The Jefferson–Hemings controversy has concerned the question of whether, after Jefferson became a widower, he had a sexual relationship with Sally Hemings, a young mixed-race woman whom he enslaved and who was a half sister of his late wife, and fathered her children. The controversy dates from the 1790s: newspaper articles appeared during Jefferson's lifetime accusing him of fathering children with an enslaved woman named Sally. Jefferson's descendants denied it, saying that a relative, Peter Carr, was the father. Major American historians and biographers of Jefferson adopted this theory, and generally avoided the issue of Jefferson's potential relationship, relying on his writings to rule out such a relationship with an enslaved woman.