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Article: Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson: History, Memory, and Civic Culture.(Review) (book review)
- Article from:
- Early American Literature
- Article date:
- January 1, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2001 University of North Carolina Press. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson: History, Memory, and Civic Culture. Edited by JAN ELLEN LEWIS and PETER S. ONUF. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1999. X, 280 pp.
As readers of this journal surely know by now, the DNA results are in, and Thomas Jefferson has been determined almost certainly to be the father of at least one of his slave Sally Hemings's children (see Eugene A. Foster et al., "Jefferson Fathers Slave's Last Child," Nature, 5 November 1998: 27-28). What is the significance of these DNA findings, if any, for American literary studies? At a conference held at the University of Virginia on March 5 and 6, 1999, a group of distinguished ...