Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy

by Annette Gordon-Reed

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813933566
Publisher:	University of Virginia Press
Publication date:	03/29/1998
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	278,073
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Annette Gordon-Reed is the Charles Warren Professor of American Legal History at Harvard Law School, Professor of History in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and the Carol K. Pforzheimer Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University. She is the author of The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family, which won both the Pulitzer Prize in History and the National Book Award for Nonfiction.

What People are Saying About This

"Short of digging up Jefferson and doing DNA testing on him and Hemings' descendants, Gordon-Reed's account gets us as close to the truth as the available evidence allows." -- Joseph J. Ellis, author of American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson

Gore Vidal

Gordon-Reed's is a thorough, balanced, tactful treatment of this issue that goes deep into the United States psyche on race and sex.

Editorial Reviews

Gordon-Reed takes on the historians who would deny that Thomas Jefferson had a 38-year relationship with Sally Hemings, one of his slaves, and she does so both by presenting historical evidence of that relationship and by critiquing their denials. While her account is reasoned and logical, Gordon-Reed is a law professor (at New York Law School) who writes like a lawyer. She justifies this legalistic tone in her preface by pointing out that historians often use legal phrases when debating the controversy, but that doesn't make this dry presentation of the facts any more readable. Primary sources (Madison Hemings's recounting of his mother's relationship with Jefferson, in which he claims Jefferson as his father; the memoirs of Israel Jefferson, a former slave of Jefferson's who corroborated Hemings's story; and a pair of letters discussing the Jefferson-Hemings relationship) are the most lively reading, but they have been banished to an appendix. Gordon-Reed approaches the various players in this drama chapter by chapter and dissects the collective denial of traditional historians with regard to each. She not only handily refutes theories such as the idea that one of Jefferson's nephews, either Samuel Carr or Peter Carr, fathered Hemings's children, but points out the racism inherent in insisting, for example, that Madison Hemings's story of his life cannot be correct because the language is too sophisticated. Her contention that "Thomas Jefferson's racism was not extraordinary" is believable and intriguing, but too much that is of interest here becomes obfuscated by legal devices, including a chapter titled "Summary of the Evidence." History Book Club dual main. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Explores evidence of Jefferson's involvement with his slave Sally Hemings, his wife's half sister, arguing that evidence for the alleged 38-year liaison has been denied a fair hearing. Chapters are based on key figures in the families involved. Includes a key to important names, the memoirs of Madison Hemings and Israel Jefferson, and letters. For general readers and historians. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

Booknews

In this lucid and compelling book, Annette Gordon-Reed confronts the tale of a Jefferson- Hemings liaison neither to prove nor disprove it. Instead her goal is to weigh the evidence, to evaluate its possibility. In doing so, she provides a meticulous review of primary documents and looks at the way in which the best historians can fall prey to unreasoned predispositions.

Patricia J. Williams

This is the definitive work on the Thomas Jefferson-Sally Hemings issue. Gordon-Reed has produced an extraordinarily fine piece of historical research on a subject loaded with minefields for even the most cautious of historians.

Charles B. Dew

Short of digging up Jefferson and doing DNA testing on him and Hemings' descendants, Gordon-Reed's account gets us as close to the truth as the available evidence allows.

Joseph J. Ellis

In this lucid and compelling book, Annette Gordon-Reed confronts the tale of a Jefferson- Hemings liaison neither to prove nor disprove it. Instead her goal is to weigh the evidence, to evaluate its possibility. In doing so, she provides a meticulous review of primary documents and looks at the way in which the best historians can fall prey to unreasoned predispositions.

author of The Alchemy of Race and Rights Patricia J. Williams

"This is the definitive work on the Thomas Jefferson-Sally Hemings issue. Gordon-Reed has produced an extraordinarily fine piece of historical research on a subject loaded with minefields for even the most cautious of historians. "—Charles B. Dew, author of Bond of Iron: Master and Slave at Buffalo Forge

"Short of digging up Jefferson and doing DNA testing on him and Hemings' descendants, Gordon-Reed's account gets us as close to the truth as the available evidence allows. "—Joseph J. Ellis, author of American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson

"In this lucid and compelling book, Annette Gordon-Reed confronts the tale of a Jefferson- Hemings liaison neither to prove nor disprove it. Instead her goal is to weigh the evidence, to evaluate its possibility. In doing so, she provides a meticulous review of primary documents and looks at the way in which the best historians can fall prey to unreasoned predispositions. "—author of Patricia J. Williams, author of The Alchemy of Race and Rights

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