Browse by Interest

Related Links
bullet Slavery at Monticello
bullet Getting Word Oral History Project
Home » The House, Gardens & Plantation » The Plantation » Monticello Research Committee Report on Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings

Report of the Research Committee
on Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings

Thomas Jefferson Foundation
January 2000

In addition to the resources listed below, the Foundation also has created a "Hemings-Jefferson Resource Page" with links to related content on the Monticello Web site and on other sites.


Statement on the Report by TJMF President Daniel P. Jordan

  1. Committee Charge and Overview
  2. Assessment of DNA Study
  3. Review of Documentary Sources
  4. Research Findings and Implications
  5. Assessment of Possible Paternity of Other Jeffersons
  6. Conclusions
  7. Minority Report
  8. Response to the Minority Report
  9. Reply to the "Response to the Minority Report"


.PDF version
of Report
(contains more information
than HTML version)


.PDF of Minority Report

Appendices

  1. Articles in the journal Nature (subscription required):
    Eugene A. Foster et al., "Jefferson Fathered Slave's Last Child," November 5, 1998 (available by creating a free account with the journal Nature; see above link)
    Eric S. Lander and Joseph J. Ellis, "Founding Father," November 5, 1998 (available by creating a free account with the journal Nature; see above link)
    Eugene A. Foster et al., letter to editor, January 7, 1999 (available by creating a free account with the journal Nature; see above link)
  2. Views of scientists consulted:
    Dr. Kenneth K. Kidd, Professor of Genetics, Yale University, January 1999
    Dr. Mark Lovell, Director of the Molecular Biology Laboratory, University of Virginia School of Medicine, January 1999
    Dr. David Page, Associate Director, Whitehead Institute, MIT Center for Genome Research, December 1998
    Dr. Bruce Stillman, Director, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, February 1999
  3. Hemings and Jefferson family trees (not presently available -- pertinent information is found in Appendix J and Appendix H, available in the .pdf version of the report)
  4. Foundation statement of November 1, 1998
  5. Relevant primary documents (not posted as a Web page -- the index and relevant extracts from Callender's writings are available in the .pdf version of the report)
  6. Review of primary documentary evidence (not posted as a Web page, but available in the .pdf version of the report)
  7. Summary of oral history
  8. Compilation of documentary information on Sally Hemings and her children
  9. Statistical study of the relationship between Thomas Jefferson's presence at Monticello and Sally Hemings's conceptions (article published in the William and Mary Quarterly, January 2000)
  10. Summary of research on the possible paternity of other Jeffersons
  11. Assessment of Thomas C. Woodson connection to Sally Hemings