Episodes |
Was Madison Hemings telling the truth? Could there be love between a slave and her master? Find here a "forensic survey of the evidence" relating to a veritable plantationful of such crucial questions. Shameful scholarship is the "real scandal," says African American lawyer Annette Gordon-Reed, not whether Jefferson slept with Hemings. Kangaroo-court scholars have mishandled evidence and mistreated black people in the process. Though labeled "vengeful" and "contemptuous" and accused of playing the "race card," Gordon-Reed's 1997 "political intervention" is widely accepted. Her trenchant deconstruction of previous interpretations rips a gaping hole in the tender belly of the official narrative.