This epic work–named a best book of the year by the Washington Post, Time, the Los Angeles Times, Amazon, the San Francisco Chronicle, and a notable book by the New York Times–tells the story of the Hemingses, whose close blood ties to our third president had been systematically expunged from American history until very recently. Now, historian and legal scholar Annette Gordon-Reed traces the … the Hemings family from its origins in Virginia in the 1700s to the family’s dispersal after Jefferson’s death in 1826.
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This winner of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award makes use of legal documents, letters, diaries, and oral histories to bring to life multiple generations of an enslaved American family. The Hemingses’ relationship to Thomas Jefferson is only one part of Gordon-Reed’s fascinating account.
This book tells the true story of Sally Hemings, Thomas Jefferson and Monticello. Historian, Annette Gordon Reed lays bare Hemings’ life, including her connection to Jefferson’s wife, Martha Wayles Jefferson, as well as her fateful trip to Paris.
The book is a true page turner, and I found it nearly impossible to put down. The Heminges of …
I love realistic approach to the history of the United States of slavery of american founding fathers, hidden history revealed!!!
I enjoyed this historical account of Jefferson’s life.
Very informative but also confusing and difficult to follow at times. It made me a lot more aware of the lives of the Negroes under the plantation slave holders who also were the same men who founded our country and Constitution.
Too much repetition about the same thing.
Very informative and interesting
I truly enjoyed reading this book, it was most informative and recounts how nothing much has changed in politics and life in general since the mid 1700s.
well researched and very readable.
Fascinating read about Jefferson’s second family and what life was like for enslaved people.
Learned so much I didn’t know, esp about their time in France. Can’t wait to return to Monticello and see the brand new Sally Hemmings exhibit with a more informed view. A tedious, slow read but well worth it. All Americans need to read this book.
If the naysayers of the Hemings-Jefferson relationship would read this they would come away with a clear understanding of the truth of this relationship and the generations it produced. This is an almost academic accounting of their lives apart and together.
Before I read this book I didn’t realize the wife of Thomas Jefferson had half-siblings (through her father) who were slaves. And that they were GIVEN to her on her wedding to TJ. This book goes a little over the top in arguing its logic re: Sally Hemmings, but made me feel more than any other the horror that was slavery. It’s the mundane details, …
Much too long – wordy and repetitive. The author offers conjecture about the state of mind of the characters, instead of analysis of the facts. No one can know the state of mind of these people.
Well done
Terrible writing
Good way to learn some history.
Very interesting and informative.
Too boring
Very difficult to read and follow. Definitely more like a textbook.