| Episodes |
Analyzing Access [AGR 96-103]
Jennifer Schlegel
[1] Whether a possible father had access to Sally Hemings during the conception of her children is an essential question in the Jefferson-Hemings controversy. Jefferson defenders James Parton, Andrew Burstein, and Douglas Adair defend Jefferson based on accounts of proximity of Jefferson as well as the Carr brothers. In her Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy (96-103), Annette Gordon-Reed analyzes and refutes the claims of these three Jefferson defenders. Access is the "threshold test" for paternity. Only Jefferson passes.
[2] First, Jefferson biographer James Parton, based on a claim by T. J. Randolph that fellow biographer Henry Randall supposedly confirmed, argued that Jefferson could not be Madison Hemings's father: "The record of Mr. Jefferson's every day and hour, contained in his pocket memorandum books, compared with the record of his slave's birth, proves the impossibility of his having been the father of Madison Hemings" (96). According to Gordon-Reed, however, Parton did not know which child or which birth date Randolph had "confirmed" in Jefferson's Farm Book, although he presented the information like it implied Madison Hemings. Parton printed Randall's claim without further confirmation and "then compounded his error by engaging in his own textual sleight of hand to accomplish the goal of defeating Madison Hemings' claim" (97). Gordon-Reed's rebuttal effectively disproves the claim of James Parton.
[3] Second, scholar Andrew Burstein investigated the proximity of the Hemingses possible fathers in comparison to their conception dates. According to Burstein, "Jefferson's Account Books show that both [Carr] nephews were present at Monticello or having transactions with Jefferson during the specific periods that correspond to Sally's conceptions" (97). But Gordon-Reed argues that involvement in transactions doesn't necessarily mean proximity to Monticello or Sally for business may be conducted through mail. Several additional flaws in Burstein's analysis include the years Jefferson's account books show that Carr brothers at Monticello "do not correspond to the number or birth dates of Hemings's children" (99) and Burstein only cited five conception years for Hemings's six children and three of those years aren't true in comparison to the known birthdates.
[4] Martha Jefferson Randolph was the first to say that Jefferson was not available for conception of Sally's children. But Gordon-Reed effectively refutes her: "we know from [Dumas] Malone's chronology of the events in Jefferson's life that he was present at Monticello at least nine months before the birth of each one of Sally Hemings's children" (100). And, further, she argues that Jefferson's constant travelling "lifts the possibility that he fathered Hemings's children to some level of probability, for his leaving and coming home can be directly related to timing of their conceptions" (100). Gordon-Reed observes that Jefferson was always at Monticello when Sally conceived and Sally never conceived while he was travelling. This pattern lasts for fifteen years and six children. Thus, Gordon-Reed successfully disproves each aspect of Burstein's claim. Her reasoning seems logical and well thought out. While she describes the pattern and its possible meanings, Gordon-Reed always considers it merely an unusual coincidence, never exaggerating its importance by declaring it hard evidence. She allows the readers to interpret the facts she presents.
[5] Third, Douglas Adair claims that Jefferson's return to Monticello blocked the Carrs' access to Hemings since the second last year of Jefferson's last term was the last year a child was born to her. Gordon-Reed speculates that if such were the case, "why could not Peter Carr or Samuel Carr get Sally Hemings pregnant when Thomas Jefferson was not at Monticello -- not once in fifteen years?" (101) In opposition to Adair, Gordon-Reed reasons that a variety of explanations might justify the end of Hemings's child-bearing years, including 1) that female fertility declines in the mid-thirties, especially with poor hygiene, and, quite simply, 2) "The nature of their relationship could have changed as the thirty-year age difference loomed much larger when Jefferson approached his seventies and Hemings her forties" (102).
[6] Overall, Gordon-Reed investigated the claims of three Jefferson defenders by focusing on whether Jefferson or the Carr brothers had access to Sally during the conception time. James Parton, Andrew Burstein, and Douglas Adair analyzed personal records of Jefferson, the proximity of both Jefferson and the Carr brothers at time of conception, and the end of the child-bearing years of Sally. In a step-by-step fashion, Gordon-Reed researched the claims, their evidence, and their sources. Although access doesn't prove paternity of Sally's children, it may confirm the impossibility of potential fathers. The bottom line is that the Carrs did not have the access Jefferson did.
