Op-Eds, Editorials & Articles

Should Thomas Jefferson Stay Cancelled?

Dr. Jean Yarbrough, Professor of Political Science at Bowdoin College and a member of The Scholars Commission on the Jefferson-Hemings Controversy, joins Douglas Murray on this episode to discuss Thomas Jefferson’s life and legacy. They talk about the Declaration of Independence, his presidency, and the various controversies that have surrounded him. Should Thomas Jefferson stay cancelled? Uncancelled History re-evaluates events, people, and ideas that have otherwise been cancelled from the past. Learn more at www.uncancelledhistory.com Douglas Murray is a British author and political commentator, who--along with his guests--looks at great figures of the past through their historical context.
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Thomas Jefferson Deserves Respect From All Americans

By Robert F Turner

In this article in the American Thinker on Thomas Jefferson’s 280th birthday, Professor Robert F Turner, who has studied Thomas Jefferson for more than half a century, argues that Thomas Jefferson may well have been America’s first abolitionist. Professor Turner describes Jefferson’s numerous efforts to denounce slavery in the Declaration of Independence and to forbid the importation of slaves into the United States and its newly acquired territories. In 2000-01, Professor Turner chaired the Scholars Commission on the Jefferson-Hemings Controversy, which included professors who had taught at Harvard, Yale, Oxford, Brown, UVA, and several other prestigious universities. After an intensive, year-long study, they concluded (with one mild dissent) that the charge that Thomas Jefferson fathered even one child by the enslaved Sally Hemings is likely false.
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Opinion/Commentary: Jefferson Fought Slavery Throughout His Life

Thomas Jefferson famously declared that “all men are created equal”, yet he owned hundreds of human beings during his lifetime. In this Opinion/Commentary, Robert Turner, chair of the Jefferson-Hemings Scholars Commission on the Jefferson-Hemings Controversy and student of Jefferson for more than 50 years, answers the question “does he deserve our respect?” by meticulously piecing together example after example of Jefferson’s efforts to abolish slavery. Read more…

A Tale of Three Presidential Houses: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly

Every year, millions of Americans visit historic sites to learn about the nation’s past. Visitors to George Washington’s Mount Vernon, Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, and James Madison’s Montpelier should gain a deep understanding of their remarkable achievements. Though Mount Vernon should be lauded for its balanced portrayal of history, today most of the exhibits at Monticello and Montpelier focus on slavery rather than the Founder’s political contributions. Their tour scripts and exhibits relegate the achievements of their owners to the background, and the legacies of the Founders are being distorted or erased. This is particularly disheartening because preserving historic sites and presidential homes carries with it the special obligation to represent their legacies fairly and in a spirit of gratitude. As Brenda Hafera so articulately and thoroughly explains in this report, any assessment of Americans’ understanding of our nation’s founding principles must necessarily take into account the quality of historical interpretation at these three leading historic homes of our Founders.
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Thomas Jefferson’s Famed Monticello Home is Accused of Haranguing Visitors with Constant References to Racism and Evils of Slave-Owning Former President’s Past

Thomas Jefferson's famous Monticello mansion has been accused of bombarding visitors with unending and over the top references to the Declaration of Independence author's history as a slave owner. The reactions come after a ten-year effort to overhaul the exhibits at his Virginia estate which now provide visitors with a deluge of exhibits and signs that criticize Jefferson, and even employees who go out of the way to besmirch him. In this article, Alex Oliveira describes examples how the new Monticello offers a contemporary politicization and view of history that is clearly warped through the lens of contemporary politics. Read more…

Charlottesville Cancels Jefferson's Birthday

The City of Charlottesville has long celebrated the birthday of Thomas Jefferson on 13 April of each year with a paid holiday for city employees. This recognition to Charlottesville's most famous citizen and founder of the University of Virginia located in the city became the victim of an unrealistic understanding of Jefferson's connection to slavery. Robert Turner, chair of the Jefferson-Hemings Scholars Commission on the Jefferson-Hemings Controversy, and editor of the book The Jefferson-Hemings Controversy: Report of the Scholars Commission, corrects the record. Read more…

Thomas Jefferson Day, 2006

A Proclamation by the President of the United States of America

National Geographic Society 2005

Herbert Barger, Jefferson Family Historian and Thomas Jefferson Heritage Society board member, has recently assisted the National Geographic Society with a vital Genographic Project. Spencer Wells, National Geographic geneticist, needed the Jefferson DNA for his project and Mr. Barger, who assisted Dr. Eugene Foster with the 1998 Jefferson-Hemings DNA Study, agreed to assist and provided Jefferson information for this important study. It is from Mr. Barger's data banks that Jefferson family genealogy and history is maintained.

The results were revealed to the public in the National Geographic film production, The Search for Adam, shown nationally on 26 June 2005. A Jefferson DNA donor is shown providing a mouth swab for the match. Using other similar swabs, Mr. Wells was able to determine that the Jefferson DNA matched to the Phoenicians, an ancient civilization living in what is now Syria and Lebanon. The Phoenicians were known as the Canaanites in the Bible.

Keeping Up With The Jeffersons 2002

Editorial, The Washington Times

Is there a willful determination by some to sully the memory of one of America 's founding fathers as a debauched adulterer who some claimed "visited" one of his slaves, Sally Hemings, on a regular basis and fathered at least one child by her?

Fact Trumps Fiction on Jefferson Story

By Robert F. Turner, The Boston Globe

The allegation that Thomas Jefferson fathered children by Sally Hemings was first published in 1802 in fulfillment of a blackmail threat by one of the most disreputable scandalmongers of the era, James Callender, who hated people of color and expected that the rumor would cost Jefferson his reelection.

The Truth About Jefferson

By Robert F. Turner, The Wall Street Journal

Were allegations about Thomas Jefferson's purported relationship with Sally Hemings just another bit of Clintonian--Monica Lewinsky spin?

Was Jefferson a Racist?

Slavery was pervasive throughout the colonies and firmly entrenched in the Virginia plantation system for more than 100 years. Although Thomas Jefferson wrote eloquently that the system must be abolished, it was not possible for him in his lifetime to bring about a general manumission, or to free his slaves. Because of his empirical observations on the nature of slaves, he has been charged by historians using present-day standards that he was a racist. In this essay, Was Jefferson a Racist?, M. Andrew Holowchak takes an impartial look at the charge.

For Want of an "A", Confusion Reigns: The Day NATURE Goofed

The journal Nature overstepped the evidence in its November 1998 issue when it headlined an article, "Jefferson Fathered Slave's Last Child". Edwin M. Knights, Jr. comments in his study of the DNA testing on the Jefferson and Hemings descendents, that "(U)nfortunately, the editor who wrote the heading either did not read the entire article or did not understand it." With permission of Dr. Knights, we provide here his small book, For Want of an "A", which examines the DNA evidence and the extent to which it contributes to the ongoing paternity debate ignited by the Nature article.

The Historical Pillorying of Thomas Jefferson

M. Andrew Holowchak, author of "Freud, From Individual Psychology to Group Psychology", has brought his psychological and analytical expertise to the paternity dispute. Prior to the DNA tests, historians generally concluded that the historical evidence was not sufficient to establish that Jefferson fathered children with Sally Hemings. After the DNA tests, historians generally recognized that Eston Hemings could have been fathered by any number of men with the Jefferson halotype. However, there was a sudden and general acceptance by many historians that these two insufficient factors in combination established paternity. Hollowchak examines this unique subversion of historical analysis in The Historical Pillorying of Thomas Jefferson.

A Trial Analysis on the Evidence of Paternity

Richard E. Dixon examines from a legal perspective the results of the DNA tests and any relevant historical evidence to establish whether Thomas Jefferson was the father of one or more of the children of Sally Hemings.

TURNER: JEFFERSON’S LEGACY IS WORTH DEFENDING

OPINION: HTTP://WWW.CAVALIERDAILY.COM/ARTICLE/2016/11/TURNER-JEFFERSONS-LEGACY-IS-WORTH-DEFENDING

UVA’S FOUNDER CONTRIBUTED TO THE CAUSE OF HUMAN FREEDOM

At the risk of offending 469 University faculty colleagues and students who protest University President Teresa Sullivan’s practice of quoting University founder Thomas Jefferson “in light of Jefferson’s owning of slaves and other racist beliefs,” I would submit another Jefferson quote:
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