One of the so-called “Founding Fathers” of America and author of the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson, impregnated many of his enslaved black women and never claimed any of his “mixed” children.

In his lifetime Jefferson owned more than 600 slaves. At any one time about 100 slaves lived on the mountain; the highest slave population, in 1817, was 140.

Smithsonian Magazine
Sarah “Sally” Hemings was one of Thomas Jefferson’s slaves, she was classified as a mullato. He had over 600 in his lifetime. It’s been reported that Jefferson had a long-term sexual relationship with Hemings, let’s not forget the slave and slave master relationship. Jefferson was believed to be the father of her six children.

Shannon LaNier, – TV reporter, Actor, Author, – the black man in the photo above, is the sixth great grandson of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings.

According to Smithsonian Magazine, “Shannon LaNier, a TV news anchor, has complex feelings about being descended from Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings.”

Willie D, Hip-Hop Legend, chimed in on a recent Instagram post concerning the topic of Thomas Jefferson and the reality of his “relationship” with Sally Hemmings:

“Posing next to Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the US, is his sixth great grandson Shannon LaNier a TV reporter in Houston. Through the years historians, media personalities, authors, and writers have tried to paint a picture of Jefferson’s relationship with LaNier’s grandmother Sally Hemings as a romantic love affair. However, the truth is Jefferson, like all other slave owners was a rapist, human trafficker, and racist murderer. He raped Hemings, forced 5 babies into her [womb], and left them all enslaved when he died. But they put this low life mofo’s name on street signs and monuments. Perhaps the most insulting and irony of all is that this mutt who enslaved human beings wrote the US Declaration of Independence.”

The very existence of slavery in the era of the American Revolution presents a paradox, and we have largely been content to leave it at that, since a paradox can offer a comforting state of moral suspended animation. Jefferson animates the paradox. And by looking closely at Monticello, we can see the process by which he rationalized an abomination to the point where an absolute moral reversal was reached and he made slavery fit into America’s national enterprise.

Smithsonian Magazine – The Dark Side of Thomas Jefferson
Mr. “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,” impregnated his enslaved black women, more than one. There are other’s like Shannon Lanier, whom are living melanated descendants of Thomas Jefferson and the enslaved black women he had “relationships” with. It wasn’t until recently that the Jefferson’s black side of the family was recognized on a public scale. Yet, that recognition has not granted them an equal share of the Jefferson inheritance.