NPR Breaks 4th of July Tradition of Reading Declaration of Independence to Examine Its History
Inskeep interviewed Harvard professor Annette Gordon-Reed, who wrote a book in 1997 about Thomas Jefferson’s affair with one of his slaves, Sally Hemings, and the children born from that relationship. He also spoke with Harvard historian Jill Lepore, who said that Jefferson took the idea from Enlightenment thinkers.“It’s fashionable, and rightfully so, to indict the limits of [Jefferson’s] vision,” Lepore said.