Total Page : 816
Publisher : W W Norton Company
Publication Date : 2009 09 08
>> I get it and I got it an hour ago when she said it the first time
Never did I think I would find a book that managed to both be so over complicated and simplistic at the same time While this is ostensibly a book about the Hemmings family of Monticello anyone reading it without knowing the title could be easily forgiven for thinking otherwise
This author uses droning and ceaseless historical commentary to compensate for a near complete dearth of accurate historical evidence and then when a piece of evidence is finally avaliable she spends 10 pages or more beating it relentlessly into the ground For example in the chapters involving Sally Hemming s stay in France the author spends great stretches explaining a diet and exercise regimen sally MIGHT have had for an illness she MIGHT have had goes into a never ending recital of the French laws concerning slavery and engages in the most mind numbing guesswork of motives when absolutely none were present
There is no information presented in this book that has not been stated elsewhere in a better fashion I was literally yelling at the pages at times with sheer frustration The closest I can compare it to is a biography of Eleanor of Aquitaine A historian will spend hours discussing the motives of her sons father and husband and laboriously attempt to pick through them to discern any possible role she had in them Now imagine if the historian had equally little knowledge of her sons father and husband as they have of Eleanor herself and you will roughly approach the problems within this book
Moreover evenas a person of mixed white and black ancestry I found the constant harping on the evils of slavery entirely excessive This is a book of a slave family not of slavery but you could barely tell
The only possible good words I have for this book is that the author tried to expand on a topic not often covered in such detail
>> Jefferson s expanded family
The author is to be commended for outstanding research and an objective perspective of the relationship between Jefferson and the Hemingses However her writing is very repetitive and relies heavily on assumptions based on very little concrete evidence
Nevertheless the book was valuable for giving a thorough look at the complexities of the slave/owner relationships during that time period I feel like I have a much better understanding of Jefferson for better and for worse than before
>> Interesting history
This book tells the story of the slave family of the early American President Thomas Jefferson It was very interesting reading and it is surprising that this family were so successfully hidden from common knowledge for so long The book is well researched and very readable It doesn t become too dry and factual and is written in such a way that it tells the story of the Hemingses from the start of their captivity as slaves right through to the aftermath of Thomas Jefferson s death
