Thomas Jefferson's DNA (Bonus)

Podcast: History As It Happens · Martin Di Caro

Opublikowano: 2026-10-02

Subscribe to listen to the full 28-minute episode (or preview the first 9 minutes). Scientists sequenced Thomas Jefferson’s genome from three strands of his hair for a project led by the Smithsonian Institution to prove that Jefferson fathered children with his slave Sally Hemings. According to The New York Times, researchers used cutting-edge techniques to extract and sequence the DNA, then compared it with DNA samples from 13 living Hemings and Jefferson family descendants. This story is, in some ways, old news. The allegations that Jefferson had an enslaved mistress appeared when he was pr...