“History is like a picture puzzle and half of the pieces or more are missing. There is something about Jefferson that makes us want to expose contradiction.”
Our show this week revolves around a question from listener Gino Cukale about the purported relationship between Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson. We discuss the historical record and look to first-hand accounts in an attempt to answer this question.
Further Reading
- Lewis & Clark Trail Heritage Foundation: We Proceeded On
- #795 Affair of Honor: When asked about Sally Hemings, President Thomas Jefferson declines discussion and walks off the show.
- Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate History by Fawn Brodie
- Thomas Jefferson's Monticello, Daniel P. Jordan, President, TJF: TJF Response to the Minority Report
- The Jefferson-Hemings Controversy: Report of the Scholars Commission by Robert F. Turner
- Enyclopedia Virginia: "Life Among the Lowly, No. 3" by Israel Jefferson (December 25, 1873)
What Would Jefferson Do?
“Whenever this occurs, it’s a good sign.”
Tune in to your local public radio or join the 1776 Club to hear this episode of What Would Thomas Jefferson Do?
Do you believe in the idea of the soul mate, that there is someone out there somewhere who represents a perfect fit for your own cluster of values, principles, habits, perspectives, and desires? That idea goes all the way back to Plato’s Symposium, written around 380 BCE.
What if he had never left the United States? How would things have been different? Jefferson had turned down two previous high-level government invitations to take up a diplomatic post in Paris. He finally made the journey in July 1784 because his wife Martha was dead, because he was still reeling from his frustrating and unsuccessful tenure as the wartime Governor of Virginia, and of course he wanted to see the Old World, especially France.
Joining our conversation this week is the award-winning author Joseph Ellis. We discuss his book First Family: Abigail and John Adams in part one of two shows as our first entry for the Thomas Jefferson Hour Book Club series.
I get so tired of the Sally Hemings story. At almost every public presentation I give in the costume and character of Thomas Jefferson, someone sashays up to the microphone in the aisle and says, “Tell us about Sally Henning” or some other slight botching of her name.