Status of the proposed debate on Thomas Jefferson’s paternity of Sally Hemings’s children
          As readers of this blog may be aware, a University of Virginia law professor has challenged Norm to a debate centered on whether Thomas Jefferson was, in fact, the father of Sally Hemings’s children. Norm has accepted, and he and the challenger—Dr. Robert F. Turner—are attempting to find a mutually agreeable date and place in the Kansas City area.Because Dr. Turner is accommodating Norm’s wish not to travel to Charlottesville, both he and Norm are also trying to arrange for a second appearance in this area by the law professor. In that way, the sponsoring school or institution would pick up the tab on Dr. Turner’s travel costs.The 2014-15 academic year beginning late summer is now the broadly estimated tme during which the debate will take place. The original challenge was issued last mid-November, 2013.Norm is eager to meet this challenge, as he has not only based a novel on the premise of Jefferson’s paternity—Sally of Monticello: Founding Mother—but he has also accepted the research findings of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation confirming the liaison.Dr. Turner disputes those findings as well as a DNA test that he claims was flawed and not truly conclusive.


Correction of last week’s Appendix One: Timelineto Sally of Monticello: Founding Mother
The main text for January 18, 1805should have read as follows and was corrected in a later edition of the book:Sally gives birth to a son, Madison, so named for the Secretary of State at the suggestion of Dolley Madison , who had visited Monticello in September.
The correction addresses the timing of Dolley’s visit.