Jefferson–Hemings controversy
The Jefferson–Hemings controversy is a historical debate over whether there was a sexual relationship between the widowed U.S. President Thomas Jefferson and his slave and sister-in-law, Sally Hemings, and whether he fathered some or all of her six recorded children. For more than 150 years, most historians denied rumors that he had a slave concubine, Sally Hemings. Based on his grandson's report, they said that one of his nephews had been the father of Hemings's children. In the 21st century, most historians agree that Jefferson is the father of one or more of Sally's children.
19 December 1845 article in The Liberator reporting on the lack of rights for Eston or Madison in Ohio
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Colonel John Wayles Jefferson, son of Eston Hemings and widely believed to be the grandson of Thomas Jefferson
Thomas Jefferson was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was the primary author of the Declaration of Independence. Following the American Revolutionary War and prior to becoming president in 1801, Jefferson was the nation's first U.S. secretary of state under George Washington and then the nation's second vice president under John Adams.
1800 portrait
The Wren Building at the College of William & Mary, where Jefferson studied
House of Burgesses in Williamsburg, Virginia, where Jefferson served from 1769 to 1775
Monticello, Jefferson's home near Charlottesville, Virginia