There is at least one other possibility to consider, to
further muddy the waters.

There is no especial reason to believe that all of Thomas
Jefferson's paternal cousins were white.  Given the prevalence
of sexual exploitation of female slaves by male masters, it is
certainly within the realm of possibility that Jefferson had
slave cousins.  The DNA evidence proves that someone descended
from Jefferson's paternal grandfather had children by Sally
Hemings.

It does not seem to me that we have progressed very far beyond
where we were before the DNA controversy began.  We know that
at least one of the Hemings children was not Jefferson's.  The
weight of the circumstantial evidence suggests that Jefferson
was the father of at least some of the other children.  But I
don't see how we can say that that has been scientifically
confirmed.

And, as Professor Finkelman suggests, I am not sure it matters
all that much.  However you slice the evidence, Jefferson was
still a slave owner, with all that that implied.  If we agree
that slavery is criminal and evil, Jefferson was as thoroughly
implicated in it as it is possible to be.  No one suggests
that he was a James Henry Hammond.  But he *was* a slave
owner.  And from his own writings, we know that he recognized
with some clarity why slavery was ethically wrong.

Every time Jefferson sat down to an eight course dinner at
Monticello, drinking his imported French wine, he was making a
decision.  Every time he rebuilt a portion of the house, or
bought books for its library, he made a decision.  "Live a
life of luxury and refinement?  Or free myself of debt so I
can free my slaves?"  We know the choice he made.

Best,
Kevin
Kevin R. Hardwick, Ph.D.
Department of History
James Madison University

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