, the eminent Jefferson biographer who was one of the many
historians who considered the Jefferson-Hemings relationship unlikely, the DNA
findings "deepen and darken the portrait of Jefferson" taking shape among
scholars in recent decades, but does not fundamentally alter it. Jefferson's
paradoxical views on slavery now "begin to take on the look and smell of
unmitigated hypocrisy;" and his dogmatic writings about the evils of
race-mixing now "has a horribly hollow sound to it." In this most considered
of his writings on the meaning of the DNA findings, Ellis refigures his view of
Jefferson as an "American Sphinx" to fully comprehend the Jefferson we now know
as the father of Sally Hemings's children.
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Taking the historian's appropriately long perspective on today's headline
stories, Jack Rakove, the Pulitzer Prize-winning early Americanist, asks what
DNA confirmation of the Jefferson-Hemings relationship really adds "to the
basic problem that has confronted us all along" which is to reconcile
Jefferson, the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, with
Jefferson as slaveholder. Rakove also challenges modern writers to examine
what they mean when they accuse Jefferson of hypocrisy: Rakove argues:
Treating Jefferson not as a hypocrite or slacker but as someone grappling with
questions he could solve neither intellectually or morally may help us to think
anew about Jefferson's writings on race, restoring some of the complexity he
faced in his own time, and we face in our own.
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"Of all the Revolutionary founders, Thomas Jefferson has figured the most
prominently in blacks' attempts to constitute themselves as Americans," law
professor Annette Gordon-Reed writes. To analyze Jefferson's private life and
public work, Gordon-Reed argues in this essay, is to attempt to answer "the
central dilemma at the heart of American democracy": the desire to create a
society based on liberty and equality runs counter to the desire to maintain
white supremacy." Blacks believed the story about Jefferson and Hemings long
before DNA forced historians to accept it, Gordon-Reed notes, and they are
less likely to understand the story in the way it's often presented: as a
taint or flaw in an otherwise great man.
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Soon after Dr. Foster's DNA findings were published, Professors Jan Lewis and
Peter Onuf quickly organized a conference at the University of Virginia to
allow "historians to reflect upon and begin attempting to explain the
significance of the liaison between Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings." The
organizers described it as a forum for a number of academics who had assumed
the truth of the relationship before the DNA but had "not bothered to publish
their thoughts." At this site you can watch the two hour panel discussion on
the Jefferson and Hemings relationship. The panel includes: Dan Jordan,
President, Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation; Andrew Burstein, author of
The Inner Jefferson: Portrait of a Grieving Optimist; Annette
Gordon-Reed, author of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American
Controversy; Fraser Neiman, Monticello Archaeology Director; and Monticello
historians Cinder Stanton and Dianne Swann-Wright.
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"Jefferson scarcely seems to exist as a real historical person," writes Gordon
Wood, one of the nation's most esteemed scholars of Revolutionary America.
"Almost from the beginning he has been a symbol, a touchstone, of what we as a
people are--someone invented, manipulated, turned into something we Americans
like or dislike, fear or yearn for, within ourselves." In the 1960's, Merrill
Peterson wrote extensively on this symbolic "Jefferson Image in the American
Mind"-- here, Woods updates the story through the scholarly revisions of
Jefferson in the 1960's, 70's and 80's. "So it has gone for much of our
history," he concludes. "Jefferson standing for America and carrying the moral
character of our country on his back."
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In 1996, on the 250th anniversary of Thomas Jefferson's birth, Jefferson
scholar Douglas Wilson considers Jefferson's legacy and examines the problem of
judging Jefferson and his contributions from a modern-day perspective,
asserting that "presentism"-- the inappropriate application of modern standards
to historical figures or events--does not take into account the historical
context of Jefferson's era. He defends Jefferson against contemporary
criticisms stemming from his alleged relationship with Sally Hemings, as well
as Jefferson's stance on slavery and race.
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In this 1996 Atlantic Monthly article, Conor Cruise O'Brien compares
Jefferson's radical stance on liberty to the idealism of the modern American
militias, specifically the men behind the Oklahoma City bombings. He argues
that Jeffersonian liberalism has no place in a modern multiracial society,
stating that Jefferson was a racist who wanted all free blacks deported back to
Africa. O'Brien courts controversy throughout, especially with his claim that
Klu Klux Klan is "ideologically descended" from Thomas Jefferson.
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Historically, there have been all sorts of reasons for mixed race Americans to
"pass" for white: economic advancement, love or marriage, to avoid
discrimination. In some cases, passing was a full-time job; others passed only
during the regular work day--many suffered a great personal toll from constant
deception and secrecy. How widespread was passing in the United States? In
this fascinating excerpt, Harvard professor Werner Sollors sorts through the
last hundred years of attempts at answering this question.
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Collected at the Jefferson library at the University of Virginia are
Jefferson's papers and letters, including over 2,700 quotations and excerpts
from his writings. There are also some fascinating related links such as
'The Jefferson Bible,' Jefferson's attempt to extract an authentic Jesus from
the Gospel accounts. Scroll down the homepage for online exhibits relating to
Jefferson and a virtual tour of the University of Virginia rotunda he
designed.
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The Monticello website is maintained by the Thomas Jefferson Memorial
Foundation, a private non-profit organization which owns and operates
Monticello. The Monticello homepage offers extensive information on Jefferson,
including a "day in the life of" tour and resources such as reports, listings,
links and bibliographies. It also displays the Research Committee's online
report on Jefferson and Hemings. For those who have an interest in the house
and grounds of Monticello, there is ample information about the architecture
and decoration of the house (including floor plans and a virtual tour of the
living room and dining room), information about the plantation and the people
who worked it, and special sections on Jefferson's gardens. The site also
includes biographies and photos of Jefferson-Hemings grandchildren.
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This very detailed timeline of Thomas Jefferson's life is a part of the Thomas
Jefferson Papers, a collection of the Manuscript Division of the Library of
Congress. The timeline is organized in terms of three broad categories: The
Colonial Period, The American Revolution, and The Early Republic. You will
also find some related documents, such as Jefferson's letter to James Madison
in 1814, the last letter that Jefferson wrote, and his original rough draft of
the Declaration of Independence.
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There are many C-Span video clips here on Jefferson, such as interviews with
biographers, clips of his "forest retreat," and a film of Jefferson
impersonator Bill Baker. In addition, you can read or listen to a letter
Jefferson wrote one year before his death offering his practical observations
on life, or you can read the transcript of his first inaugural address in
1801.
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