Editorial subtly accuses Thomas Jefferson of affair with enslaved woman

On October 15, 1796, an essay appears in the Gazette of the United States in which a writer, mysteriously named “Phocion,” attacks presidential candidate Thomas Jefferson. Phocion turned out to be former Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton. The essay typified the nasty, personal nature of political attacks in late 18th-century America.

When the article appeared, Jefferson was running against then-Vice President John Adams, in an acrimonious campaign. The highly influential Hamilton, also a Federalist, supported Adams over Jefferson, one of Hamilton’s political rivals since the two men served together in George Washington’s first cabinet. According to Hamilton biographer Ron Chernow, Hamilton wrote 25 essays under the name Phocion for the Gazette between October 14 and November 24, lambasting Jefferson and Jeffersonian republicanism.

On October 15, Hamilton went further, accusing Jefferson of carrying on an affair with one of his enslaved workers:

"At one moment he is anxious to emancipate the blacks, to vindicate the liberty of the human race—at another he discovers that the blacks are of a different race from the human race, and therefore when emancipated they must be instantly removed beyond the reach of mixture, least he (or she) should stain the blood of his (or her) master, not recollecting what from his situation and other circumstances he ought to have recollected—that this mixture, may take place, while the negro remains in slavery: he must have seen all around him sufficient marks of this staining of blood to have been convinced that retaining them in slavery would not prevent it, and he must have been satisfied that the mixture would not be the less degrading from the emancipated state of the black..."

This would not be the last time such allegations would appear in print. In 1792, publisher James Callendar—then a supporter of Jefferson’s whose paper was secretly funded by Jefferson and his Republican allies–published a report of Alexander Hamilton’s adulterous affair with a colleague’s wife, to which Hamilton later confessed. However, in 1802, when then-President Jefferson snubbed Callendar’s request for a political appointment, Callendar retaliated with an expose on Jefferson’s “concubine.” He is believed to have been referring to Sally Hemings, who was part Black and also the likely half-sister of Jefferson’s deceased wife, Martha. Further, the article alleged that Sally’s son, John, bore a “striking…resemblance to those of the President himself.” Jefferson chose not to respond to the allegations.

Rumors that the widowed Jefferson had an affair with one of his enslaved workers persist to this day and have spawned years of scholarly and scientific research regarding his and Hemings’ alleged progeny. In 2000, a research report issued by the Thomas Jefferson Foundation used DNA test results, original documents, oral histories and statistical analysis of the historical record to conclude that Thomas Jefferson was probably the father of Sally Hemings’s son Eston and likely her other children.