![]() ![]() It is an argument that has been alive-some would say revived-for 200 years. Conspiracy theories-hallmarks of any enduring controversy-have further tightened the Gordian knot. ![]() The credibility of individuals living and dead, white and black, has been routinely undermined. It has led to accusations of shoddy scholarship, of tampering with historical evidence, of bias and duplicity and censorship. It has involved systematic denial, reversals of position, name calling, intimidation and all manner of scholarly abuse. If history is “an argument without end,” as the historian Joseph Ellis says, then the dispute over whether Thomas Jefferson had sexual relations with his slave Sally Hemings might rank as one of the ugliest. “We are not afraid to follow truth wherever it may lead, nor to tolerate any error so long as reason is left free to combat it.” ![]()
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