The belief that Thomas Jefferson had an affair and fathered a child (or children) with slave Sally Hemings, and that such an allegation was proven by DNA testing-has become so pervasive in American popular culture that it is not only widely accepted but taught to students as historical fact. But, as William G. Hyland Jr. demonstrates, this "fact" is nothing more than the accumulation of salacious rumors and irresponsible scholarship over the years,...

Winter and Widener tell the story of James Madison Hemings's childhood at Monticello, and, in doing so, illuminate the many contradictions in Jefferson's life and legacy. Though Jefferson lived in a mansion, Hemings and his siblings lived in a single room. While Jefferson doted on his white grandchildren, he never showed affection to his enslaved children. Though he kept the Hemings boys from hard field labor instead sending them to work in the carpentry...