In 1802, a revenge-seeking journalist named James T. Callender charged that Thomas Jefferson, president of the United States and author of the Declaration of Independence, had taken a light-skinned slave named Sally Hemings as his mistress, adn that the relationship resulted in five children. It was also alleged that one of the children was sold into prositution at a slave market in New Orleans. Callender's charges have surfaced periodically, only to be deflated by scholars.