The Jefferson Scandals: A Rebuttal [Paperback]

Virginus Dabney (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 26, 1991

In 1802, a revenge-seeking journalist named James T. Callender charged that Thomas Jefferson, president of the United States and author of the Declaration of Independence, had taken a light-skinned slave named Sally Hemings as his mistress, adn that the relationship resulted in five children. It was also alleged that one of the children was sold into prositution at a slave market in New Orleans. Callender's charges have surfaced periodically, only to be deflated by scholars.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Madison Books (February 26, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0819178217
• ISBN-13: 978-0819178213
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.3 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,738,601 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent historical rebuttal, July 27, 2006

By 

D. Thompson (Somerville, MA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Jefferson Scandals: A Rebuttal (Paperback)

I was a history major in college and believe that Virginus Dabney makes excellent use of both primary and secondary sources, unlike Brodie who merely speculates about Jefferson's love life without providing any facts. Dabney's book is written like a history thesis with a little bit of humor between the lines. Brodie's book reads like a novel and should be in the fiction section, not with the biographies.

I take offense to one of the comments below assuming that white readers who accept the occurance of the Maria Cosway affair, while "denying" the Hemmings affair are racist... this is simply ridiculous. History is not about what we think should have happened. It's about what did happen based on the available evidence. If the evidence says that Thomas Jefferson had an affair with a slave, fine, but my hunch is that Jefferson did not father Sally Hemmings' children and that his nephew was the father. However, my opinion is based on the evidence that is currently available and does not make me a racist.

As Dabney points out, the fact that prominent historians such as Gary Wills in addition to the three leading Jeffersonian experts in the world also doubt the historical integrity of Brodie's book adds credibility to Dabney's thesis statement. Brodie was not qualified to write such a "comprehensive" analysis of Jefferson's life. Her background was not in history, so what is she doing pretending to be an historian?

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Short and Sweet - but out of date, November 12, 2009

By 

Doug (South Bend, IN USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Jefferson Scandals a Rebuttal (Paperback)

I read a 1981 edition of this little book which summarizes the facts and fiction surrounding the speculated affair between Thomas Jefferson and one of his slaves. I don't know if the 1990 edition contains new material or not, but it was written years before any DNA testing was completed.

This book was originally written, in part, as a rebuttal to the "factional" account contained in Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate Portrait by Fawn Brodie, a part-time UCLA history professor (with two degrees in English but none in history). Other psycho-historical accounts, e.g. Sally Hemings by Barbara Chase-Riboud, are also targets of Mr. Dabney's critique.

The rumor sprang from the pages of a pro-Federalist newspaper. James Callender, a frustrated office seeker, wrote in 1802 that Mr. Jefferson had fathered children with his concubine, Sally Hemings. Yet despite the publicity, we are expected to believe that the President fathered two more (Madison '05 and Eston '08) children with Sally. I think one fact everyone can agree on is that Mr. Jefferson was not stupid.

Many eyewitness accounts are reviewed. For example, [James] Madison Hemings made a number of claims that are demonstrable false. "Unlike Washington he had but little taste or care for agricultural pursuits." Yet documentary evidence makes this claim absurd. Jefferson wrote many letters, kept careful records, read extensively on farming and agriculture. If the testable portions of Madison's interview can be shown to be false, why would someone accept those portions for which no supporting evidence exists.

The other suspects are also reviewed. While there are many who came out and defended Mr. Jefferson (his daughter, grandson, friends, his overseer), no one defended his nephews, Peter and Samuel Carr. And the Carrs are reported to have admitted it.

In chapter 5, Fiction Masquerading as Fact, Mr. Dabney dissects Mrs. Brodie's book, sometimes almost line by line, showing that much of her account is wrong and a great deal of the rest is hard stretched speculation. The treatment may seem harsh to some, but books published as "history" should be accurate. Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate Portrait belongs in the romance novel, not the history section of the book store or library.

Despite it's publication prior to the DNA testing, this remains an excellent summary of the documentary evidence surrounding Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings. Anyone interested in a more recent treatment should consider In Defense of Thomas Jefferson by William Hyland which covers this material and the 1998 DNA results. Reasonable people can still reach different conclusions, but as the author concludes in his final chapter the charges are unproved and unprovable.

9 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars "The Jefferson Scandals" Revisited, October 18, 2001

By 

Mary C. Jankowski (Elizabeth, NJ United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Jefferson Scandals: A Rebuttal (Paperback)

Note to a previous reviewer: Virginius Dabney was a man. He was a longtime Virginia newspaper editor and died shortly after "The Jefferson Scandals" was published. He was unquestionably a sincere gentleman and passionate in his defense of Jefferson's honor and purity. He didn't live to see the definitive DNA evidence that confirms the Sally Hemings relationship. The consistent denials of the affair by Jefferson apologists, in my opinion, involve more than a tinge of racism. These same scholars have no problem affirming Jefferson's liaison with Maria Cosway, who was probably much less virtuous than Sally Hemings. It is entertaining, however, to read Dabney's book with Fawn Brodie's back-to-back. We eagerly await an up-to-date Jefferson biography that fully explores the new evidence.