| Episodes |
On November 1, 1998, the public is greeted with a scientific study that excludes the Carrs from Sally's fatherhood album and posits Jefferson as the possible father of Eston Hemings. In the popular mind, Jefferson becomes the likely father of Eston, and, in fact, all Sally's children. The burden of proof now shifts dramatically to Jefferson's defenders to show that there wasn't a relationship. We go through the looking glass, as it were: the poles of the controversy are dramatically reversed.
Using the following document, let's take a chronological tour through some of the major reactions to the announcement of the DNA results. The climactic events are a report by a committee formed by the organization that runs Monticello (the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation), which accepts the findings and its implications, and a counter-report by a committee formed by the newly organized Thomas Jefferson Heritage Society, which rejects it.
What do you make of what the science shows? What kind of intervention does it make in the ongoing controversy? And why? Specifically, what were the claims made? What were the claims alleged? And then, what were the reactions by "outsiders" -- the press, talking heads? And what were the reactions by the "insiders" -- for instance, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation (Monticello) and the Thomas Jefferson Heritage Society? What were the key pieces of evidence in the contrasting TJF and TJHS reports?
What do you find yourself thinking about? Was there anything that surprised you? Where do you see objectivity and good history constructed? Where subjectivity and partisan history? What about the "politics" of the findings? What about African American response? What about the way the media covered the story? What striking thing did you find in your browsing of the two major reports? In short, what did the DNA announcement and the events surrounding it get you to think about? Lots to talk about.
