History Mysteries

It was interesting to read that like Dumas Malone, Mr. Fleming ignores the detailed research of Fawn Brodie for her Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate Portrait. She made a strong effort to track down all possible original sources of information regarding Jefferson’s relationship to Sally Hemings and presented an equally strong case for his paternity of several of her offspring. Among other telling data was Brodie’s finding that Peter Carr was nowhere around on one or more occasions when Sally was supposedly impregnated by him. So what more useful data could be uncovered by a committee of scholars researching the matter is a real question.