Jefferson’s Daughters

Jefferson’s Daughters: Three Sisters, White and Black, in a Young America by Catherine Kerrison        Audio Book: 17 hours, 3 mins      Hardback Book:  448 pages          

A most excellent telling of the family history of Thomas Jefferson and his progeny.       Very well researched and told.    This book gives the reader a look at Jefferson’s background, his political life and his family life, both his time in America and the time he spent as a diplomat in France.    It discusses his marriage and loss of his wife and how Sally Hemmings came to be at Monticello and when he and his daughters took her with them to France as a servant and companion to his daughters while there.     The author’s research shows that France did not recognize slavery and when Jefferson left France, Sally Hemmings could have stayed behind a free woman though she had no ready income of her own and would have had to find work and living quarters without help from the Jeffersons had she done so.   The author shows that Jefferson made a pact with her that he would free any children born of their union upon his death and would see that their children would not have to do field labor during his life but would be employed as house servants with some income.     Sally Hemmings and Thomas Jefferson had 6 children, four of which survived to adulthood.   Their three sons, Beverly, Madison and Eston were said to be the spitting image of Jefferson and all were able to pass as Caucasians.     Jefferson and Hemmings’ daughter, Harriet, is thought to have done so. Too, as James Madison said that he knew her well, she was living in Washington, D.C. and had married and had a family.    He would not disclose any more than that about her nor her brother Beverly as Madison kept in touch with them for many years  and would only say that Beverly and Harriet appeared to be happy and doing well, were prosperous and had children of their own and were wealthy members of the community, and both were well thought of bytheir peers.     In so doing, they assured their children of a life of privilege and not servitude which they would have been forced into in those days.   In reinventing themselves,  they denied their parentage and took up another identity thus assuring their heirs a better life than they had started out with by very effectively erasing themselves from known history and Harriet never saw her mother nor two siblings back at Monticello thereafter.     Really in-depth and enthralling.    You will learn much here you hadn’t heard about in your American History classes.   Bravo!   Well done!  I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is history a buff, who finds American history captivating and who would like to know more about what happened to the descendents of Sally Hemmings and Jefferson.   Excellent book.   And you will find out Jefferson left a LOT of debts and why.    (Let’s just say his daughters by his wife were users and expected him to keep them, their non-working husbands and their broods of children in a courtly lifestyle while they did nothing to contribute to the household income.   YEAH that blew through the cash real quick then they ungratefully blamed him and the country for not providing for them until their deaths.)   Reader, you will learn a lot from this book.   Well done.   I highly recommend this book.