by Vicki Hambleton

In 1997, Annette Gordon-Reed, a law professor, wrote the book Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy. In it she examined every piece of information she could find about Thomas Jefferson and his slave, Sally Hemings. Her topic was a question that historians have pondered for almost 200 years: whether or not Jefferson and Hemings had a relationship that lasted almost 40 years and produced six children.

To write the book, Professor Gordon-Reed used her training as a lawyer. She carefully analyzed the evidence and came to the conclusion that it was probable, even highly likely, that Sally Hemings was Jefferson's mistress.

For Gordon-Reed, the book was the result of a lifelong interest in Thomas Jefferson. "I have been fascinated with the third president of the United States since I was a little girl and was introduced to him in third-grade American history class. Over the years," she says, "I read whatever books I could find about Jefferson and Monticello."

When she was 12, she discovered a book that belonged to her parents called White Over Black. It was about blacks in the South in the 1800s and included a chapter on Thomas Jefferson and his relationship with Sally Hemings. Gordon-Reed had never heard the story before, and it fascinated her.

A few years later, a historian named Fawn Brodie published the book Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate History. Brodie was the first historian to write about Jefferson and Hemings from the point of view that the story about their relationship was true. Brodie based her theory on the memoirs of Sally's son, Madison Hemings, and those of Israel Jefferson, another slave who had lived at Monticello. (Israel Jefferson was not related to Thomas Jefferson.) Gordon-Reed was so excited when she heard about the book that she pretended she was an adult and joined a book club by mail to order a copy. "The book amazed me. I had grown up in the South," she said, "and the idea that a white person [Brodie] would take the word of a black person about a topic as important as Jefferson, well, I thought it was a very courageous thing to do."

Gordon-Reed continued to read whatever she could about Jefferson. She was especially interested in how historians looked at the story of Jefferson and Hemings. What disturbed her was the way Sally Hemings' story and, in particular, Madison Hemings' memoirs were either overlooked or completely discounted in many of the histories and biographies she read.

By this time, Gordon-Reed was a law professor, teaching a class on persuasion - about how to convince people that statements are true or not. She decided to use the issue of Hemings and Jefferson. For her, this issue was the perfect example with which to teach students about critical thinking. The case, she believed, would allow students to understand the differences between evidence and facts and opinion.

Gordon-Reed also decided to write a book about her findings. When the book was published, well-known historians who had spent much of their lives studying Jefferson, but who had never believed that he was involved with his slave, changed their minds. They admitted that, based on the evidence Gordon-Reed presented in her book, it was possible that Jefferson was the father of Sally Hemings' children. A year after the book was published, a scientist named Eugene Foster used DNA testing to prove that Sally's youngest son, Eston Hemings, was likely Jefferson's son. There is no way to completely prove this fact. However, scientific evidence and evidence in Gordon-Reed's book both support a possible link between Jefferson and Sally's descendants.

Gordon-Reed says her life has been forever changed because of her book. "This story," she says, "has totally taken over my life. It's amazing to me that something that I have been interested in since I was a kid should come to this, but it is wonderful."

Gordon-Reed hopes that her book "will encourage people to look at their own family histories and, on a larger scale, to start to talk about a dark chapter in our history - slavery."

by Ervin L. Jordan, Jr.

For nearly 200 years, Virginia slave Sally Hemings has been the subject of a historical debate about whether she and her owner, Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence and the third president of the United States, had a long-term relationship that resulted in several children. In this 288-page book, New York law professor Annette Gordon-Reed, who writes well and has much to say, carefully explores the myths and facts of their relationship. She includes helpful sections such as a genealogical table showing the lines of descendants, a "Summary of Evidence," and a "Key to Important Names." According to Gordon-Reed, a Jefferson-Hemings relationship did exist. Her book is the best overall study of this issue: It objectively considers the evidence. It also is a reminder that human beings often engage in complex public and private relationships for a variety of reasons.

Jefferson's defenders have suggested that his brother, Randolph, and Randolph's two sons (Jefferson's nephews) fathered Sally Hemings' children. They deny the relationship because she was a black female slave and insist it would have been out of his character to have such a relationship with a black person. Several scholars (black and white) have just as persuasively argued that the facts support its existence. Testimony by some white people, various slaves, and Sally's son Madison Hemings also points toward the truth. Jefferson (and many slave owners) considered blacks their inferiors. Yet, at the same time, there were many instances of relationships between white males and black females during slavery times.

The author describes Sally as "a slave woman, whom historians have spent generations either ignoring or explaining away . . . [yet] most likely would have known the real Thomas Jefferson better than anyone." After the publication of this book, results of DNA testing of Jefferson and Hemings descendants of both races conducted at three well-respected European universities were announced in the science journal Nature in 1998. They suggested that Jefferson fathered Eston Hemings, Sally's youngest son. This debate will continue as black and white Americans continue to try to make sense of their common legacy of racism and history.