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New DNA analysis adds evidence Jefferson fathered children with Sally Hemings

A clipping of hair labeled as Thomas Jefferson's is tied together in the middle with a pink string. The hair is colored blond to light brown. The clipping is lying on an old, yellowed piece of paper on which is written in old-style cursive: "Thomas Jeffersons Hair."

A clipping of hair labeled as Thomas Jefferson’s in the collections of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation at Monticello, his primary home and plantation. Hugh Talman/Smithsonian Institution

Hugh Talman/Smithsonian Institution

For more than 200 years, one question about the nation’s third president has lingered: Did Thomas Jefferson father children with Sally Hemings, a woman 30 years his junior whom he held in slavery?

The question has long been part of debates over slavery, race, power and

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