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The man known to history as Thomas Jefferson was born on the 13th of April 1743 at his 0:09 father’s estate of Shadwell in Albemarle County in the Commonwealth of Virginia. 0:16 His father Peter Jefferson was a surveyor and planter who owned several plantations 0:21 in Virginia, including the tobacco plantation of Shadwell which he founded in the 1730s, 0:27 worked by slaves and free labourers. At the time Virginia was one of the thirteen British colonies in North America, but in 0:35 just over three decades it would become one of the leading states behind the creation 0:40...

Both served in the Continental Congress. Both signed the Declaration of Independence. Both served as U.S. Ministers in France. Both were U.S. Presidents, one elected the 2nd President and the other the 3rd. Download as PDF ... Once political enemies, they became close friends in later life. An awe swept America when they both died on the same day, JULY 4, 1826, exactly 50 years since they approved the Declaration of Independence. Their names were John Adams and Thomas Jefferson. Thomas Jefferson's handwritten Declaration of Independence used the wording "inalienable rights" as seen in the copies at the American Philosophical...

Thomas Jefferson wrote that “all men are created equal,” and yet enslaved more than six-hundred people over the course of his life. Although he made some legislative attempts against slavery and at times bemoaned its existence, he also profited directly from the institution of slavery and wrote that he suspected black people to be inferior to white people in his Notes on the State of Virginia. Throughout his entire life, Thomas Jefferson was publicly a consistent opponent of slavery. Calling it a “moral depravity”1 and a “hideous blot,”2 he believed that slavery presented the greatest threat to the survival of...

Archaeologists have discovered an area in Thomas Jefferson's plantation home that was once the living quarters of Sally Hemings - a slave with whom he is believed to have had six children. Her room, which was built in 1809 and was 14 feet, 8 inches wide and 13 feet long, was next to Thomas Jefferson's room. However, the bedroom went unnoticed for decades and the area was even made into a men's bathroom in 1941. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4662350/Archaeologists-Sally-Hemings-room-Monticello.html#ixzz4lozvk7ZB Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

...In late 1998, the prestigious scientific journal Nature announced that it had conducted DNA testings which proved that Thomas Jefferson had fathered a child with Sally Hemings. According to Nature:Almost two hundred years ago, Thomas Jefferson was alleged to have fathered children by his slave Sally Hemings. The charges have remained controversial. Now, DNA analysis confirms that Jefferson was indeed the father of at least one of Hemings’ children.1 (snip) These authors, however, deliberately ignored the non-paternity results of the DNA testing. In fact, the original Nature article had reported that Thomas Woodson–the child that oral traditions claim was born...

What kind of criticism would prompt a major publisher to withdraw from circulation a New York Times bestseller by a recognized scholar? One would think the objections would have to be weighty and the critics unquestioned experts in the particular field. In the case of "The Jefferson Lies", one would be mistaken to make those assumptions. In 2012, David Barton's popular analysis of Thomas Jefferson was pulled by the book's publisher, Thomas Nelson, based on what appears to have been an academic putsch designed to protect the now popular view of the third president as a secular deist and hypocritical...

GETTYSBURG, Pa. — “Lincoln hated Thomas Jefferson.” That is not exactly what we expect to hear about the president who spoke of “malice toward none,” referring to the president who wrote that “all men are created equal.” Presidents have never been immune from criticism by other presidents. But Jefferson and Lincoln? These two stare down at us from Mount Rushmore as heroic, stainless and serene, and any suggestion of disharmony seems somehow a criticism of America itself. Still, Lincoln seems not to have gotten that message. “Mr. Lincoln hated Thomas Jefferson as a man,” wrote William Henry Herndon, Lincoln’s law...

Jefferson, a member of the gentry of Old Virginia, was always regarded as one of the best and brightest of his generation, a gentleman of the finest intellect, taste, and manners. Although Jefferson loved and was loyal to the Union, he was a Virginian first and an American second; Virginia, Jefferson avowed, was his “country.” This order of allegiance – State over Union, or “Society” over “the State” – was firmly rooted in the Old South. Accordingly, in the emerging conflict between the North and the South, Jefferson sided with his own country. “It is true that we are completely...

Yesterday, Religion Dispatches contributor Max Mueller published a piece at Slate detailing posthumous marriage rites performed in LDS temples that have wed Mormon and non-Mormon slaveholders to their former slave concubines—including Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemmings. The article sheds light on another form of posthumous religious rites performed in LDS temples. In addition to posthumous baptisms, LDS Church members routinely perform proxy temple marriages or “sealings” for their ancestors and other deceased couples. Church doctrine teaches that marriages performed within LDS temples “seal” husband and wife together not only for mortality but for eternity. Mormonism uniquely emphasizes eternal marriage as...

Pre-Order your copy today! Release Date: April 10, 2012 (See special pricing below) The Jefferson Lies Book - Thomas Jefferson stands falsely accused of several crimes, among them infidelity and disbelief. David Barton now sets the record straight. Having borne the brunt of a smear campaign that started more than two centuries ago, the reputation and character of American president Thomas Jefferson show considerable tarnish, as lies and misunderstandings have gathered on his legacy. Discover the truth about Thomas Jefferson! Find answers to these common questions: Jefferson and Sally: Did he really have children by his slave, Sally Hemings? Jefferson...

I recently did a radio interview with BJ Janice Peak-Graham about my book, Black Feminist Politics from Kennedy to Clinton. She said that as she was reading the book, she was struck with the realization that I was, in fact, writing about her life. She had been a Clinton appointee, and it had never occurred to her that her experience was part of the political history of that time period. Watching the coverage of the Obama family in the White House, one can’t help but feel a certain media giddiness to be able to report on all these new “firsts.”...

[CAPITALISMMAGAZINE.COM] In April 2001, a "blue ribbon" commission of highly accomplished and nationally recognized scholars reported its findings after a year-long investigation of the evidence for a sexual relationship between Thomas Jefferson and his house slave, Sally Hemings. The thirteen-member Scholars Commission agreed unanimously that the allegation of such a relationship is "by no means proven" and regretted that "public confusion about the 1998 DNA testing and other evidence has misled many people into believing that the issue is closed." With the exception of one of the thirteen commission members, the scholars' "individual conclusions range from serious skepticism about the ...

Nation: Thomas Jefferson's kin to vote on inclusion of slave family ROANOKE, Va. (May 4, 2002 4:53 p.m. EDT) - Ever since a DNA test showed a male in Thomas Jefferson's family - possibly the third president himself - fathered slave Sally Hemings' son Eston, the family has squabbled over how to treat their newfound cousins. For four years, it's been a family feud like no other. Descendants have hired their own public relations consultants, sponsored independent research and placed gag orders on members of their exclusive Monticello Association. This weekend, the group will finally decide whether to offer Hemings'...

When they were young, their parents told them they were related to a famous man, a slave owner who became president. They called it a family secret, since outsiders would never believe that black children could be descendants of a president. But some did talk about that distant ancestor, Thomas Jefferson, and were laughed at or called liars by friends and even teachers. No one is calling them liars anymore. Nearly five years after DNA testing provided compelling — some argue overwhelming — evidence that Jefferson fathered at least one child with a young slave named Sally Hemings, about 150...

The Jefferson DNA Case: Propaganda and Myth "Their amalgamation with the other color produces a degradation to which no lover of his country, no lover of excellence in the human character can innocently consent." – Thomas Jefferson (letter to Edward Coles, Aug. 1814). DNA Evidence of a family connection between the Jefferson line and a descendent of the slave Sally Hemings will play "a pivotal role in dispelling the myth of separation between blacks and whites." -- U.S. News & World Report (9 Nov. 1998) New Republican Archive. James F. Burke Several years ago, at the height of the Clintonista...

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...

Three descendants of Venus' son, who was called West Ford, say that according to a family tradition two centuries old, George Washington was West Ford's father. They hope to develop DNA evidence from Washington family descendants and his hair samples to bolster their case... There is, however, reason to believe that if the child's father was not Washington, it might have been someone closely related to him. The cousins' claim has several elements of truth, enough to set up a historical mystery as to the identity of West Ford's father and to add a new strand to the emerging links...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that a filly can't be named "Sally Hemings" after Thomas Jefferson's most famous slave and reputed lover. The 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati ruled that the Jockey Club can legally bar horse owner Garrett Redmond from naming his 4-year-old horse after Hemings. Judge Alice Batchelder, writing for the three-judge panel, said Redmond has other options that may be approved by the Jockey Club, which forbids horse owners from using names of famous or notorious people without special permission. The club's rules also say that "names considered in poor taste;...

President Bush has always been drawn to stories of Latino immigrants who came up by their bootstraps, and he has one inspiring example close to home, report Senior White House Correspondent Richard Wolffe, White House Correspondent Holly Bailey and Assistant Managing Editor Evan Thomas in Newsweek's May 29 issue (on newsstands Monday, May 22). Mexican-born citizen Maria Galvan, 53, has worked for Bush, looked after his daughters, befriended his wife and won the affection of the first family for her loyalty, decency and hard work. As governor of Texas, Bush encouraged his housekeeper to become a U.S. citizen. Galvan got...

When history buff Garrett Redmond bought a filly out of the Colonial Affair mare Jefferson's Secret, he thought he had the perfect name: Sally Hemings. Hemings was a slave of President Thomas Jefferson and might have been his mistress. Although the exact nature of their connection is in dispute, Hemings and Jefferson are thought by some historians to have had a decades-long relationship and at least one child - and possibly more - together. "To name a horse after someone is an honor," said Redmond, owner of Ballycapple, a farm in Paris. "I have a horse here named after my...