DNA evidence from 1999, combined with subsequent archival and archaeological research, established to the near-unanimous consensus of historians that Thomas Jefferson fathered children with his enslaved half-sister-in-law Sally Hemings.

(00:52:11) which had been founded by Thomas Jefferson. >> He definitely doesn't have a dog in this fight. [laughter] So, so Malone in in the fourth volume of his biography, he touches on Kalander's accusations, his accusations about Jefferson's relationship with Sally, and he appeally out of character, being virtually unthinkable in a man of Jefferson's moral standards and habitual conduct. >> Well, that's so telling, isn't it? Virtually unthinkable. I mean this is a

(00:52:39) point 1970 when Jefferson's moral stature is so great >> that [clears throat] it is I mean to most American historians it probably is unthinkable that Thomas Jefferson could lower himself to this depravity >> right so what changes well the key development comes in 1999 when DNA tests prove that the father of Sally's children had been a member of the Jefferson male line doesn't prove that it was Thomas Jefferson but I mean it's

(00:53:06) very strong likelihood that it was and then there's been very detailed research by uh the great scholar of the Hemings um family and of the relationship of Sally Hemings to Thomas Jefferson and at Gordon Reed and she did detailed analysis of of the Jefferson archives which are very copious >> and she demonstrated that Jefferson had been present at Montichello nine months before the birth of every one of Sally

(00:53:31) Hemings's children. So again that's quite substantive evidence. Um and then in 2017 um archaeologists working at Montichello excavated Sally's room complete with original hearth fireplace and floors and it's directly adjacent to Jefferson's bedroom. >> Right. >> So there are still um Jefferson scholars who who doubt it. But I would say the overwhelming consensus now of historians is that um Jefferson had kept Sally Hemings as his mistress. That Madison