To put it differently, a racial fault line runs through the center of the American experience, and Jefferson straddles that divide with uncommon agility, making him our greatest saint and greatest sinner, the iconic embodiment of our triumphs and tragedies. Rather than side with his most ardent admirers or his most acerbic critics, we need to recognize not that the truth lies in between, but that Jefferson is a fusion of both sides in their most enigmatic shape, the Mona Lisa of American racial history.
