Download or read book Jefferson s Children written by Shannon LaNier and published by Random House Books for Young Readers. This book was released on 2020-12-15 with total page 281 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now available in ebook format--one of the important books that marked the beginning of the ongoing conversation about slavery and our nation's history. From the sixth great-grandson of Thomas Jefferson and enslaved woman Sally Hemmings comes an anthology of Jefferson's living descendants. Told in the style of a family photo album—with a combination of photographs and interviews—Jefferson’s Children is the riveting story of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemming’s sixth great-grandson, Shannon Lanier’s, travels across the country to meet his relatives from both sides of the family. The profiles contained chart the multiple perspectives of Jefferson’s and Hemming’s descendants, from those who embrace their heritage to those who want nothing to do with Jefferson’s legacy. A fascinating picture soon emerges, one that begins with a pairing of two individuals with vastly disparate levels of power—on the one side, the third president of the United States and the author of the Declaration of Independence; on the other, the woman who was his property—and that ultimately represents America’s complicated history with issues of diversity and race and the unusual ways in which we define family. An ALA Best Book for Young Adults “The portraits that emerge are as generous and jumbled as America itself.” —The New York Times “A book about American history, racial identity and the bonds of family that will help young people navigate these difficult areas.” —Black Issues Book Review

Download or read book The Hemingses of Monticello An American Family written by Annette Gordon-Reed and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2009-09-08 with total page 799 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the Pulitzer Prize Winner of the National Book Award New York Times Bestseller #1 on Esquire's List of the 50 Best Biographies of All Time "[A] commanding and important book." —Jill Lepore, The New Yorker 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 Hemings family from its origins in Virginia in the 1700s to the family’s dispersal after Jefferson’s death in 1826.

Download or read book Jefferson s Children the Story of One American Family written by Shannon Lanier and published by Everbind. This book was released on 2009-07-01 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The true accounts of Thomas Jefferson and his children.

Download or read book Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings written by Annette Gordon-Reed and published by University of Virginia Press. This book was released on 1998-03-29 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Annette Gordon-Reed's groundbreaking study was first published, rumors of Thomas Jefferson's sexual involvement with his slave Sally Hemings had circulated for two centuries. Among all aspects of Jefferson's renowned life, it was perhaps the most hotly contested topic. The publication of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings intensified this debate by identifying glaring inconsistencies in many noted scholars' evaluations of the existing evidence. In this study, Gordon-Reed assembles a fascinating and convincing argument: not that the alleged thirty-eight-year liaison necessarily took place but rather that the evidence for its taking place has been denied a fair hearing. Friends of Jefferson sought to debunk the Hemings story as early as 1800, and most subsequent historians and biographers followed suit, finding the affair unthinkable based upon their view of Jefferson's life, character, and beliefs. Gordon-Reed responds to these critics by pointing out numerous errors and prejudices in their writings, ranging from inaccurate citations, to impossible time lines, to virtual exclusions of evidence—especially evidence concerning the Hemings family. She demonstrates how these scholars may have been misguided by their own biases and may even have tailored evidence to serve and preserve their opinions of Jefferson. This updated edition of the book also includes an afterword in which the author comments on the DNA study that provided further evidence of a Jefferson and Hemings liaison. Possessing both a layperson's unfettered curiosity and a lawyer's logical mind, Annette Gordon-Reed writes with a style and compassion that are irresistible. Each chapter revolves around a key figure in the Hemings drama, and the resulting portraits are engrossing and very personal. Gordon-Reed also brings a keen intuitive sense of the psychological complexities of human relationships—relationships that, in the real world, often develop regardless of status or race. The most compelling element of all, however, is her extensive and careful research, which often allows the evidence to speak for itself. Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy is the definitive look at a centuries-old question that should fascinate general readers and historians alike.

Download or read book Jefferson s Daughters written by Catherine Kerrison and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page 450 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Includes a partial Heming's family tree.

Download or read book Jefferson s Children written by Shannon Lanier and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Jefferson s Sons written by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2011-09-15 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This story of Thomas Jefferson's children by one of his slaves, Sally Hemings, tells a darker piece of America's history from an often unseen perspective-that of three of Jefferson's slaves-including two of his own children. As each child grows up and tells his story, the contradiction between slavery and freedom becomes starker, calliing into question the real meaning of "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." This poignant story sheds light on what life was like as one of Jefferson's invisible offspring.

Download or read book A President in the Family written by Byron W. Woodson and published by Praeger. This book was released on 2001-02-28 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A sixth generation descendant of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings details the quest to corroborate family lore, to locate missing family members, and to reveal the truth about the complex day-to-day life at Monticello. 30 photos.

Download or read book Reclamation written by Gayle Jessup White and published by HarperCollins. This book was released on 2021-11-16 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Black descendant of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings’ family explores America’s racial reckoning through the prism of her ancestors—both the enslaver and the enslaved. Gayle Jessup White had long heard the stories passed down from her father’s family, that they were direct descendants of Thomas Jefferson—lore she firmly believed, though others did not. For four decades the acclaimed journalist and genealogy enthusiast researched her connection to Thomas Jefferson, to confirm its truth once and for all. After she was named a Jefferson Studies Fellow, Jessup White discovered her family lore was correct. Poring through photos and documents and pursuing DNA evidence, she learned that not only was she a descendant of Jefferson on his father’s side; she was also the great-great-great-granddaughter of Peter Hemings, Sally Hemings’s brother. In Reclamation she chronicles her remarkable journey to definitively understand her heritage and reclaim it, and offers a compelling portrait of what it means to be a black woman in America, to pursue the American dream, to reconcile the legacy of racism, and to ensure the nation lives up to the ideals advocated by her legendary ancestor.

Download or read book In Defense of Thomas Jefferson written by William G. Hyland and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2009-06-09 with total page 317 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The belief that Thomas Jefferson had an affair and fathered a child (or children) with slave Sally Hemings---and that such an allegation was proven by DNA testing—has become so pervasive in American popular culture that it is not only widely accepted but taught to students as historical fact. But as William G. Hyland Jr. demonstrates, this "fact" is nothing more than the accumulation of salacious rumors and irresponsible scholarship over the years, much of it inspired by political grudges, academic opportunism, and the trend of historical revisionism that seeks to drag the reputation of the Founding Fathers through the mud. In this startling and revelatory argument, Hyland shows not only that the evidence against Jefferson is lacking, but that in fact he is entirely innocent of the charge of having sexual relations with Hemings. Historians have the wrong Jefferson. Hyland, an experienced trial lawyer, presents the most reliable historical evidence while dissecting the unreliable, and in doing so he cuts through centuries of unsubstantiated charges. The author reminds us that the DNA tests identified Eston Hemings, Sally's youngest child, as being merely the descendant of a "Jefferson male." Randolph Jefferson, the president's wayward, younger brother with a reputation for socializing among the Monticello slaves, emerges as the most likely of several possible candidates. Meanwhile, the author traces the evolution of this rumor about Thomas Jefferson back to the allegation made by one James Callendar, a "drunken ruffian" who carried a grudge after unsuccessfully lobbying the president for a postmaster appointment---and who then openly bragged of ruining Jefferson's reputation. Hyland also delves into Hemings family oral histories that go against the popular rumor, as well as the ways in which the Jefferson rumors were advanced by less-than-historical dramas and by flawed scholarly research often shaped by political agendas. Reflecting both a layperson's curiosity and a lawyer's precision, Hyland definitively puts to rest the allegation of the thirty-eight-year liaison between Jefferson and Hemings. In doing so, he reclaims the nation's third president from the arena of Hollywood-style myth and melodrama and gives his readers a unique opportunity to serve as jurors on this enduringly fascinating episode in American history.

Download or read book Thomas Jefferson Dreams of Sally Hemings written by Stephen O'Connor and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2017-05-02 with total page 624 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Dazzling. . . The most revolutionary reimagining of Jefferson’s life ever.” –Ron Charles, Washington Post Winner of the Crook’s Corner Book Prize Longlisted for the 2016 Center for Fiction First Novel Prize A debut novel about Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, in whose story the conflict between the American ideal of equality and the realities of slavery and racism played out in the most tragic of terms. Novels such as Toni Morrison’s Beloved, The Known World by Edward P. Jones, James McBride’s The Good Lord Bird and Cloudsplitter by Russell Banks are a part of a long tradition of American fiction that plumbs the moral and human costs of history in ways that nonfiction simply can't. Now Stephen O’Connor joins this company with a profoundly original exploration of the many ways that the institution of slavery warped the human soul, as seen through the story of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings. O’Connor’s protagonists are rendered via scrupulously researched scenes of their lives in Paris and at Monticello that alternate with a harrowing memoir written by Hemings after Jefferson’s death, as well as with dreamlike sequences in which Jefferson watches a movie about his life, Hemings fabricates an "invention" that becomes the whole world, and they run into each other "after an unimaginable length of time" on the New York City subway. O'Connor is unsparing in his rendition of the hypocrisy of the Founding Father and slaveholder who wrote "all men are created equal,” while enabling Hemings to tell her story in a way history has not allowed her to. His important and beautifully written novel is a deep moral reckoning, a story about the search for justice, freedom and an ideal world—and about the survival of hope even in the midst of catastrophe.

Download or read book Master of the Mountain written by Henry Wiencek and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2012-10-16 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is there anything new to say about Thomas Jefferson and slavery? The answer is a resounding yes. Master of the Mountain, Henry Wiencek's eloquent, persuasive book—based on new information coming from archaeological work at Monticello and on hitherto overlooked or disregarded evidence in Jefferson's papers—opens up a huge, poorly understood dimension of Jefferson's world. We must, Wiencek suggests, follow the money. So far, historians have offered only easy irony or paradox to explain this extraordinary Founding Father who was an emancipationist in his youth and then recoiled from his own inspiring rhetoric and equivocated about slavery; who enjoyed his renown as a revolutionary leader yet kept some of his own children as slaves. But Wiencek's Jefferson is a man of business and public affairs who makes a success of his debt-ridden plantation thanks to what he calls the "silent profits" gained from his slaves—and thanks to a skewed moral universe that he and thousands of others readily inhabited. We see Jefferson taking out a slave-equity line of credit with a Dutch bank to finance the building of Monticello and deftly creating smoke screens when visitors are dismayed by his apparent endorsement of a system they thought he'd vowed to overturn. It is not a pretty story. Slave boys are whipped to make them work in the nail factory at Monticello that pays Jefferson's grocery bills. Parents are divided from children—in his ledgers they are recast as money—while he composes theories that obscure the dynamics of what some of his friends call "a vile commerce." Many people of Jefferson's time saw a catastrophe coming and tried to stop it, but not Jefferson. The pursuit of happiness had been badly distorted, and an oligarchy was getting very rich. Is this the quintessential American story?

Download or read book Thomas Jefferson Builds a Library written by Barb Rosenstock and published by Astra Publishing House. This book was released on 2013-09-01 with total page 33 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Young readers of all ages will love this story about President Thomas Jefferson, who found his passion as soon as he learned to read: books, books, and more books! Before, during, and after the American Revolution, Jefferson collected thousands of books on hundreds of subjects. In fact, his massive collection eventually helped rebuild the Library of Congress—now the largest library in the world. Author Barb Rosenstock's rhythmic words and illustrator John O'Brien's whimsical illustrations capture Jefferson's zeal for the written word as well as little-known details about book collecting. An author's note, bibliography, and source notes for quotations are also included.

Download or read book Framing a Legend written by Mark Holowchak and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: No Marketing Blurb

Download or read book Jefferson s Daughters written by Catherine Kerrison and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2019-01-29 with total page 450 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The remarkable untold story of Thomas Jefferson’s three daughters—two white and free, one black and enslaved—and the divergent paths they forged in a newly independent America FINALIST FOR THE GEORGE WASHINGTON PRIZE • “Beautifully written . . . To a nuanced study of Jefferson’s two white daughters, Martha and Maria, [Kerrison] innovatively adds a discussion of his only enslaved daughter, Harriet Hemings.”—The New York Times Book Review Thomas Jefferson had three daughters: Martha and Maria by his wife, Martha Wayles Jefferson, and Harriet by his slave Sally Hemings. Although the three women shared a father, the similarities end there. Martha and Maria received a fine convent school education while they lived with their father during his diplomatic posting in Paris. Once they returned home, however, the sisters found their options limited by the laws and customs of early America. Harriet Hemings followed a different path. She escaped slavery—apparently with the assistance of Jefferson himself. Leaving Monticello behind, she boarded a coach and set off for a decidedly uncertain future. For this groundbreaking triple biography, history scholar Catherine Kerrison has uncovered never-before-published documents written by the Jefferson sisters, as well as letters written by members of the Jefferson and Hemings families. The richly interwoven stories of these strong women and their fight to shape their own destinies shed new light on issues of race and gender that are still relevant today—and on the legacy of one of our most controversial Founding Fathers. Praise for Jefferson’s Daughters “A fascinating glimpse of where we have been as a nation . . . Catherine Kerrison tells us the stories of three of Thomas Jefferson’s children, who, due to their gender and race, lived lives whose most intimate details are lost to time.”—USA Today “A valuable addition to the history of Revolutionary-era America.”—The Boston Globe “A thought-provoking nonfiction narrative that reads like a novel.”—BookPage

Download or read book Martha Jefferson Randolph Daughter of Monticello written by Cynthia A. Kierner and published by Univ of North Carolina Press. This book was released on 2012-05-14 with total page 371 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the oldest and favorite daughter of Thomas Jefferson, Martha "Patsy" Jefferson Randolph (1772-1836) was extremely well educated, traveled in the circles of presidents and aristocrats, and was known on two continents for her particular grace and sincerity. Yet, as mistress of a large household, she was not spared the tedium, frustration, and great sorrow that most women of her time faced. Though Patsy's name is familiar because of her famous father, Cynthia Kierner is the first historian to place Patsy at the center of her own story, taking readers into the largely ignored private spaces of the founding era. Randolph's life story reveals the privileges and limits of celebrity and shows that women were able to venture beyond their domestic roles in surprising ways. Following her mother's death, Patsy lived in Paris with her father and later served as hostess at the President's House and at Monticello. Her marriage to Thomas Mann Randolph, a member of Congress and governor of Virginia, was often troubled. She and her eleven children lived mostly at Monticello, greeting famous guests and debating issues ranging from a woman's place to slavery, religion, and democracy. And later, after her family's financial ruin, Patsy became a fixture in Washington society during Andrew Jackson's presidency. In this extraordinary biography, Kierner offers a unique look at American history from the perspective of this intelligent, tactfully assertive woman.

Download or read book Thomas Jefferson s Feast written by Frank Murphy and published by Random House Books for Young Readers. This book was released on 2013-02-12 with total page 49 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Whether they're preparing for President's Day or whether they just like to eat, children will find much to devour in this leveled reader about Thomas Jefferson's role in America's culinary history! Did you know that every time you munch on a french fry or snack on ice cream, you have Thomas Jefferson to thank? It’s true! This founding father was one of America’s first foodies. After a visit to France, he introduced all sorts of yummy treats to America—including one that upset more than just tummies and created a culinary controversy! Get the scoop in this deliciously funny, true story—guaranteed to tempt even the most reluctant readers!