A centuries-old lock of hair has now done what rumors, records, and earlier DNA tests couldn't: firmly tie Thomas Jefferson to the children of Sally Hemings. Writing for Smithsonian, Richard Kurin details a 15-year effort that began with hairs found in Jefferson's custom-made "Jefferson Bible" and expanded to multiple historic hair samples and a cutting-edge ancient-DNA lab at UC Santa Cruz. After early false starts, scientists finally sequenced more than half of Jefferson's genome from hair clipped on the day he died in 1826.
Armed with that genetic profile, researchers compared Jefferson's DNA to that of fifth-generation descendants of Hemings' sons Madison and Eston, as well as to descendants of Jefferson's daughters with his wife, Martha. The numbers were striking: Eston descendant John Weeks Jefferson shared 4.2% of his DNA with Jefferson. Madison descendants Clara Lee-Nutt and relatives shared up to 5%—more than any descendants through Martha.
Kurin writes that the evidence now shows with "great certainty" that Jefferson fathered Hemings' children. "Thomas Jefferson wrote the most famous phrase in American history—'All men are created equal'—and yet, if he bore children with Sally Hemings who were born into slavery, it seemed like a paradox and a contradiction," he tells NPR. For the full scientific trail, as well as the descendants' reactions, more here. The New Yorker also does a deep dive into the "lost descendants" of Jefferson.
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