Jefferson did not express his doubts about the credibility of the stories of black achievement to Father Gregoire directly. Instead, Jefferson sent the abolitionist priest, “a very soft answer.” Later, however, to his friend Barlow, Jefferson belittled Gregoire’s book of literature, implying that some of the productions could have been fictitious or come from mixed-race authors. Jefferson then went further and cast doubt on the credibility and intelligence of Benjamin Banneker, a black mathematician to whom Barton refers as having impressed Jefferson.
