Annette Gordon-Reed is the Charles Warren Professor of American Legal History at Harvard Law School, Professor of History in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and the Carol K. Pforzheimer Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University. She is the author of The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family, which won both the Pulitzer Prize in History and the National Book Award for Nonfiction.
This is the definitive work on the Thomas Jefferson-Sally Hemings
issue. Gordon-Reed has produced an extraordinarily fine piece of
historical research on a subject loaded with minefields for even
the most cautious of historians." —Charles B. Dew, author of Bond
of Iron: Master and Slave at Buffalo Forge
"Short of digging up Jefferson and doing DNA testing on him and
Hemings' descendants, Gordon-Reed's account gets us as close to the
truth as the available evidence allows." —Joseph J. Ellis, author
of American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson
"In this lucid and compelling book, Annette Gordon-Reed confronts
the tale of a Jefferson- Hemings liaison neither to prove nor
disprove it. Instead her goal is to weigh the evidence, to evaluate
its possibility. In doing so, she provides a meticulous review of
primary documents and looks at the way in which the best historians
can fall prey to unreasoned predispositions." —Patricia J.
Williams, author of The Alchemy of Race and Rights
Historian Ellis (Passionate Sage: The Character and Legacy of John Adams, LJ 4/15/93) does not attempt to give a full-scale biography of the Sage of Monticello. Rather, he offers a balanced meditation on Jefferson's character and ideals. Reaffirming and taking further what some previous authors have stated, Ellis maintains that Jefferson's ambiguous, secretive character was able to support mutually contradictory positions on a variety of issues. Moreover, Jefferson often retreated into romantic illusions rather than face reality. Ellis's work is based on many years of research into this period of American history, and it is perfectly pitched to appeal to both general readers and specialists. Attorney Gordon-Reed (law, New York Law Sch.) presents a lawyer's analysis of the evidence for and against the proposition that Jefferson was the father of several children born to his household slave Sally Hemings. Gordon-Reed is not concerned with Jefferson and Hemings as much as she is with how Jefferson's defenders have dealt with the evidence about the case. Her book takes aim at such noteworthy biographers as Dumas Malone, who has been quick to accept evidence against a liaison and quick to reject evidence for one. In sum, the Jefferson who emerges from these two books is a great though deeply flawed man. Both books are highly recommended as essential reading for all libraries.‘Thomas J. Schaeper, St. Bonaventure Univ., N.Y.
This is the definitive work on the Thomas Jefferson-Sally Hemings
issue. Gordon-Reed has produced an extraordinarily fine piece of
historical research on a subject loaded with minefields for even
the most cautious of historians." -Charles B. Dew, author of
Bond of Iron: Master and Slave at Buffalo Forge
"Short of digging up Jefferson and doing DNA testing on him and
Hemings' descendants, Gordon-Reed's account gets us as close to the
truth as the available evidence allows." -Joseph J. Ellis, author
of American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson
"In this lucid and compelling book, Annette Gordon-Reed confronts
the tale of a Jefferson- Hemings liaison neither to prove nor
disprove it. Instead her goal is to weigh the evidence, to evaluate
its possibility. In doing so, she provides a meticulous review of
primary documents and looks at the way in which the best historians
can fall prey to unreasoned predispositions." -Patricia J.
Williams, author of The Alchemy of Race and Rights
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