Mr. Jenkins--

Almost certainly Sally Hemings had miscarriages, and perhaps still born children too.  So we can agree about the likelihood that this happened--I don't know if there is evidence for this, however, as I have not read with any care the Monticello plantation records.

But we DO have good reason to believe that Sally Hemings did in fact have six (I think that is the correct number--but I have not fact checked this) children.  We obviously have no way of knowing if any of them were born prematurely--although we can make a good guess about the range of variation.  In pre-modern societies, children who are born too early just die.  There were no premie wards in Jefferson's Virginia, nor, for that matter, any hospitals.  So we can in fact locate a reasonable range of dates for when Sally's children had to have been conceived.  And we know that for each of her surviving children, TJ was at Monticello.  So in each case, he *could* have been the father.

"Could have been" is not the same thing as *was* the father.  But just as critically, if TJ was NOT at Monticello during the range of time in which Sally Hemings most likely conceived a child, that would be reasonably good evidence that TJ was not the father.  And for better or worse, we can not rule him out on this basis.

So the fact on which I hope we can agree does not *prove* anything.  It is merely suggestive--it establishes, to my mind, a probability.  But it does not prove anything.

All best,
Kevin

  

---- Original message ----
>Date: Sun, 12 Oct 2008 22:46:17 -0400
>From: Hist Docs <[log in to unmask]>  
>Subject: Re: What we know about Sally Hemings, first revision  
>To: [log in to unmask]
>
>  >6.  All of Heming's recorded pregnancies correspond with times when Jefferson was at Monticello
>
>  You have evidence that SH carried all her children to full term?  If not, then it is a fair assumption that she did not carry all/any of her pregnancies to full term.  If the assumption that TJ fathered SH's child(ren) is based solely upon the delivery date of SH's child(dren), then the charge against TJ is baseless.
>
>
>  R Burnett Jenkins
>
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Kevin R. Hardwick, Ph.D.
Department of History
James Madison University

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