Presidential Sex Scandals

Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings

Did THOMAS JEFFERSON secretly father children by his own slave, SALLY HEMINGS? Such rumors were first published in 1802 by a political rival of Jefferson, James Callender. Jefferson was a widower and Hemings was herself the daughter of a female slave and Jefferson's father-in-law.

For years, historians tended to dismiss the rumors as scurrilous gossip spread by Jefferson's enemies. But in 1998, DNA testing on Jefferson's descendants showed that the president or one of his close male relatives was highly likely to be the father of Hemings's last son, Eston. A later study by the Thomas Jefferson Foundation also concluded that Jefferson was likely the father of at least one of Hemings's six children.