Sally hemings biography book

  • An exciting, concise biography tells that tells the extraordinary tale of Sally Hemings, mother of Thomas Jefferson's enslaved children.
  • The story, told in alternating time narratives, begins in when Sally is aproximately sixty years old and is visited by a census taker called Nathan.
  • Placing Hemings within the history of American women and slavery, the book acts as an introduction to race, gender, slavery, and freedom in the first fifty.

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    Sally Hemings: Given Her Time

    Sally Hemings: Given Her Time is an exciting, concise biography tells that tells the extraordinary tale of Sally Hemings, mother of Thomas Jefferson's enslaved children.

    Born on the eve of the American Revolution, the war hung over Sally Hemings' childhood. As a teenager, she travelled to Paris to witness the beginning of another revolution. There, she entered a painful bargain and became Jefferson's concubine in exchange for her children's freedom. Over thirty-six years she gave birth to seven children, buried three, and raised four, all while hoping their father would make good on his promise.

    Placing Hemings within the history of American women and slavery, the book acts as an introduction to race, gender, slavery, and freedom in the first fifty years of the American republic. Within this context, Hemings' life demands an honest reckoning with the national foundations of race, gender, bondage, and freedom from the vantage of a woman for

  • sally hemings biography book

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    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 , 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 poin

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    Sally Hemings & Thomas Jefferson: History, Memory, and Civic Culture

    The publication of DNA test results showing that Thomas Jefferson was probably the father of one of his slave framstöt Hemings's children has sparked a broad but often superficial debate. The editors of this volume have assembled some of the most distinguished American historians, including three Pulitzer Prize winners, and other experts on Jefferson, his times, race, and slavery. Their essays reflect the deeper questions the relationship between Hemings and Jefferson has raised about American history and national culture.

    The DNA tests would not have been conducted had there not already been strong historical bevis for the possibility of a relationship. As historians from Winthrop D. Jordan to Annette Gordon-Reed have argued, much more fryst vatten at stake in this liaison than the mere question of paternity: historians must ask themselves if they are prepared to accept the full implications of our complicated