About this title: This epic work tells the story of the Hemings family, whose close blood ties to the third president of America had been systematically expunged from history until very recently. Now, historian and legal scholar Annette Gordon-Reed traces the Hemingses from their origins in Virginia in the 1700s to the family's dispersal after Thomas Jefferson's ...
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Description: Very Good. 0393064778 Ships next business day. Very Good Condition and Unread! Text is clean and unmarked! No dust jacket. --Be Sure to Compare Seller Feedback and Ratings before Purchasing--Has a small black line on bottom/exterior edge of pages. read more
Description: Very Good. 0393064778 Gently Used Hardcover ~ minor shelf-wear, otherwise Neat & Tight Binding ~ all books carefully examined & well packaged. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: W.W. Norton & Co
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9780393337761ISBN:0393337766
Description: New. Brand New! Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc
Date Published: 2008-09-28
ISBN-13:9780393064773ISBN:0393064778
Description: NEW. Hardcover. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9780393064773. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: W. W. Norton
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9780393064773ISBN:0393064778
Description: New. Brand New! Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Binding: Spoken Word MP3-CD
Publisher: Tantor Media Inc
Date Published: 2008-10-20
ISBN-13:9781400159758ISBN:140015975X
Description: NEW. Spoken Word MP3-CD. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9781400159758. read more
Binding: Audio CD
Publisher: Tantor Media
Date Published: 2008
ISBN-13:9781400159758ISBN:140015975X
Description: New. Brand New! Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
"Currently reading. Hmmmm. I'm torn about this book. I think it exceptionally well written, but the author makes enormous leaps and bounds regarding the players. I understand that sources are thin on the ground, but you can't say, "Well, it seems logical that slaves would feel this way if they'd spent four years in France." Well, no, you can't go there as much as you would like to. She is on much firmer ground when discussing Jefferson's motivations, but then again, he was a compulsive writer and list maker. I'm halfway through. I'm not questioning the scholarship, it seems well researched but I am questioning the author's tendency to make history's silk purse out of the sources sow's ear."
"I didn't get to finish the book, but I want to rate it anyway. It is a library book, and the rest of the books from this batch need to go back soon, and this one, being new, can't be renewed.
For the second time I've picked this book up and I've been caught by the author's very good writing style. In addition, right now the part of the book that I'm reading is more about what it was like to be a member of the Hemings family or any family black or white that was living around Thomas Jefferson, than it is about Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson.
One of the things the author speaks about is that we don't know how the women who were living in slavery felt about the men who fathered their children. In many cases the relationships with those men, black or white, lasted a very long time. The term "concubine" was used for more than one of the Hemings women. And some of the children of those relationships took their father's last names, and some of them kept their mother's last name. It must have meant something depending on which they did, but we don't always know what it meant.
Some of the relationships were built on rape, but some were not. And it was an era when white women were also being forced into unwanted marriages. So it wasn't just black women who felt they could not control their own bodies.
The author also discussed that Elizabeth Hemings had a father who wanted to buy her out of slavery but her mother's owner would not sell the child. One of the reasons that Elizabeth Hemings, Sally's mother, had a last name of her own was that she had been acknowledged by her father as his child. Having a name and knowing what it was was important.
A lot of the reviewers here and at Amazon mention that the book was repetitive, and I agree. I think the author thought that what she had to say about slavery was so different from what other have said that she needed to make her point over and over again. Perhaps a single chapter with all of her arguments in one place early in the book would have worked better."
"lynda was right.. this one was pretty dry. i sat down with it the first night and opened the book expecting to settle in to a juicy novel that was based on historical fact. that's almost what i got... almost. it wasn't juicy at all, and while it was definitely factual, there was absolutely NO juice. it read like a history book.. an interesting part of history, but a text book just wasn't what i was hoping for. i learned a lot about thomas jefferson and his family, the slaves he owned, and the one he took as a concubine. i was enlightened but not enthralled enough to finish the giant book. i got about 300 pages into it before it was due back at the library and i wasn't attached enough to it to re-check. maybe someday when i feel like learning more about mr. jefferson i'll give it another go."
"Gordon-Reed has written an meticulously researched epic of the Hemingses, an 18th century Virginia slave family. Thomas Jefferson inherited the Hemingses and other slave families from his father-in-law. The Hemingses received special treatment from Jefferson and Gordon-Reed argues that was because they were half brothers and sisters to Jefferson' s beloved wife, Martha. After Martha's early death Jefferson began a thirty-eight year liaison with Sally Hemings, Martha's beautiful, mixed-race, half-sister. Jefferson and Hemings had seven children together.
The book examines the complicated family relationships that existed between Jefferson, Sally Hemmings, their mixed-race children, Jefferson's two white daughters from his marriage to Martha and Martha's half-brothers (also slaves in Jefferson's home). Gordon-Reed, a law professor, provides detailed information about prevailing attitudes and behaviors on race and slavery and systematically builds case after case in which she interprets family members' feelings, motivations and behaviors. The portrait of Jefferson that emerges is of a man who hated slavery intellectually, but who was too self-indulgent and emotionally needy to give up all his slaves. This book is fascinating, but I would have preferred an abridged version."
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Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy
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