Peer Review's Scientific Truthiness

Peer Review is the gift that keeps on giving.

There have been all kinds of quirky claims based on faulty history in recent years, that Abraham Lincoln was a homosexual, that Jefferson had children with his slaves, and on and on. But there was no great public outcry from liberals that these claims were based on scant, if any, historical evidence.

Oh, really.

Lander, a DNA expert at the Whitehead Institute in Boston, said Foster's evidence showed there was a less than 1 percent chance that a person chosen at random would share the same set of Y chromosome mutations that exist in the Jefferson lineage.

"The fact that Eston Hemings' descendant has this rare chromosome, together with the historical evidence, seals the case that Jefferson fathered Eston," Lander said.

Eston Hemings is the son of Jefferson slave Sally Hemings.

Here is the Y-chromosome DNA set of Jefferson and Hemings descendants.

Jefferson

J41 0000001 15,12,4,11,3,9,11,10,15,13,7 (3)5, (1)14, (3)32, (4)16
J42 0000001 15,12,4,11,3,9,11,10,15,13,7 (3)5, (1)14, (3)32, (4)16
J47 0000001 15,12,4,11,3,9,11,10,15,13,7 (3)5, (1)14, (3)32, (4)16
J49 0000001 15,12,4,11,3,9,11,10,15,13,7 (3)5, (1)14, (3)32, (4)16
J50 0000001 15,12,4,11,3,9,11,10,16,13,7 (3)5, (1)14, (3)32, (4)16

Hemings

H21 0000001 15,12,4,11,3,9,11,10,15,13,7 (3)5, (1)14, (3)32, (4)16

It really doesn't matter to if Jefferson fathered children with Sally Hemings. Nor I'm I bothered by white and black people doing the nasty. (I say more power to them.) What does irk me is Tom Croom's Mr. G's factual accuracies.

Update: Truth or Death pointed out to me that Mr. G wrote the Peer Review post. He is right to point out my error and it has been corrected. As for Truth or Death citing an article by David Barton as prove that Jefferson did not sire a child with Sally Hemings - I wrote in my old blog how Barton makes up quotes the Founding Fathers never said. Barton is not a historian, scientist or journalist. He is a paid Republican consultant who makes stuff up to support his arguments. His argument that the Y-chromosome matching is laughable. The chances are one-in-a-thousand. Joesph Ellis sums it up best.

To be sure, the DNA evidence establishes probability rather than certainty. A spirited rebuttal has been mounted by the Jefferson genealogist Herbert Barger, suggesting that Randolph Jefferson or his son Isham (Jefferson's brother and nephew, respectively) is a more likely candidate. No one had mentioned Randolph Jefferson as a possible alternative before the DNA study. He is being brought forward now because he fits the genetic profile. This belated claim strikes me as a kind of last stand for the most dedicated Jefferson loyalists. If history were a courtroom, the Barger explanation would constitute a desperate appeal to the jury designed to generate sufficient doubt in the minds of enough jurors to block a guilty verdict.

What Barton fails to mention is that Barger has a personal stake in making his defense. His wife is Field Jefferson.

What really interests me is why conservatives are bothered by whether or not Jefferson had or didn't have a black child. People are human and fallable. Jefferson did many great things for this country. To expect him to be perfect is foolish. There is no shame in having an interracial child. Many conservative get the hebe-jeebies at the mere mention of it.

Update: Peer Review takes their shot at me.

Am I saying that it is impossible that Thomas Jefferson sired a child with Sally Hemmings? No.

Fair enough. The conservative argument saying that other Jefferson family members could have sired Eston Hemings sounds like passing the buck. Nature changed their headline after pressure from conservatives and the Jefferson family, along the same argument. Before then, these same people were saying it was impossible for Jefferson to father Eston Hemings. The goal posts get shifted. I'm just trying to figure out if the posts are still in the stadium. Besides, we know a powerful man in politics would never have sex with a young woman working under him.