DNA study confirms Thomas Jefferson fathered two children with Sally Hemings
Scientists at the Smithsonian have used DNA from Jefferson’s hair to verify that he fathered Madison and Eston Hemings, confirming a long-standing family claim.
After a decade-and-a-half of work, a team from the Smithsonian Institution announced that DNA extracted from Thomas Jefferson’s hair matches the Y-chromosome of male descendants of Sally Hemings’s sons Madison and Eston. The study, involving geneticists, genealogists, historians and anthropologists, was detailed in the forthcoming book "History by a Hair" and unveiled by project director Richard Kurin. Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence and third U.S. president, owned roughly 600 enslaved individuals while publicly condemning the slave trade.
Sally Hemings, a woman enslaved by Jefferson’s wife Martha, traveled to Paris with Jefferson’s daughter in 1787, where a relationship reportedly began. Earlier DNA work in the 1990s suggested a link, and the new analysis solidifies the claim that Jefferson fathered at least two of Hemings’s children. Jefferson’s sixth-generation descendant David Miller welcomed the results, calling for recognition and acceptance of the family’s history.
Why it matters
The genetic proof settles a major debate about a founding father’s personal life and its ties to America’s slave history.
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