JAMES THOMSON CALLENDER
(A History of the United States for the Year 1796)
This was the first public outing of Thomas Jefferson’s sexual relationship with his slave Sally Hemmings.
James Thomson Callender was a political pamphleteer and journalist whose writing was controversial in his native Scotland and later, also in the United States. His contemporary reputation was as a "scandalmonger", due to the content of some of his reporting, which overshadowed the political content — some modern scholars note Callender's writings in favor of democracy. In the United States, he was a central figure in the press wars between the Federalist and Democratic-Republican parties. In the late 1790s, Thomas Jefferson sought him out to attack President John Adams, which Callender did. After Jefferson won the presidency, Callender expected employment as a postmaster, which was denied by Jefferson. Callender then published existing rumors claiming President Jefferson had children with slave Sally Hemings.
