The renewal of the Jefferson-Hemings scandals -- or "fiasco" -- has emerged to overshadow what I, as a professional historian, had hoped would be the larger imapct of the DNA studies. That is, I had hoped the findings would focus greater attention on the complexitities of slavery and racial categories in early America. So many of the issues involved in the specific Jefferson-Hemings case appear unanswerable: what was their relationship? (If it wasn't sexual, what was it? why were her children manumitted? etc. -- if it was sexual, what was the nature of that relationship? consensual or coerced? amatory or convenience?). DNA will not answer such questions even if it can provide a 100% guaranteed answer to paternity. I for one would like to see more discussion of the complexities of race and slavery as indicated by the Jefferson-Hemings case. A number of people have commented on the matter of racial mixing and mulatto people in the South, but what we have in this case are some extremely "white" mulattoes -- Sally Hemings herself was at most only one-fourth of African descent; her children then only one-eighth. Some of Hemings' grandchildren eventually passed into the white community. Doesn't this complicate a picture of white masters and black slaves? How many slaves were people who looked white? To get back to the original scandal - - Callender's story of "Tom" who was recognized in the neighborhood, was not the black image of his reputed father, but probably a very white one. I was struck by this issue lately while looking at some photographic images from the Reconstruction period of children in a freedman's school. The pupils appeared to be both black and white -- an integrated classroom. But of course this was not the case; the children were all freed people. Continuing to fight over Jefferson's reputation seems pretty unproductive in light of the bigger picture. David Kiracofe Texas Tech University To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html