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 decision-making, and his true financial status. Some achieve freedom during his lifetime, others like Sally and her children with him, achieve it at his death. There is the tragic tale of James Hemings, whose becomes a French chef during time in France with Jefferson, but whose failure to take the same job at the White House leads to suicide. There is Robert Hemings, Jefferson's personal servant at the time of the Declaration of Independence, gaining his freedom and living in Richmond for 20 years. But there is also the bizarre tale of Joseph Fossett, whose wife, Edy, becomes cook in the White House. When Fossett leaves Monticello one summer to visit his wife in Washington, Jefferson has him declared a runaway and has him hunted down.



The reason my rating for this book isn't higher is because I felt the work was overlong. There is scant evidence for the lives of the Hemingses--mentions in Jefferson's fiscal records, 2nd-hand accounts in letters, recollections of Hemingses who lived generations after Sally. Gordon-Reed has the legal and analytical skills to glean 660 pages of information out of these thin resources. I kept thinking, "I'm putting this book away, it's just too long," but then I'd hit another brilliant idea, and I'd keep plowing along. There are certainly enough unique insights to make the book interesting for the lay reader, if not excellent.



Gordon-Reed builds the dignity of slaves in Virginia. She comes back, time and time again, to the unequal relationship. The term "enslaved people" wakes the reader up to any romantic interpretations of Jefferson's actions.



Again, this was a great work. I learned a lot. The book could easily have been half the length, though. That's my one, overlong, quibble.