Including gay history in textbooks will help fight bullying, California senator says

[Danno 1,228]

Alleged mixed-race children

See also: Jefferson DNA dataJefferson is alleged to have had a long-term, intimate relationship with one of his slaves, Sally Hemings. She was said to have been a half-sister to Jefferson's late wife, and to have been three fourths white. Sally Hemings had six children, four of whom survived to adulthood and were freed or allowed to escape by Jefferson. They were presumably seven-eighths white by ancestry.^[140]

During the administration of President Jefferson allegations were initiated by former employee James T. Callender after being denied an appointment that Jefferson had fathered several children with Hemings after his wife's death. Late 20th-century DNA testing indicated that a male in Jefferson's paternal line was the father of at least one of Sally Hemings's children but do not specifically identify Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson commented on the matter in a private letter in 1816:^[141]

I should have fancied myself half guilty had I condescended to put pen to paper in refutation of their falsehoods, or drawn to them respect by any notice from myself

.

According to a letter written by the 19th-century biographer Henry Randall, Jefferson's oldest grandson, Thomas Jefferson Randolph, recounted to him what others close to the family had already disclosed, that Sally Hemings had been the mistress of Jefferson's nephew Peter Carr, and that "their connection ...was perfectly notorious at Monticello." Randall also wrote that "there was not the shadow of suspicion that Mr. Jefferson in this or any other instance had commerce with female slaves."^[142] However, DNA testing has shown that Jefferson's Carr nephews did not father Sally Hemings' children.^{[143][144][145]}

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Jefferson

You claimed that Jefferson fathered kids with Hemings.... is this your source>?

Sarah "Sally" Hemings (Shadwell, Albemarle County, Virginia, circa 1773 – Charlottesville, Virginia, 1835) was a mixed race slave owned by the third President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson. She was said to be the half-sister of Jefferson's wife, Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson.[3] Journalists and others alleged during and after Jefferson's presidency that he may have fathered several children with Hemings after his wife's death, but few historians credited the allegation. However, new analysis of the historical data, bolstered by 1998 DNA testing that indicated that a male in Jefferson's line was the father of at least one of Sally Hemings's children, led to a re-ignition of the debate.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sally_Hemings

I guess for you, paternity is like Horseshoes..... close enough counts.

[Dan and Judy 614]

You claimed that Jefferson fathered kids with Hemings.... is this your source>?

Sarah "Sally" Hemings (Shadwell, Albemarle County, Virginia, circa 1773 – Charlottesville, Virginia, 1835) was a mixed race slave owned by the third President of the United States, Thomas Jefferson. She was said to be the half-sister of Jefferson's wife, Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson.[3] Journalists and others alleged during and after Jefferson's presidency that he may have fathered several children with Hemings after his wife's death, but few historians credited the allegation. However, new analysis of the historical data, bolstered by 1998 DNA testing that indicated that a male in Jefferson's line was the father of at least one of Sally Hemings's children, led to a re-ignition of the debate.

http://en.wikipedia....i/Sally_Hemings

I guess for you, paternity is like Horseshoes..... close enough counts.

The DNA evidence ruled him in as a possible father

There were two Jefferson males rumoured to be the father

The other Jefferson male rumoured to be the father was ruled out

The antecdotal evidence is strong

Alexander Boulton, a historian writing in the William and Mary Quarterly, asserted that the scholars, unable to undermine the evidence against Jefferson, resorted to a "Plan B" in which "Past defenses of Jefferson having proven inadequate, the TJHS advocates have pieced together an alternative case that preserves the conclusions of earlier champions but introduces new "evidence" to support them. Randolph Jefferson, for example, had never seriously been considered as a possible partner of Sally Hemings until the DNA evidence indicated that a Jefferson was unquestionably the father of Eston."^[51]

Skeptics noted that neither Jefferson's grandchildren nor anyone else in the 19th century had proposed Randolph Jefferson as the father of Hemings' children. The first person to link Randolph Jefferson to Sally Hemings was playwright Karyn Traut in 1988; her husband, biologist Thomas Traut, became a member of the Scholars Commission.

The National Genealogical Society Quarterly of September 2001 examined the controversy from the perspectives of several professionally certified genealogists. They criticized the Scholars Commission report for failing to adhere to the standards of genealogical research, which the NGS authors characterized as more stringent than the legalistic paradigm adopted by the commission. Specifically, according to one article, the Scholars Commission's failings included: overreliance on derivative sources, biased assessment of data, distortion of evidence, deficient context, confounding the issue with irrelevant matters, and, most importantly, ignoring the weight of the body of evidence.^[87] Certified Genealogist Helen Leary concluded that "the chain of evidence securely fastens Sally Hemings's children to their father, Thomas Jefferson."^[88]

In 2003, a team of genealogical researchers, after examining primary source documents including census, tax, land, and marriage records, as well as the letters of Jefferson and his contemporaries, concluded that Randolph Jefferson's sons were most likely too young to have fathered Sally's children, and that there was no evidence they were raised or educated at Monticello prior to 1813. They also concluded that Randolph Jefferson was an infrequent and reluctant visitor to Monticello.^[70

Out of the hundreds of slaves he owned, Jefferson freed only two slaves in his lifetime, and five in his will - all from the Hemings family. Additionally, he allowed Harriet and Beverly to "escape" with his tacit consent.^[20] He also successfully petitioned the Virginia legislature to allow Hemings' sons Madison and Eston to remain in Virginia after they were free, as Virginia law held that freed slaves must leave within a year. It is based upon hearsay that Sally Hemings was never officially freed, an act - if Jefferson had ever considered it - which would have certainly drawn scrutiny.^[17][18] Jefferson's daughter, Martha Randolph, then apparently gave Hemings her "time," a type of informal freedom which allowed her to continue to live in Virginia. Hemings lived out the rest of her life in Charlottesville of Albermarle county, with her sons.^[19] Sally Hemings was recorded in the Albermarle county 1833 census as a free white woman at the age of 56.^[21][/url]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sally_Hemings

The preponderance of the evidence says he is and thats good enough for a civil but not enough for a criminal case which would require beyond a resonable doubt.

One thing that no one dissputes is that he owned slaves while writing the declaration of independence and until his death.

[Brother Hesekiel 2,236]

The world isn't white and black, and please take this with a grain of salt (and pepper), if you will.

Had the US not stopped the Nazis, or had the Nazis not invaded the Russian Empire, there would be no Israel, no Middle East Crisis, and sure as heaven there would have been no 9/11. Had some Islamic extremist tried to pull some sh*t on the US, the US and the Greater German Reich would be fighting on the same side, and Hitler's heirs would probably throw a little nuke into Mecca during Hajj and take care of that problem once and for all.

Had Lincoln not freed the slaves, we would have no illegal immigrant problem. Guess who would be picking Strawberries and Cotton today.

Everything we do is intermingled in the fabric of life. Good things can have bad consequences, and there are bad actions can miraculously created good. The whole thing about what's good and bad, as pointed out by Nietzsche, is arbitrary anyway. For the same reason the "Christians" state that "God's ways are mysterious, but since He's omniscient, it's going to be alright.

Jefferson sure as hell had his reasons not to free his slaves, and even if he thought that abolishing slavery would have not worked when implemented in the Constitution or Bill of Rights, it would not prevented him to set his own slaves free. Why didn't he?

So whether he was gay, or bisexual, or had sex with a slave is really secondary in importance over the real question: why upholding slavery? Well, I know the answer.