Twenty, perhaps even ten years ago, it would have been inconceivable to imagine the guide at Thomas Jefferson’s Virginia home telling visitors that Jefferson had, yes, probably fathered children with the enslaved woman, Sally Hemings.
Yet, this is exactly what happens since DNA tests elevated this
speculation from the status of rumour to that of scientifically proven probability.

This addition to the ‘standard’ Monticello tour is only the tip of the iceberg. Far more exciting is the underlying reassessment of history that African-American researchers and scholars spearheaded and that is now gaining widespread currency. By compiling ever more detailed pictures of African-American history, researchers have been prying open the stereotypes and myths that misinform our present attitudes. They also show us that race relations are not immutable: If they have changed before then they can change again.