At last we've published an entry that was more than a year in the making: our biography of Sally Hemings, the enslaved house servant of Thomas Jefferson—and, many historians believe, the mother of at least six children by Jefferson. 

Our entry was written by Virginia Scharff, professor of history and director of the Center for the Southwest at the University of New Mexico and the author of The Women Jefferson Loved; was reviewed by a group of scholars that includes J. Jefferson Looney and Lucia "Cinder" Stanton; and is packed with primary resources. It's a complete record not only of Hemings's life, but of the controversy surrounding the paternity of her children.

We believe this entry is the best and most comprehensive introduction to Sally Hemings available online—for free or otherwise. But don't take our word for it: see for yourself, and, as always, let us know what you think.

It took a village to produce our Sally Hemings entry, and its newest resident is Margaret Lewis, EV's primary resource specialist. Margaret earned her doctorate in history from the University of Virginia, where she specialized in early modern German history. She has worked on the staff of the Papers of George Washington and is a project scholar at Documents Compass, a sister program of the Encyclopedia. She's also fluent in German and plays forward on a local soccer team.

We asked Margaret to share some of EV's standout primary resources related to Hemings.

"Life Among the Lowly, No. 1" by Madison Hemings (1873): "Whether or not he was actually Thomas Jefferson's son, he had a fascinating life. It seems very bold, to me, for him to make this claim, and I wonder if he knew the extent of the public's reaction. Could he have even imagined that in 2012 we would still be discussing his words? As evidenced by our blog and Facebook page, such documents not only stir up controversy about Charlottesville's favorite historical figure, but also about what the role of the historian in these cases should be. Is it our job to simply present what evidence we have, or is it up to us to make an argument about what we think actually happened?" 

Excerpt from "Jefferson Fathered Slave's Last Child," published in Nature magazine (1998): "This is a very different kind of document for us, but it is a very striking piece of evidence in this collection. The other documents are all letters or articles written in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, which we examine, looking for meaning in the words. In contrast, this is a modern scientific study, with a new kind of evidence and much different implications."

Your support of and enthusiasm for Encyclopedia Virginia has helped us to have our best and busiest year yet. In 2012:

+ We made our partnership with the Library of Virginia official.

+ The NEH awarded EV and its new partners a grant to develop a section of content about the African American experience in Virginia from 1861 to 1902. 

+ We talked a LOT about Thomas Jefferson.

+ We launched a beautiful and user-friendly redesign of our site.

+ We collaborated with a group Virginia teachers and librarians to develop classroom activities that utilize our site's content—activities we hope to share with you in 2013.

+ We added hundreds of entries, primary resources, and images to our site. Topics covered in 2012 included John Smith, the Ku Klux Klan in Virginia, Colonial Virginia, Robert E. Lee in Memory, Tsenacomoco, Slave Ships and the Middle Passage, Richard Cornish, Gabriel's Conspiracy, the Battle of Antietam, Tobacco in Colonial Virginia, and more.

Whether you wrote an entry, used EV in the classroom, "liked" us on Facebook, or simply visited the site, thank you. You help us to make Encyclopedia Virginia a rich and robust resource for people in Virginia and beyond. See you in 2013!