The best online Debate website - DebateIsland.com! The only Online Debate Website with Casual, Persuade Me, Formalish, and Formal Online Debate formats. We’re the Leading Online Debate website. Debate popular topics, Debate news, or Debate anything! Debate online for free! Did Thomas Jefferson have children with his slave Sally Hemings?in History

thatdebaternamedj

I am here to assert that the widely accepted theory that Thomas Jefferson fathered children with his slave Sally Hemings is patently false. 
Firstly, the most obvious point, the DNA evidence. Despite popular belief, the DNA test did not condemn Jefferson to fatherhood. The test found that the descendants of Eston Hemings, the last child of Sally, had the same DNA of a Jefferson male. There were twenty five Jefferson males alive at the time, with eight being considered probable, with Thomas and his brother Randolph among them.
I assert that Randolph Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson's younger brother, or another Jefferson, is the father of Eston, not Thomas. 

thatdebaternamedj

I am taking the position that Thomas Jefferson is innocent of the charge of fathering children with his slave Sally Hemings. I will attempt to rebut any evidence shown to me.

joecavalry

Thomas Jefferson was not the father of most or all of Sally Hemings’s children. The DNA evidence does not show that he is the father of the children and that is a highly accurate test.

natbarons

I believe that he did not due to the DNA tests showing that he hasn’t. They are very accurate and most likely correct on that issue.

NonCredenti

Why do you think it was Randolph?

Ampersand

natbarons said:

I believe that he did not due to the DNA tests showing that he hasn’t. They are very accurate and most likely correct on that issue.

You misunderstand, the DNA tests showed Jefferson could be the father and it would have had to be him OR a very close relative. So they alone do not absolutely prove the connection, but they make it very possible and the historical evidence makes that possibility look very likely.

Mike

I voted NO for I don’t know about Jefferson’s love life. Jefferson’s profound contribution to humanity was his unknown discovery of the physical constructal law. Today, this law is known as a newly discovered law in thermodynamics; hence, in Jefferson’s time, commonly referred to as our “unalienable Rights.”

northsouthkorea

I don’t believe that he did.

SuzyCreamcheese

My understanding is that it was quite a love affair between the two. He certainly wouldn't have been the first slave owner to pup one of his slaves. Especially since mulattos were worth more at auction. 

True story.

Fredsnephew

Yes or no. 
Quite clearly it's impossible to give such a definitive answer.
Though the evidence suggests, that there is a high probability that he did.