Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy (Annette Gordon-Reed) TP-Good, Signed by author

Now updated with a new author”s note about the recent DNA study confirming the Jefferson-Hemings liaison

Rumors of Thomas Jefferson”s sexual involvement with his slave Sally Hemings have circulated for two centuries. It remains, among all aspects of Jefferson”s renowned life, perhaps the most hotly contested topic. With Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, Annette Gordon-Reed promises to intensify this ongoing debate as she identifies glaring inconsistencies in many noted scholars” evaluations of the existing evidence. She has assembled 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 have 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.

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 is a controversial new look at a centuries-old question that should fascinate general readers and historians alike. It promises to be the definitive word on the subject for years to come.

Publishers Weekly

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.)