Telling Jefferson Lies
The series was active from January-April, 2024. I am periodically posting bonus episodes throughout the remainder of 2024. Please subscribe so you will be notified.
Telling Jefferson Lies chronicles how history can be hijacked for ideological and political purposes, as well as a much broader story about the surge of Christian nationalism and the misuse of history which often goes along with it. The series begins with an in-depth consideration of the methods of Christian nationalist story teller David Barton. Then I tell the story of how his book on Jefferson was pulled from publication in 2012 and the response of evangelicals to that rare event. From there, I broaden the scope to examine the varieties of Christian nationalism and the negative consequences of this way of thinking about church and state. The last segment examines the reasons why the separation of church and state is good history, good civics, and good religion.
For more information, go to http://www.gettingjeffersonright.com.
Telling Jefferson Lies
Sally Hemings Bonus Episode, Whitewashing Jefferson, Part Three
As promised, here is the completion of my examination of David Barton's whitewashing of Thomas Jefferson. In our book Getting Jefferson Right: Fact-Checking Claims About Thomas Jefferson, Michael Coulter and I assume the position held by most scholars and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation when it comes to the paternity of Sally Hemings children, i.e., Thomas Jefferson was their father.
In The Jefferson Lies, David Barton deceives readers about what Madison Hemings said about his mother. Here is what Barton said Hemings told a Pike County (OH) newspaper in 1873.
"The other major oral tradition challenging Jefferson’s sexual morality came from Sally Hemings’ son Madison (the fourth Hemings child, born in 1805). In an article published in an Ohio newspaper in 1873, Madison Hemings claimed that in France “my mother became Mr. Jefferson’s concubine, and when he was called back home she was enceinte [pregnant] by him” with Thomas Woodson."
Here is what Madison Hemings actually had published in that newspaper:
"But during that time my mother became Mr. Jefferson’s concubine, and when he was called home she was enciente by him. He desired to bring my mother back to Virginia with him but she demurred. She was just beginning to understand the French language well, and in France she was free, while if she returned to Virginia she would be re-enslaved. So she refused to return with him. To induce her to do so he promised her extraordinary privileges, and made a solemn pledge that her children should be freed at the age of twenty-one years. In consequence of his promises, on which she implicitly relied, she returned with him to Virginia. Soon after their arrival, she gave birth to a child, of whom Thomas Jefferson was the father. It lived but a short time. She gave birth to four others, and Jefferson was the father of all of them. Their names were Beverly, Harriet, Madison (myself), and Eston—three sons and one daughter. We all became free agreeably to the treaty entered into by our parents before we were born. We all married and have raised families."
Hemings did not mention Woodson because he was irrelevant. Sally Hemings first child lived but "a short time." Barton didn't tell his readers that part of the story.
The Monticello website on Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson: https://www.monticello.org/thomas-jefferson/jefferson-slavery/thomas-jefferson-and-sally-hemings-a-brief-account/
Research Report: https://www.monticello.org/thomas-jefferson/jefferson-slavery/thomas-jefferson-and-sally-hemings-a-brief-account/research-report-on-jefferson-and-hemings/
SHOW NOTES:
For more information about Getting Jefferson Right, go to gettingjeffersonright.com.
The closing song is Were You There by LoFi Hymnal. https://open.spotify.com/track/19oJxhr6efnpU7LVBzUQz2?si=c94873948db84fbd
Background music by Jonathan Swaim, Roman Candle, and Warren Throckmorton
The series will conclude during the final week of April with an episode on the virtues of the separation of church and state. Watch for additional episodes between now and then. If you like the pod, leave a positive review.