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The White House Jefferson Page
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Notes on the State of Virginia (1787)
Despite his reputation as a champion of political liberty, Thomas Jefferson remained a slave owner all of his life. In his Notes on the State of Virginia, Jefferson's observations on the natural characteristics of blacks illustrate how his racist beliefs affected his political point of view.
At his plantation at Monticello, Jefferson kept 130 slaves, including Sally Hemmings, who has been rumored to have given birth to four of his children. In 1998, DNA testing provided some evidence of a possible blood relation between Jefferson and Hemmings' descendants. However, some historians dispute these findings as an insult to the "integrity of the name of Thomas Jefferson." Apparently, these historians believe that Jefferson's reputation as a "man of honor" would be restored if it could somehow be proved that he used his slaves only as instruments of economic production, rather than as sources of sexual gratification.
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