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Dec 06, 2010

Kimberly rated it:

I will not finish this book. For a non-fiction work there is too much conjecture and speculation about the character's feelings without sources to back it up. I also felt manipulated while reading. I do not need to be reminded over and over again about how morally wrong, cruel and degrading slavery was - I possessed this opinion long before I picked up this book. There seemed to be an angry tone throughout.
Perhaps there are some redeeming qualities to this book - it did win the Nationa More...

11 comments like (13 people liked it)

Jan 10, 2009

Bruce rated it:

This is an extremely well written and thought provoking boook. Gordon-Reed addresses the history of the Hemings family, the slaves whose live were so completely intertwined with the life of Thomas Jefferson. She focuses on them and their individual lives, not just as extensions of Jefferson, although he was of course, central to their existence.

I am surprised at some of the comments I have read about this book. I did not find Gordon-Reed to be particularly angry, although, God kn More...

1 comment like (7 people liked it)

Oct 30, 2008

Sara W rated it:

I just cannot finish this book.

I found parts of this book to be excellent. When the author presented a narrative about what the people did based on primary sources (and some secondary sources), I was hooked. It was well written and incredibly interesting. I would easily have given those parts 4 stars.

The problem is, those parts are less than half of what I managed to read. A good part of the book is just speculation. She even tells the reader when she is departing fr More...

0 comments like (7 people liked it)

Mar 01, 2009

Andrew rated it:

This is a very ambitious attempt to reconstruct the world of the Hemingses who lived at Monticello with Thomas Jefferson. Given the absence of diaries, letters, paintings, or direct accounts from the subjects in the book that would provide direct evidence for such a project, this was a very tricky task.

Gordon-Reed's approach is primarily to use the context of slavery, psychology, and business transaction ledgers to figure out what must of happened. She relies heavily on supposition More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jan 17, 2011

Doug Piero rated it:

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0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 05, 2010

Tony added it

When Southern white men like Thomas Jefferson took slave mistresses, the results could be uncomfortably complicated--especially if that meant children. Annette Gordon-Reed's "The Hemingses of Monticello" looks at the the most famous case. She shows how Jefferson & Sally Hemings' ambiguous genealogy and connections sometimes protected them, and even helped a few to escape. But she also stresses the limits: legal freedom didn't get them beyond working class status, and for some who co More...

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Jan 03, 2009

Cynthia rated it:

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Jan 24, 2012

Sheri rated it:

Jefferson has always been one of my favorite presidents for a variety of reasons. But I've always been troubled by his ownership of 100+ slaves until his death, and then his failure to free them when he died because they were valuable property needed to pay his debts & leave some assets to his white heirs.

This family biography by Gordon-Reed of the Hemings family -- an extended family of slaves owned by Jefferson and which included Sally Hemings, Jefferson's slave mistress for nearl More...

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Dec 03, 2011

Hava rated it:

I just read another review which said that she couldn't continue with this book because the author belabored the point that slavery is evil, and that her tone can came across as being angry. I couldn't agree more. I just started this book (I was listening to it in the audio form) and finally had to quit. I am absolutely, un-equivocally, 100% against slavery. I totally agree with the fact that slavery is evil and that its abolishment was one of the great struggles in our nation's past that needed More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 08, 2011

Jagad5 rated it:

This book would be twice as good if it were half as long. I listened to the first third or so in the car. Every point is explained six different ways - except that, at least as far as I survived, the author did not discuss the evidence of Jefferson's paternity or not. The DNA evidence is compelling that a Jefferson fathered children with Sally Hemmings but it is impossible to verify that the Jefferson was Thomas.

Considering how much time the author spent reviewing the paternity of Martha Wayles More...

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Jul 30, 2011

James (JD) added it

As a work of scholarship and intuition, this book ranks five stars. Gordon-Reed has followed up her groundbreaking work on Sally Hemings with a book that focuses on the Hemings family as a whole--anchored by Elizabeth Hemings, herself a product of an African mother and English father, and the mother of seven children by her owner, John Wayles, Jefferson's father-in-law.

The Hemingses of Monticello are central to this account--although they provide key insights into Jefferson's morality, his deci More...

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Aug 20, 2010

Judy rated it:

While not an easy read, this is a fascinating book that deserved every honor that it was given when it was published. When Thomas Jefferson married Martha Wayles Skelton she brought with her, and then Jeffrson inherited from her father, a family of slaves (Hemings) who were the product of John Wayles's long sexual relationship with a slave women. These slaves were half-brothers and half-sisters of Martha Jefferson. Unfortunately Martha Jefferson died at the age of 34 leaving Jefferson with th More...

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Jul 08, 2010

Elizabeth rated it:

Thanks to DNA testing, we can know definitively that Thomas Jefferson and his slave Sally Hemings had children. Lots of white Jeffersons tried to deny that over the years--and lots of white Hemingses who didn't wany to acknowledge their black ancestor also tried to deny it. This is a fascinating domestic biography based for the most part of conjecture and the history of the period. The author, a historian and fine writer, does have the annoying habit of writing statements such as "we may More...

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Apr 23, 2010

Jeff added it

The Hemingses of Monticello, by Annette Gordon-Reed , poses and answers a question which should have been asked long ago; what if the Thomas Jefferson/Sally Hemings controversy isn’t really ‘about’ Jefferson at all? What if instead we put the surprisingly well-documented story of the Hemings family front and center? Viewed in that light, the entire picture changes. Gordon-Reed brilliantly and sometimes movingly draws the group portrait of several generations of slaves who had both a keen intere More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Mar 22, 2010

Suzanne rated it:

I have just finished reading this book and have to admit I was throughly disappointed. As an amateur historian (my undergraduate degree is in this field), I feel I have read and studied enough history to have a feel for when an author is taking facts and analyzing them as compared to taking facts and making conjectures based upon them. Ms. Gordon-Reed's book falls into the latter category.

Many of Ms. Gordon-Reed's premises are based upon sheer speculation. For example, she suggest More...

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Jan 08, 2010

Elena rated it:

"The Hemingses of Monticello" by Annette Gordon-Reed is an historical epic about Thomas Jefferson and the enslaved family who served him. Anyone who has ever done research based on the letters, memoirs and records of a family will know how difficult it can be to piece the information into a coherent narrative. For this reason, Dr. Gordon-Reed's work is truly awe-inspiring, in that she pulls together scraps of information about the Hemingses from the writings by and about the Jeffersons More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Dec 07, 2009

Bruno rated it:

Like many people reading this book I found its length and repetitiveness utterly frustrating. I ended up putting it aside for a few weeks before returning, persuaded by the glowing references on the cover to finish it. There is a fascinating story here of the slave family ‘owned’ by Thomas Jefferson. For a newcomer to writings about slavery there were many great insights into the realities and repercussions of slavery but so much repetition. Sometimes it felt like a record stuck on a long groove More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Jul 03, 2009

Andy rated it:

This was a great book. Not necessarily an easy read, but it is so well written and provoking that I almost read it as a novel even though it has the references and research that you would find in a textbook.

I had read the author's earlier book about the relationship before DNA proved her right and had been impressed by the complexity of the relationships and times. Same with this book, In the past it seemed that books I read gave you a choice, believe Jefferson fathered Hemming's ch More...

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Apr 19, 2009

Sheepshot rated it:

This is the 3rd book that I have read about Sally Hemings and the most carefully researched.n It is also the first book I have read post-DNA evidence. Traditional scholars were always horrified at the thought that Sally Hemings was Jefferson love for 38 years. Parts are enlightening. Others are "well,duh". I found the section on Sally's arrival in Europe particularly irritating. She was the 14 year old maid to 9 year old Maria Jefferson. Abigail Adams met the ship and cared for the gir More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Apr 24, 2009

Susan rated it:

This is a really excellent historical work about the relationship between Thomas Jefferson and the Hemingses, a family of slaves he inherited from his father-in-law. At the center of this story (though by no means the only focus) is his relationship with Sally Hemings, whom Thomas Jefferson took as his mistress several years after his wife died. They had seven children together, four of whom lived to adulthood.

This book is extremely well researched and presents a fascinating, and di More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 14, 2009

Starling rated it:

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 Je More...

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Aug 30, 2009

Jean rated it:

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, h More...

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Jul 24, 2011

Dominic rated it:

The Hemingses of Monticello is an extremely long look at the lives of the famed Hemings family. Being that there were very few, if any, primary sources from the Hemings family their lives are generally told through other historians, contemporary or otherwise, and Thomas Jefferson himself. With that said there is a lot of information that is repeated through over 650 pages of material. Also there is great detail on the lives of the Hemingses in France, but Gordon-Reed quickly moves through their More...

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Dec 02, 2011

Stevefk rated it:

the narrative parts of this book were very good. problem was, they were less than half the book. as a piece of art, this is literature that crumbles under it's own weight. it is way too long. a better editor and an author with superior judgement about what to include and WHAT NOT to include, would have produced a sensational work. unfortunately, the repetiveness and petty details bog this book down into the mediocre category. and yes, i know that slavery was bad. all sane people know it. anybody More...

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Feb 10, 2009

Kathryn rated it:

This was my first in-depth study of the relationship between Jefferson and Hemings. I did not see the film, Jefferson in Paris, when it was released. The film's release was the first time that I had heard of this omitted chapter of Jefferson's life. I simply could not picture Nick Nolte as Jefferson and have avoided the film ever since.

That being said, I found Gordon-Reed's chronicling of their relationship incredibly revealing of the public and private man. It certainly underscores More...

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May 02, 2011

Kaitlin rated it:

I am not a regular reader of non-fiction books, let alone those about this topic and time period. Needless to say, I enjoyed this book. It was not one of those that I couldn't wait to pick up every morning (a comment mentioned by a few other reviewers, I believe) but once I started reading it I didn't want to put it down.

I've noticed a few reviews mentioning how Gordon-Reed seems to push her feelings and her own speculation onto readers. To this I'd like to say that I did not feel More...

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Jan 08, 2009

Bookmarks Magazine rated it:

Reviewers universally admired Gordon-Reed�s book but differed on how to read it. Looking at The Hemingses of Monticello as a work of history, they were impressed with how Gordon-Reed built a compelling story from scant evidence, yet never seemed unreasonable in her conclusions. Both professional historians and lay readers validated her goal of giving the Hemingses a history of their own and demonstrating the ways they personified the complexities of slavery in the United States. A few reviewers More...

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Jan 26, 2011

Thomas rated it:

As much as I was impressed with Gordon-Reed’s scholarship and all the fascinating details of the lives of the members of the Hemings family and their relationship to our third President, it was something other than the stories of these lives that had the biggest impact on me. This book, though it is certainly the story of one famous, extended family, is really a powerful symbol for the whole of the American experience. The complexity of relationships, the love, violence, power, horror, political More...

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Sep 14, 2009

Sharon rated it:

I finally finished this tome - it sure is hard to read non-fiction with kids around. However, this is some kind of hybrid non-fiction/speculation. I have never read a history book that relies so much on "would" and "should" constructions. Obviously, the lives of slaves are not heavy on written documents and the Jefferson family assiduiously avoided references to Sally Hemings and her family in their correspondence, so the author did not have a lot of evidence. She constru More...

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May 10, 2009

Pamela rated it:

Both of Gordon-Reed's books that I've read about Thomas Jefferson have been difficult to get into but meatly thereafter. The research and documentation appears quite thorough. While this is about the Hemingses, Thomas Jefferson remained the axis around which their lives turned. While he was a great man in public life, this research reveals him to be a complex man in private who viewed himself as the benevolent father to many, although in reality he was emotionally as well as physically depende More...

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