Descendants of Jefferson, Slave Hemings Hold Reunion in Ohio

AP ^ | 7/17/05 | The Associated Press

[Jean S]

CHILLICOTHE, Ohio (AP) - In their first meeting away from Thomas Jefferson's estate in Virginia, about 65 people who believe they are descendants of the nation's third president and slave Sally Hemings gathered for a weekend reunion in southern Ohio.

"My son is only 4, so I want him to meet his black cousins," said Lucian Truscott of Los Angeles, a Jefferson descendant who has spoken at several previous reunions.

Two of Hemings' surviving four children, who claimed to be Jefferson's sons, settled in southern Ohio: Madison Hemings settled in Pike and Ross counties, while his brother, Eston Hemings, moved to Chillicothe in the 1830s and left for Wisconsin in 1852.

The gathering drew people from Ohio, California, New York, Virginia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Washington.

Hemings' descendants have been trying for years to gain official recognition that Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence, fathered at least some of Hemings' children.

Their argument was bolstered in 1998, when DNA tests found that a male in Jefferson's family fathered Hemings' last child, Eston.

Some Jefferson family members, however, dispute Hemings' family ties to the third president and have refused her descendants membership in the family's exclusive Monticello Association.

Oral historian Beverly Gray, who has spent 30 years researching slave families at Jefferson's Monticello estate at Charlottesville, Va., said the reunion was a milestone in advancing racial understanding.

"This reunion helps the various parts of the family stay together and engage in the healing needed to overcome the effects of slavery," she said.

AP-ES-07-17-05 2129EDT

This story can be found at: http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBZW7G1ABE.html

[sine_nomine]

You may be right. I have heard the kid was a Clinton look-alike, that everyone considered him Bubba's kid.

Clinton's worst immoral deeds were directed against our free republic: trying to destroy our military, selling secrets to China, selling pardons, selling access to the president, corrupting the office of the president beyond anyone's imagination.

[Shazolene]

I too disputed the Monticello docents, in the presence of a black family who WANTED to believe the worst of Jefferson.

The horror of slavery is that he could have screwed Sally if he wanted to. He OWNED her.

But we hope that his sense of honor stopped him.

After all, he was no BJ Clinton!

[Spirited]

Thanks for your reply. I'm glad to hear that there are a few of us.

If it had been proven it would be one thing but to convict a man on wishful thinking is heinous.

[wardaddy]

Sally was played by Thandie Newton in the movie a few years back.

I would not have blamed Nick Nolte not one bit.

[Donald Meaker]

Even if twas true, it is certain sure that her first child was no descendant of him. Later children we don't know if it was his or his brother.

I guess I am bugged because a black guy I met at a car wash claimed to be descended from Jefferson. I was sorry to inform him that there was no medical evidence that could distinguish between being a descendent of Thomas, or being a descendent of Randolph, who was widely known to frequent the slave cabins.

The odd thing is that the contemporary accusations occured before Sally Hemmings had any children, and after her first child was born (again, DNA analysis has shown that he was no descendant of any Jefferson) the charge was not renewed.

Boy, the feller was as angry as if I had called his mother a bad name.