Sir

Your News report1 “Jefferson's descendants continue to deny slave link” states that Thomas Jefferson's descendants have decided that the descendants of his slave Sally Hemings cannot join their family club, despite DNA evidence published in Nature suggesting that he fathered at least one of her children. In fact, that evidence suggests no specific Jefferson. The story also asserts that insistence on conclusive proof that the father was Thomas “cuts no ice” in academia. In fact, 13 noted scholars from 12 universities reviewed the historical and DNA evidence and unanimously found the paternity “by no means proven”2. This 'Scholars Commission' — convened by the Thomas Jefferson Heritage Society but acting independently — criticized Nature for fostering misunderstanding of DNA evidence in the wider historical debate.

Correction There was an error in the first sentence of ref. 1. The word 'ancestors' was mistakenly used instead of 'descendants'. The sentence should have read: “Thomas Jefferson's descendants have decided that the descendants of one of his slaves cannot join their family club...”