A few years ago in a meeting on high-school standards for English-language arts, a debate broke out over the propriety of a recommended reading list. I and one other person pushed for a set list of titles, my preference going so far as to accept nothing less than 50 years old. Everybody else objected, some of them bitterly. At one point, when the historical importance of foundational U.S. documents came up, one man talked about including them in his class, but punctuated his description with this:
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A few years ago in a meeting on high-school standards for English-language arts, a debate broke out over the propriety of a recommended reading list. I and one other person pushed for a set list of titles, my preference going so far as to accept nothing less than 50 years old. Everybody else objected, some of them bitterly. At one point, when the historical importance of foundational U.S. documents came up, one man talked about including them in his class, but punctuated his description with this:
“I teach Jefferson’s Notes on the State of Virginia to my high school students and as we go through it I show them the obvious conclusion that Jefferson WAS A RACIST!”
He paused to let the dramatic impact set in, as if I and the other traditionalist in the room would be scandalized by that judgment. After a moment, I replied, “Lots of people teach the Notes and cover its racial elements.” I could have added that a better learning outcome than “Jefferson was a racist” is that a man growing up in a racial caste society, surrounded by the prejudices of 18th-century gentry life in the South, composed a document that has been an inspiration for democratic revolutionaries and civil rights advocates for more than 200 years.
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But something else was in play besides teaching practice. Jefferson bothered him--deeply. He wanted to bring the man down, to peg him with one devastating two-syllable word. Any evidence summoned in response might temper the racial meaning of the Notes, but it wouldn’t blunt the animus against the author one bit.
What is it about the Founder that sparks such annoyance? We saw it before in the eagerness with which many interpreted the famous DNA tests as having proven that Jefferson fathered Sally Hemings’s youngest child. The problem is that they didn’t prove what those critics wanted them to prove. Yesterday in The Wall Street Journal, Robert Turner, University of Virginia professor and editor of “The Jefferson-Hemings Controversy,” outlines the case and summarizes the actual results.
“In reality, the 1998 DNA tests alleged to prove this did not involve genetic material from Thomas Jefferson. All they established was that one of more than two dozen Jefferson males probably fathered Sally Hemings’s youngest son, Eston. And there is good reason to believe that at least seven Jefferson men (including the president) were at Monticello when Eston was conceived in the summer of 1807.”
Turner’s best guess is:
“A more plausible candidate is Thomas Jefferson’s young brother, known as Monticello as ‘Uncle Randolph.’ An 1847 oral history titled ‘Memoirs of a Monticello Slave’ noted that when Randolph visited Monticello, he would ‘come out among black people, play the fiddle, and dance half the night.’ Surviving letters establish that Randolph was invited to visit Monticello less than two weeks before the start of Eston’s likely conception window. Randolph had five sons in their teens and 20s who also carried Jefferson DNA.”
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Nothing decisive, of course. The mystery remains and will continue in the absence of further evidence. There is enough of it to give interested parties on both sides support for their wished-for conclusions, but not quite enough for final proof. It’s a difficult situation for those who want Jefferson to be guilty or innocent.