Framing a Legend: Exposing the Distorted History of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings - Hardcover

Holowchak, M. Andrew

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1616147296 ISBN 13: 9781616147297

Publisher: Prometheus, 2013

Synopsis

A penetrating critical perspective on the question of Thomas Jefferson's paternity that will make you rethink recent conventional wisdom.It is accepted by most scholars that Jefferson had a lengthy affair with his slave Sally Hemings and fathered at least one of her children, a conclusion based on a 1998 DNA study published in Nature and on the work of historian Annette Gordon-Reed. Framing a Legend argues compellingly that the DNA evidence is inconclusive and that there are remarkable flaws in the leading historical scholarship purporting to show such a liaison.Author M. AndrewHolowchakcritically examines well-known books by Fawn Brodie, Annette Gordon-Reed, and Andrew Burstein, labeling their views as "three prominent spins." He thendelves into what we know about Thomas Jefferson's character, showing that the historical facts do not suggest any romantic interest on Jefferson's part in his female slaves. Turning to the genetic evidence, Holowchak points out that, though DNA analysis indicates the presence of a Y-chromosome from some Jefferson male in the Hemings family line, it is unwarranted to conclude that this must have come from Thomas Jefferson. Finally, he discusses Jefferson's racial attitudes and says that they argue against any liaison with Sally Hemings.

About this title

About the Author

M. Andrew Holowchak (Lindenwold, NJ) is assistant professor of philosophy at Rider University. He is the author of Dutiful Correspondent: Philosophical Essays on Thomas Jefferson, seventeen other books on philosophy, critical thinking, and psychoanalysis, and numerous articles in scholarly journals.

Reviews

Since Fawn Brodie’s Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate History (1974), or Annette Gordon-Reed’s The Hemingses of Monticello (2008), popular belief holds that the third U.S. president begat a family with his slave. Holowchak is not the first disputant (see William Hyland’s In Defense of Thomas Jefferson, 2009), but he may be the most pugilistic. Taking Brodie and Gordon-Reed to task, Holowchak flays their works as weak arrangements of the several incontestably known facts about the enslaved woman in question, Sally Hemings, into a liaison with Jefferson. A philosopher by profession, Holowchak illustrates his points with syllogisms—he contests probabilities underlying DNA evidence which, supporters of a Hemings-Jefferson relationship assert, indicate that a relationship existed; and he pummels arguments favoring a connection for what he considers defects of logic. From his exercise in demolishing Brodie, Gordon-Reed, and others as fabulists, Holowchak switches to an approbation of Jefferson’s character, which he maintains casts the Hemings thesis in further doubt. His argument aside, Holowchak may irritate some in his references to the subtext of this historical controversy, race, yet he gains a hearing for defying conventional wisdom. --Gilbert Taylor

Edition details

• Publisher: Prometheus
• Publication date: 2013
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1616147296
• ISBN 13: 9781616147297
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 275