| Episodes |
The early histories and biographies of Jefferson do not mention the scandal at all. Only in the histories of William Randall and James Parton does the tension between the "white" oral tradition and the "black" oral tradition get resolved. Randall had access to the family story of Ellen Randolph Coolidge and Thomas Jefferson Randolph and passed it on to Parton, who effectively killed the controversy.
Selected readings
B. L. Rayner, Life of Thomas Jefferson (1834): nothing on the controversy at all.
George Tucker, The Life of Thomas Jefferson, Third President of the United States (1837): nothing on the controversy at all.
Henry Stephens Randall, "The Callender Affair" (1858): in his The Life of Thomas Jefferson (v.3, 16-21), Randall defends Jefferson by attacking Callender's character.
Henry Randall, letter to James Parton (1868): Randall recounts a personal conversation with Jefferson grandson Thomas Jefferson Randolph about Sally "Henings," in which Randolph employs the "character defense" and the "other man defense."
James Parton, "The Campaign Lies of 1800" (1874): in Life of Thomas Jefferson (chap. 59, 567-75), Parton uses part of the Randall letter to bury -- once and for all? -- the campaign lie about Sally "Henings."
