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Monticello: A Daughter and Her Father
From the critically acclaimed author of The Widow's War comes a captivating work of literary historical fiction that explores the tenuous relationship between a brilliant and complex father and his devoted daughter—Thomas Jefferson and Martha Jefferson Randolph.
After the death of her beloved mother, Martha Jefferson spent five years abroad with her father, Thomas Jefferson, on his first diplomatic mission to France. Now, at seventeen, Jefferson’s bright, handsome eldest daughter is returning to the lush hills of the family’s beloved Virginia plantation, Monticello. While the large, beautiful estate is the same as she remembers, Martha has changed. The young girl that sailed to Europe is now a woman with a heart made heavy by a first love gone wrong.
The world around her has also become far more complicated than it once seemed. The doting father she idolized since childhood has begun to pull away. Moving back into political life, he has become distracted by the tumultuous fight for power and troubling new attachments. The home she adores depends on slavery, a practice Martha abhors. But Monticello is burdened by debt, and it cannot survive without the labor of her family’s slaves. The exotic distant cousin she is drawn to has a taste for dangerous passions, dark desires that will eventually compromise her own.
As her life becomes constrained by the demands of marriage, motherhood, politics, scandal, and her family’s increasing impoverishment, Martha yearns to find her way back to the gentle beauty and quiet happiness of the world she once knew at the top of her father’s “little mountain.”
After the death of her beloved mother, Martha Jefferson spent five years abroad with her father, Thomas Jefferson, on his first diplomatic mission to France. Now, at seventeen, Jefferson’s bright, handsome eldest daughter is returning to the lush hills of the family’s beloved Virginia plantation, Monticello. While the large, beautiful estate is the same as she remembers, Martha has changed. The young girl that sailed to Europe is now a woman with a heart made heavy by a first love gone wrong.
The world around her has also become far more complicated than it once seemed. The doting father she idolized since childhood has begun to pull away. Moving back into political life, he has become distracted by the tumultuous fight for power and troubling new attachments. The home she adores depends on slavery, a practice Martha abhors. But Monticello is burdened by debt, and it cannot survive without the labor of her family’s slaves. The exotic distant cousin she is drawn to has a taste for dangerous passions, dark desires that will eventually compromise her own.
As her life becomes constrained by the demands of marriage, motherhood, politics, scandal, and her family’s increasing impoverishment, Martha yearns to find her way back to the gentle beauty and quiet happiness of the world she once knew at the top of her father’s “little mountain.”
384 pages, Paperback
First published June 7, 2016
232 people are currently reading
3949 people want to read
About the author
Sally Cabot Gunning
20 books403 followersA lifelong resident of New England, Sally Cabot Gunning has immersed herself in its history from a young age. She is the author of six critically acclaimed historically themed novels: The Widow’s War, Bound, The Rebellion of Jane Clarke, Benjamin Franklin’s Bastard, Monticello: A Daughter and Her Father, and her latest novel, released June 2021, Painting the Light. Elected fellow of the Massachusetts Historical Society and president of The Brewster Historical Society, she has created numerous historical tours of her village.
Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, The Daily Beast, and an assortment of short story anthologies.
She lives with her husband Tom in Brewster, Massachusetts.
Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, The Daily Beast, and an assortment of short story anthologies.
She lives with her husband Tom in Brewster, Massachusetts.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 235 reviews
May 24, 2020
Beautifully written, well-researched, this book, published in 2016, is why I read historical fiction. Gunning brings a place and time vividly to life--Thomas Jefferson's magnificent home, Monticello in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, from 1787 to the 1820s. The story focuses on Jefferson's older of his two daughters, Martha.
In 1787, Jefferson is returning to Monticello from France with his daughter, now a young woman who has to adapt back to life on a Virginia plantation. Central to Martha's reality is her relationship to her father. Her mother died some years before and she is devoted to her father, determined to be a comfort to him as he gets older. But there is one fact of life she does not want to look too closely at and that is the position in the household of the light-skinned slave Sally Hemings. Martha also abhors slavery and wishes that the slaves could be freed. But her beautiful home is burdened by increasing debt and would not survive without the labor of the slaves...
As life goes on, Martha has to deal with marriage, motherhood, politics, scandals, and tragedies.
I have to say that due to this book, Martha Jefferson Randolph has gone from being just a name in history books to an unforgettable character. I won't soon forget her.
In 1787, Jefferson is returning to Monticello from France with his daughter, now a young woman who has to adapt back to life on a Virginia plantation. Central to Martha's reality is her relationship to her father. Her mother died some years before and she is devoted to her father, determined to be a comfort to him as he gets older. But there is one fact of life she does not want to look too closely at and that is the position in the household of the light-skinned slave Sally Hemings. Martha also abhors slavery and wishes that the slaves could be freed. But her beautiful home is burdened by increasing debt and would not survive without the labor of the slaves...
As life goes on, Martha has to deal with marriage, motherhood, politics, scandals, and tragedies.
I have to say that due to this book, Martha Jefferson Randolph has gone from being just a name in history books to an unforgettable character. I won't soon forget her.
October 30, 2019
Martha Jefferson Randolph (1772-1836) was “a multifaceted woman who had played a large role in her father’s – and our – history… (…) She struggled throughout her life to reconcile her roles as wife, mother, daughter, slaveholder, and educated thinking woman. She struggled with the issue of slavery in general…”
Virginia, 1789. After five years in Paris, Martha Jefferson is back with her family on her family’s beloved plantation Monticello. Her father’s first diplomatic mission to Paris has not only influenced him – Thomas Jefferson, but also her. Now, seventeen years old, she is blessed with her father’s sharp mind and independent spirit.
1790, she marries Tom Randolph. As a young couple learning how to manage their new properties, they also learn how to better treat and manage slaves while Thomas Jefferson works on emancipation via legislation.
Due to opposing views of the cabinet members, Thomas Jefferson resigns as secretary of state and retires at Monticello.
The letters from William Short reporting on the French political climate, and giving Thomas Jefferson some suggestions for emancipation may have propelled Jefferson to change his mind and return to politics.
As Randolph family expends, their struggles to manage the plantations and their debt grow as well. As it turns out, they can’t run the plantations without increasing their slaveholdings further.
William Short reminds Martha, “Once inside this life you grow blind to its horrors.”
And now, Thomas Jefferson states that emancipation is not to be the work of his time.
Both characters of father and daughter are very well-developed. He is always well-composed and calm despite different allegations and rumors. Intelligent with solving differences. She is a strong woman, who as a youngster was not afraid to speak up in defense of a new young slave who yearned for his family. As a married woman to a man with sharp edges, she realizes she needs to be the one who is more constrained, “softening his tone by softening hers.” Not only that, she gives birth to eleven children and manages all their plantations, including Monticello on her own for some time. She struggles with her emotions towards a slave Sally, who is rumored to have a relationship with her father and her children of much lighter skin and Sally being busy doing nothing.
Both father and daughter, both very intelligent, however, once faced with growing debt they cave under it, not able to follow through with their biggest ambition of their lives.
Skillfully written, with smooth prose and effortlessly moving the story forward at a steady pace. This evocative story is something to ponder upon.
@FB/BestHistoricalFiction
Virginia, 1789. After five years in Paris, Martha Jefferson is back with her family on her family’s beloved plantation Monticello. Her father’s first diplomatic mission to Paris has not only influenced him – Thomas Jefferson, but also her. Now, seventeen years old, she is blessed with her father’s sharp mind and independent spirit.
1790, she marries Tom Randolph. As a young couple learning how to manage their new properties, they also learn how to better treat and manage slaves while Thomas Jefferson works on emancipation via legislation.
Due to opposing views of the cabinet members, Thomas Jefferson resigns as secretary of state and retires at Monticello.
The letters from William Short reporting on the French political climate, and giving Thomas Jefferson some suggestions for emancipation may have propelled Jefferson to change his mind and return to politics.
As Randolph family expends, their struggles to manage the plantations and their debt grow as well. As it turns out, they can’t run the plantations without increasing their slaveholdings further.
William Short reminds Martha, “Once inside this life you grow blind to its horrors.”
And now, Thomas Jefferson states that emancipation is not to be the work of his time.
Both characters of father and daughter are very well-developed. He is always well-composed and calm despite different allegations and rumors. Intelligent with solving differences. She is a strong woman, who as a youngster was not afraid to speak up in defense of a new young slave who yearned for his family. As a married woman to a man with sharp edges, she realizes she needs to be the one who is more constrained, “softening his tone by softening hers.” Not only that, she gives birth to eleven children and manages all their plantations, including Monticello on her own for some time. She struggles with her emotions towards a slave Sally, who is rumored to have a relationship with her father and her children of much lighter skin and Sally being busy doing nothing.
Both father and daughter, both very intelligent, however, once faced with growing debt they cave under it, not able to follow through with their biggest ambition of their lives.
Skillfully written, with smooth prose and effortlessly moving the story forward at a steady pace. This evocative story is something to ponder upon.
@FB/BestHistoricalFiction
June 16, 2016
This was a complicated book which made the reading of it a bit slow. It did not detract however from its worth.
A fragile and again complicated relationship between Thomas Jefferson and his eldest daughter to begin with. Jefferson was a complex character and his statemanship aside it made it difficult for personal relationships to develop fully. The family take on a diplomatic posting in France and after five heady years they move back to Monticello the family home, to take on the politics of the time. America was in the midst of the slavery issue and this overshadows the entire history of Thomas Jefferson and his family and this book. Contentious issues and how it was going to be resolved was never going to be easy and the convoluted lifestyles of having slaves, freeing them and at the same time trying to win over people who were totally dependant on slavery for their livelihood and prosperity was not going to be an easy mix.
Though slavery was the overall story, it goes hand in hand with Martha's own lifestory. Married very young and ending up with eleven children her life with Randolph was not easy. Having to live up to a father in law of the stature of Thomas Jefferson was also hard and Randolph fell short. Financial woes dogged both Randolph and Jefferson to the end of their days (so far removed from the corrupt politicians of today) and both ended their days bankrupt. Martha had to steer a life in the best way she knew protecting both husband and father and also trying to provide a good life for her brood.
Martha was a woman well ahead of her times. Clear headed, clear thinking, politically adept and able to manage a plantation, a complicated home and keep everything on a balanced keel. Having her father's slave mistress in the family home and dealing with the attendant publicity and mess each time she had a child could not have been easy both in a personal sense as well as dealing with the world at large who made no bones about the precarious position Jefferson was in. Jefferson in this book never openly acknowledged Sally his mistresses's position in the home and was oblivious to Martha's discomfort. It was only on his deathbed that the provision for Sally was important and dealt with directly.
As I said a complicated story, one that I enjoyed. It showed Martha's sound common sense despite over riding difficulties of a husband and a father who were both difficult. Martha survived both of them and had to make a fresh life for herself.
Very well written, told clearly so that it made me an outsider understand the complexities of American politics and life at the time.
A fragile and again complicated relationship between Thomas Jefferson and his eldest daughter to begin with. Jefferson was a complex character and his statemanship aside it made it difficult for personal relationships to develop fully. The family take on a diplomatic posting in France and after five heady years they move back to Monticello the family home, to take on the politics of the time. America was in the midst of the slavery issue and this overshadows the entire history of Thomas Jefferson and his family and this book. Contentious issues and how it was going to be resolved was never going to be easy and the convoluted lifestyles of having slaves, freeing them and at the same time trying to win over people who were totally dependant on slavery for their livelihood and prosperity was not going to be an easy mix.
Though slavery was the overall story, it goes hand in hand with Martha's own lifestory. Married very young and ending up with eleven children her life with Randolph was not easy. Having to live up to a father in law of the stature of Thomas Jefferson was also hard and Randolph fell short. Financial woes dogged both Randolph and Jefferson to the end of their days (so far removed from the corrupt politicians of today) and both ended their days bankrupt. Martha had to steer a life in the best way she knew protecting both husband and father and also trying to provide a good life for her brood.
Martha was a woman well ahead of her times. Clear headed, clear thinking, politically adept and able to manage a plantation, a complicated home and keep everything on a balanced keel. Having her father's slave mistress in the family home and dealing with the attendant publicity and mess each time she had a child could not have been easy both in a personal sense as well as dealing with the world at large who made no bones about the precarious position Jefferson was in. Jefferson in this book never openly acknowledged Sally his mistresses's position in the home and was oblivious to Martha's discomfort. It was only on his deathbed that the provision for Sally was important and dealt with directly.
As I said a complicated story, one that I enjoyed. It showed Martha's sound common sense despite over riding difficulties of a husband and a father who were both difficult. Martha survived both of them and had to make a fresh life for herself.
Very well written, told clearly so that it made me an outsider understand the complexities of American politics and life at the time.
September 26, 2016
Monticello explores the relationship of our U.S. founding father, Thomas Jefferson and his daughter, Martha Jefferson Randolph. Martha's mother died when Martha was just entering her teenage years. Thomas Jefferson had his daughter accompany him to France on his first diplomatic mission. After 5 years they both return home. By then Martha has grown into a young woman and even had a suitor in Paris that her father didn't find quite suitable.
Paris seemed to really help shape Martha and her opinions and she had come to disagree with slavery. While if Paris, she came to believe her father would free his slaves and then hire them to continue running Monticello but her never did. Also, when they arrive home she notices that her mother's half sister and slave, Sally Hemings status has change in the household and no longer required to work.
Then Thomas Randolph enters the picture and sweeps Martha off her feet. As demands of adulthood and marriage take over, Martha endures pregnancy after pregnancy (she had 12 children) and her husband's mismanagement of farms and money. He also starts to act more and more eradicate. Her sister, Maria also dies giving birth to her first child.
As rumors were surfacing of an affair between Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings. Martha has suspicions of her own but seemed to try to ignore them. It is clear that Martha had a tight bind with her father and they influenced each other in different ways.
I loved the story between Thomas Jefferson and her father but all the hardships with her husband were hard to endure. It was a time when women could not divorce their husbands but I wanted to shake her and tell her to leave him. I knew she couldn't but that the same problems kept up through their marriage and so that part became somewhat repetitive. That said, Sally Cabot Gunning treated her characters with sensitivity and a non-judgmental approach. Though this is a work of fiction, she did her research and let the characters tell the story. She certainly made Monticello a character as well. I really liked her approach and her writing. I highly recommend Monticello for those who love historical fiction and like to delve into the lives of people, like Thomas Jefferson, who helped shape our world.
I received the ebook version for my honest review.
Paris seemed to really help shape Martha and her opinions and she had come to disagree with slavery. While if Paris, she came to believe her father would free his slaves and then hire them to continue running Monticello but her never did. Also, when they arrive home she notices that her mother's half sister and slave, Sally Hemings status has change in the household and no longer required to work.
Then Thomas Randolph enters the picture and sweeps Martha off her feet. As demands of adulthood and marriage take over, Martha endures pregnancy after pregnancy (she had 12 children) and her husband's mismanagement of farms and money. He also starts to act more and more eradicate. Her sister, Maria also dies giving birth to her first child.
As rumors were surfacing of an affair between Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings. Martha has suspicions of her own but seemed to try to ignore them. It is clear that Martha had a tight bind with her father and they influenced each other in different ways.
I loved the story between Thomas Jefferson and her father but all the hardships with her husband were hard to endure. It was a time when women could not divorce their husbands but I wanted to shake her and tell her to leave him. I knew she couldn't but that the same problems kept up through their marriage and so that part became somewhat repetitive. That said, Sally Cabot Gunning treated her characters with sensitivity and a non-judgmental approach. Though this is a work of fiction, she did her research and let the characters tell the story. She certainly made Monticello a character as well. I really liked her approach and her writing. I highly recommend Monticello for those who love historical fiction and like to delve into the lives of people, like Thomas Jefferson, who helped shape our world.
I received the ebook version for my honest review.
April 7, 2021
This is the first book I've read penned by Sally Cabot Gunning, and it sure won't be the last.
Well written with just enough descriptions of the life and times of Thomas Jefferson's eldest daughter, Martha, the book drew me in with the first page and kept me until the last.
Martha's mother (also named Martha) passed when Martha was 10 years old. Her father promised her mother on her death bed that he would never remarry - a promise he fulfilled - but a promise which greatly impacted his life and the lives of his children in ways his wife never could have foreseen.
After her mother's death, Martha accompanied her father to live for a few years in France, where he was serving his first diplomatic assignment. Martha lived in a convent and received education there. Eventually, the bright Martha would come to speak four languages fluently and was always well read and able to hold conversations with anyone on various subjects, including the politics of her time. Of course, this included the subject of slavery, to which Martha was vehemently opposed. In the book, the author speaks to President Jefferson's desire for emancipation of all slaves and his distaste for the use of slaves. However, he did own many slaves. Even though he treated them extremely well (so well, slaves desired a placement at Monticello above all else) - they were still slaves, still "owned", and always knew their lives could turn brutal on a whim.
Martha falls in love and marries Tom. Martha and Tom have many children, most of whom lived. Martha did not inherit the curse of dying in childbirth as did her mother and sister. Tom was never successful in business, despite the undying support of his father-in-law, who continued to support Martha and Tom throughout their lives. As time goes on, Tom turns to alcohol and his mental faculties decline rapidly, leading to a separation.
I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in history, Presidents and their families, life in the White House as it was in the early days, and the politics of slavery and how many who opposed it still justified its use to keep plantations afloat.
Well written with just enough descriptions of the life and times of Thomas Jefferson's eldest daughter, Martha, the book drew me in with the first page and kept me until the last.
Martha's mother (also named Martha) passed when Martha was 10 years old. Her father promised her mother on her death bed that he would never remarry - a promise he fulfilled - but a promise which greatly impacted his life and the lives of his children in ways his wife never could have foreseen.
After her mother's death, Martha accompanied her father to live for a few years in France, where he was serving his first diplomatic assignment. Martha lived in a convent and received education there. Eventually, the bright Martha would come to speak four languages fluently and was always well read and able to hold conversations with anyone on various subjects, including the politics of her time. Of course, this included the subject of slavery, to which Martha was vehemently opposed. In the book, the author speaks to President Jefferson's desire for emancipation of all slaves and his distaste for the use of slaves. However, he did own many slaves. Even though he treated them extremely well (so well, slaves desired a placement at Monticello above all else) - they were still slaves, still "owned", and always knew their lives could turn brutal on a whim.
Martha falls in love and marries Tom. Martha and Tom have many children, most of whom lived. Martha did not inherit the curse of dying in childbirth as did her mother and sister. Tom was never successful in business, despite the undying support of his father-in-law, who continued to support Martha and Tom throughout their lives. As time goes on, Tom turns to alcohol and his mental faculties decline rapidly, leading to a separation.
I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in history, Presidents and their families, life in the White House as it was in the early days, and the politics of slavery and how many who opposed it still justified its use to keep plantations afloat.
July 8, 2016
Due out in September 2016.
This is a sensitively-written, thoughtful telling – fictionally imagined – of the life of Martha Jefferson Randolph, daughter of the third President. It isn’t a spoiler to say that the book takes her through her life, starting from her return with her father from his mission to France, when she is 17 and in the first bloom of adulthood. The reader follows her through her troubled marriage to Tom Randolph, a member of a prominent (and quarrelsome) Virginia slaveholding family, through her life as a mother of 12 children, mistress of her husband’s estate, and attendant to her widowed father at Monticello.
She appears to us mostly as a figure of her times – no feminist aspirations here – but troubled increasingly over her father’s and husband’s mounting debts, and their dependence on slavery. Sally Hemings is a shadowy, somewhat mysterious character in this story, on the edges of Thomas Jefferson’s life, while Martha Randolph experiences the sorrows and incidents of a life among many characters – family, slaves, political rivals – in this time. All this could have been overwrought or lurid, but this story is a dignified and sympathetic account of one woman’s life, in a period setting that seems true to life and to the period.
This is a sensitively-written, thoughtful telling – fictionally imagined – of the life of Martha Jefferson Randolph, daughter of the third President. It isn’t a spoiler to say that the book takes her through her life, starting from her return with her father from his mission to France, when she is 17 and in the first bloom of adulthood. The reader follows her through her troubled marriage to Tom Randolph, a member of a prominent (and quarrelsome) Virginia slaveholding family, through her life as a mother of 12 children, mistress of her husband’s estate, and attendant to her widowed father at Monticello.
She appears to us mostly as a figure of her times – no feminist aspirations here – but troubled increasingly over her father’s and husband’s mounting debts, and their dependence on slavery. Sally Hemings is a shadowy, somewhat mysterious character in this story, on the edges of Thomas Jefferson’s life, while Martha Randolph experiences the sorrows and incidents of a life among many characters – family, slaves, political rivals – in this time. All this could have been overwrought or lurid, but this story is a dignified and sympathetic account of one woman’s life, in a period setting that seems true to life and to the period.
February 9, 2017
It's 1789, we're traveling by carriage up a mountain and are privy to the dreams of Martha Jefferson as she returns to her piece of heaven on earth, Monticello. We quickly learn that maintaining this heaven on earth has a price. Because Monticello is a place where a daughter lives by the whims of her father and, most devastatingly, it exists due to the labor of people enslaved. We travel along with Martha as she navigates the limited choices presented to her; as she steers always with the obligations of her beloved family and Monticello in sight.
Gunning brings to life the beauty and graciousness of Monticello. She also brings to life Martha, a woman who, along with her husband and father, express a desire to end slavery but don't have the will to disrupt their own comfort. Gunning doesn't make excuses for them, she presents this time and place through Martha's eyes and we experience her heartbreaks & struggles as she keeps questioning & searching.
Gunning brings to life the beauty and graciousness of Monticello. She also brings to life Martha, a woman who, along with her husband and father, express a desire to end slavery but don't have the will to disrupt their own comfort. Gunning doesn't make excuses for them, she presents this time and place through Martha's eyes and we experience her heartbreaks & struggles as she keeps questioning & searching.
February 7, 2017
I got spoiled with America's First Daughter last year, which also is the story of Martha Washington Randolph and her father, Thomas Jefferson. So when I read this book, which focuses more on some of the darker aspects of their lives, and more of the unpleasant dark emotions in Martha's mind, I had a very hard time reading this book.
This is a very well written book. Unfortunately for me, I was looking for more optimism and hope given that Thomas Jefferson was such an Integral part of our country.
Both father and daughter clearly were conflicted during that time in American history with the issue of slavery and freeing of slaves. This author chose to highlight the ambivalence the both of them had in making or not making decisions on the issue for whatever reason they personally felt to do or not to do so. That ambivalence that darkness, coupled with focusing too much on the anger of Tom Randolph, overall made this story of one of the most historical homes in American history a place, had I not already have been there many times, a place I would not want to visit.
I struggle with the three star rating. It's a well researched, well written account of their lives. But it depressed me too much to get four stars.
This is a very well written book. Unfortunately for me, I was looking for more optimism and hope given that Thomas Jefferson was such an Integral part of our country.
Both father and daughter clearly were conflicted during that time in American history with the issue of slavery and freeing of slaves. This author chose to highlight the ambivalence the both of them had in making or not making decisions on the issue for whatever reason they personally felt to do or not to do so. That ambivalence that darkness, coupled with focusing too much on the anger of Tom Randolph, overall made this story of one of the most historical homes in American history a place, had I not already have been there many times, a place I would not want to visit.
I struggle with the three star rating. It's a well researched, well written account of their lives. But it depressed me too much to get four stars.
August 5, 2017
A Daddy's Girl... Martha Jefferson is the very epitome of a daddy's girl. Her entire world revolves around him, and while others appear in her line of sight, the light never moves away from the one constant in her life, Thomas Jefferson. The pressures that he is under do nothing to lessen the attention that he lavishes on his daughters, both of whom have accompanied him to France. Upon their return, Martha is overjoyed to be home and back in familiar territory. But things are never going to be the same for the Jefferson's. Thomas Jefferson has been appointed as Secretary of State. But Martha is about to add her own stress to the mix.. a marriage to Thomas Randolph! What a marriage it should have been! But instead of everlasting happiness, she finds disappointment, debt, and an ever sure footing in the foundation of her father. While some of the ideas that they hold are not popular with some of their friends, they are views that are held and nurtured to a hope that it might one day come to pass. While the world crumbles around her, Martha does her best to run her plantation, but the ever increasing debt, and the unraveling of her husbands family have left deep imprints on him. While Tom tries his best to make things work, nothing seems to flourish under his hand, except the growing brood of his children. While Martha continues to run Monticello, Varina and Edgehill to the best of her abilities. While her husband sulks, and continues to borrow large amounts of money from her father, Martha does her best to smile and carry on as though nothing were wrong. But, everything is wrong. The papers have caught wind of Sally Hemings, and while everyone denies the relationship, there are things that Martha notices, but cannot get her father to confirm. The charmed childhood she held so fond in memory, has turned to the ugly realities of adulthood, and the facing of truths that are not always pleasant. When her sister Maria dies, Martha is left feeling alone and wondering where her comfort will come from. Tom cannot or will not help, and there are none that she can truly turn to. When Thomas Jefferson is elected President, Martha does her best to continue caring for things at home, but she misses her father. The short visits he makes back to Monticello are brief and always filled with work. Visitors stream to and from the house, and Martha wonders when they will ever be truly alone. But of course, things cannot last forever, and even great men, lions in the foundations are only mortal....This book is a MUST READ! It was one that I was able to finish in two settings, and kept you engaged from the first page to the last. You hoped for the best, you cared for some of the characters while wishing some of the others would simply drop off the pages, and laughed at some of the antics. I will say that I was a little surprised that there was no mention of the falling out between Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, both great men in our history. They of course both made up and corresponded later in their lives, but on an interesting note, they both died within hours of each other on the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. But other than that little note (history nerd moment), this book was fantastic! There is not a dull moment in this book!! Take it from the book lady here... this is a book that is worth the time!
April 10, 2018
I appreciated this book and overall enjoyed it. However, sometimes I would get a little frustrated with the main characters Martha Jefferson Randolph's "thoughts" because it just seemed like she was banging her own head against the wall for years not acknowledging some obvious truths. It is believable that she felt that way though. It was a very different world back then and hind sight is 20/20 as she figures out many years later. The story follows her from a young single woman, through 30+ years of marriage and ending after she became a widow and how her attitudes change about her life and her choices in regard to being a free white woman living in Virginia and trying to survive. All this made harder because she was under constant scrutiny being Thomas Jefferson's daughter. I feel like taking a trip to Monticello after finishing this book so I can see all the beautiful flowers and landscape she described. I would recommend this to anyone who likes historical novels.
June 20, 2016
I was fortunate to receive an Advanced Reading Copy of Monticello. What an amazing tale of Martha Jefferson Randolph! Martha( 1772-1836) was the daughter of a U.S. President, wife of the Governor of Virginia, and mother of eleven children. She educated her children and constantly tried to balance all of her roles while managing plantation life.
This work provides the reader with the perspective of the woman behind the political action. So many personalities, so many paths taken and not taken. All of the drama takes place while the struggle to free the slaves has begun.
Through Martha's insights and actions, the reader is provided with an intimate look behind the curtain. You will be reaching for the history books to discover more.
This work provides the reader with the perspective of the woman behind the political action. So many personalities, so many paths taken and not taken. All of the drama takes place while the struggle to free the slaves has begun.
Through Martha's insights and actions, the reader is provided with an intimate look behind the curtain. You will be reaching for the history books to discover more.
November 13, 2016
Extremely readable and thought-provoking history by Sally Cabot Gunning. Story of Martha, and her father Thomas Jefferson. Interesting insights into customs of the day, how white property owners lived, and especially the institution of slavery. Martha often occupied a home with Jefferson's mistress Sally Hemmings and her children who were Martha's half-siblings - without ever publicly or privately acknowledging their relationship. Recommend for all interested in American family history of that period. Enlightening and entertaining.
October 12, 2021
I really enjoyed learning about a pivotal time in our nation's history through a narrative style of writing. Cabot's storytelling helped me picture Monticello and the collection of Jeffersons, Randolphs, and Hemingses of its time. I especially enjoyed the focus on Martha's relationship with her dad - such a special and unique, but at times frustrating, relationship. The perspective on slavery also helped me understand the dynamics of slave owners denouncing slavery, while not excusing or justifying it. I felt empathy for Martha Jefferson Randolph AND Sally Hemings while they navigated a tumultuous time in History.
October 23, 2016
*I received a copy of this book through LibraryThing Early Reviewers.*
This is the second novel about Martha Jefferson Randolph, Thomas Jefferson's eldest daughter, I read this year and unfortunately this one doesn't quite measure up to the scope and detail of America's First Daughter. On the other hand, Sally Cabot Gunning does provide a sympathetic look at the world of early nineteenth-century Virginia farmers, with their constant debt, conflicted consciences over slavery, and the undercurrents beneath their polite society. A good novelization of a fascinating life.
This is the second novel about Martha Jefferson Randolph, Thomas Jefferson's eldest daughter, I read this year and unfortunately this one doesn't quite measure up to the scope and detail of America's First Daughter. On the other hand, Sally Cabot Gunning does provide a sympathetic look at the world of early nineteenth-century Virginia farmers, with their constant debt, conflicted consciences over slavery, and the undercurrents beneath their polite society. A good novelization of a fascinating life.
March 30, 2022
Monticello by Sally Cabot Gunning is a historical fiction novel that explores the life of Martha Jefferson Randolph, the eldest daughter of Thomas Jefferson. It takes place largely at the Jefferson home and plantation in Monticello, Virginia from 1790-1829.
Very intriguing and well-written. Looking forward to reading The Hemingses of Monticello by Annette Gordon-Reed for the true history behind this novel.
Very intriguing and well-written. Looking forward to reading The Hemingses of Monticello by Annette Gordon-Reed for the true history behind this novel.
June 27, 2017
I really liked this book. I was intrigued by the central issue of slave holding in a family that believed slaves should be free. The fictionalized thinking and possible emotions of Martha were well portrayed. Also learned about the challenges of farming (many, any where you live) in Virginia. And of course I learned more history in the process.
August 23, 2019
Gunning is a superb historical fiction writer! I will never think of Monticello, or Thomas Jefferson in the Same way after reading this novel. This is the bittersweet story of his daughter, Martha Jefferson Randolph, and her life that was so intertwined with that of her father. I would HIGHLY recommend this book!
February 20, 2025
Rounding this up very generously, maybe only because i love the architecture of Monticello so much and have visited it a number of times. I have read extensively about Thomas Jefferson, obviously, that makes sense, but i've never read anything about his children... and now i know why. Why write a book about such a simpering, ineffectual person? I thought maybe this would be about her immediately freeing her slaves (NOPE), or her taking over the running of the plantations (without slaves) since her husband was (a high functioning i guess) alcoholic??? (NOPE) Just a story about this not-so-great privileged white lady who happened to be Jefferson's daughter who didn't actually accomplish anything or really dive in to the relationship with Sally Hemmings and her father, or how Sally was her aunt, or gosh, anything.
This book was just like the main character, not great. Maybe the extra star from the 2 that it deserves is just for the fact that they've finally included tours of the slave quarters at Monticello [an extra, not part of the main tour (why???)] and actually speak a little bit about slavery and how maybe you can never really be in love with someone who owns you... I'm sure they don't want to offend anyone who really likes slavery, or something - that's the only pathetic excuse i can come up with on why they don't make it one of the main focusses of the property. Monticello is Monticello because enslaved people made it, fed it, and worked it and BECAUSE THEY WERE FORCED TO DO SO. That is the story of Monticello, not this.
After writing this, i think i'll have to drop it down to the 2...
February 9, 2019
This was another Sally Gunning Classic. It was a difficult book to put down as the story she told kept you pushing harder and harder toward the ending. Her exhausting research and ability to put that research into a story we can all learn from is a gift. There is absolutely no reason not to pick this book up and learn as much about our past and how we all got to this point in our nation.
March 30, 2019
Best book I’ve read in a very long time.
March 6, 2022
Excellent historical fiction. Shows the vicious circle of slavery and the owners who wanted to change this horrible practice. Enjoyed the female POV of history.
July 11, 2017
This is the first novel of three I am reading this month in preparation of hearing the authors speak about their writing. This is carefully researched and thoughtfully written historical fiction about the daughter of Thomas Jefferson, Martha Jefferson Randolph, from the time she returned from five years in France with her father until some years after his death. I confess I knew very little about her before reading this book, and while her commitment to her father, his legacy, and Monticello is admirable, her passion about abolishing slavery, and her growing understanding of the complexity of the issue was the most compelling part of her story.
The book is structured around Varina, Edgehill, and Monticello, the homes Martha lived in with and without her husband, Thomas Mann Randolph, a soldier, farmer, and politician, who suffered from an emotional/mental illness and in later life, alcoholism. With him, she had twelve children. Sharing the same feelings about slavery, they were often conflicted about the moral vs. the practical issues: how to farm their land without slaves, how to free themselves of constantly mounting debt without selling slaves to offset costs. Their land, including Monticello, exacted every penny they had, reduced them to a lifetime of debt, created health issues for them both, and eventually, drained the life from their marriage.
The discussion of slavery resonated throughout the novel. A lively discussion shortly before the Jeffersons left France identified bigotry, economics, and fear of retaliation since white men on isolated plantations were vastly outnumbered by slaves as reasons about the stalled emancipation movement when so many were against slavery. Jefferson's long-time friend, and Martha's as well, William Short, consistently challenged Martha's thinking and Jefferson's lack of action, believing Thomas Jefferson had the power and conviction to emancipate the slaves. The defense that Jefferson slaves were better off than poor whites in Virginia was dismissed by Short. The concept of inherited slaves, of owning another human being, repulsed him. That the Jeffersons continued to own slaves despite their professed beliefs, ignored anything that distressed them, trusted in reason that didn't exist was an ongoing source of friction with Short. Martha's husband, Tom, on the other hand, developed a plan of gradual emancipation, which was not embraced by the Virginia legislature, and Tom sadly acknowledged he had "little hope of lessening the evil to any sensible degree" in his lifetime.
And then there was Sally Hemings whose relationship with Thomas Jefferson Martha denied, ignored, fumed over, and questioned despite knowing she was her own mother's half-sister and the physical similarities of the children Sally bore. The author shares enough of what is known about Sally Heming's personality and position at Monticello to raise questions about her true relationship with Thomas Jefferson, not romanticizing their relationship but believing they had feelings for one another. Recent archeological discoveries at Monticello support her living an "elevated status" at Monticello compared to others, but she was still an enslaved woman. Many still believe Jefferson's relationship with her was simply an abuse of power. Jefferson's promise to Sally Hemings about granting freedom to his/her children when they reached the age of twenty-one, several of her children's decision to "pass for white," thus disappearing from the family, and then, the complications about Sally after Jefferson's death further demonstrated the difficulty of freeing slaves in Virginia.
In addition to financial losses, the Jeffersons suffered human loss, so typical of the times, but the grief from the deaths of children and adults in their lives left a permanent weight on them.
I had mixed feelings about Martha Jefferson Randolph and her father, admiring her juggling of so many roles, her commitment to her father's legacy, respecting his extraordinary contributions to our history and progressive thinking on education. Their commitment to Monticello, however, was their Achilles heel, and perhaps defined both of them. In the end, I felt I knew them both, and they were honorable people.
The book is structured around Varina, Edgehill, and Monticello, the homes Martha lived in with and without her husband, Thomas Mann Randolph, a soldier, farmer, and politician, who suffered from an emotional/mental illness and in later life, alcoholism. With him, she had twelve children. Sharing the same feelings about slavery, they were often conflicted about the moral vs. the practical issues: how to farm their land without slaves, how to free themselves of constantly mounting debt without selling slaves to offset costs. Their land, including Monticello, exacted every penny they had, reduced them to a lifetime of debt, created health issues for them both, and eventually, drained the life from their marriage.
The discussion of slavery resonated throughout the novel. A lively discussion shortly before the Jeffersons left France identified bigotry, economics, and fear of retaliation since white men on isolated plantations were vastly outnumbered by slaves as reasons about the stalled emancipation movement when so many were against slavery. Jefferson's long-time friend, and Martha's as well, William Short, consistently challenged Martha's thinking and Jefferson's lack of action, believing Thomas Jefferson had the power and conviction to emancipate the slaves. The defense that Jefferson slaves were better off than poor whites in Virginia was dismissed by Short. The concept of inherited slaves, of owning another human being, repulsed him. That the Jeffersons continued to own slaves despite their professed beliefs, ignored anything that distressed them, trusted in reason that didn't exist was an ongoing source of friction with Short. Martha's husband, Tom, on the other hand, developed a plan of gradual emancipation, which was not embraced by the Virginia legislature, and Tom sadly acknowledged he had "little hope of lessening the evil to any sensible degree" in his lifetime.
And then there was Sally Hemings whose relationship with Thomas Jefferson Martha denied, ignored, fumed over, and questioned despite knowing she was her own mother's half-sister and the physical similarities of the children Sally bore. The author shares enough of what is known about Sally Heming's personality and position at Monticello to raise questions about her true relationship with Thomas Jefferson, not romanticizing their relationship but believing they had feelings for one another. Recent archeological discoveries at Monticello support her living an "elevated status" at Monticello compared to others, but she was still an enslaved woman. Many still believe Jefferson's relationship with her was simply an abuse of power. Jefferson's promise to Sally Hemings about granting freedom to his/her children when they reached the age of twenty-one, several of her children's decision to "pass for white," thus disappearing from the family, and then, the complications about Sally after Jefferson's death further demonstrated the difficulty of freeing slaves in Virginia.
In addition to financial losses, the Jeffersons suffered human loss, so typical of the times, but the grief from the deaths of children and adults in their lives left a permanent weight on them.
I had mixed feelings about Martha Jefferson Randolph and her father, admiring her juggling of so many roles, her commitment to her father's legacy, respecting his extraordinary contributions to our history and progressive thinking on education. Their commitment to Monticello, however, was their Achilles heel, and perhaps defined both of them. In the end, I felt I knew them both, and they were honorable people.
February 21, 2017
Recommended if you like historical fiction featuring strong women. Martha Jefferson Randolph was daughter of TJ. She had 12 kids, a husband who was kind of a pain, and had to deal with some pretty tough times. Much respect!! A bit slow to start; I found myself wanting to know more about her. Writing is a bit clunky at times, but I enjoyed visiting Monticello with Martha.
August 3, 2016
I've read several other novels by Sally Cabot Gunning, I found this one challenging because of the very slow pace and the lack of depth to the historical figures featured, they never fully came to life for me. The focus of the book is Martha Jefferson Reynolds, her relationship with her father Thomas Jefferson is a pivotal one in her life but the majority of the narrative is devoted to her relationship with her husband, Thomas Randolph. Her marriage was difficult, her husband was an unhappy man and their financial instability and dependence on Thomas Jefferson complicated their relationship.
Much of the story is devoted to recounting the tally of children born and unhappiness suffered. I didn't find Martha a particularly sympathetic character. I disliked her feelings for and the way she treated Sally Hemings. Her humanistic attitudes toward slaves and slavery in principle didn't seem to extend to being compassionate toward those tied by the bonds of slavery living in her own home. Perhaps this was a true inconsistency in Martha Jefferson's character but it didn't serve to endear her to me in this fictionalization of her life.
The passage of time was marked by the marriages of her children, growth of her oldest son and little else. We see little of the slaves that live at Monticello and even less of the accomplishments and struggles of Thomas Jefferson's life.
The last hundred pages of the book was by far the most interesting and enjoyable. There were times when I was reading that I struggled to continue but I'm glad I made it to the end, the ending made the struggle worthwhile.
Much of the story is devoted to recounting the tally of children born and unhappiness suffered. I didn't find Martha a particularly sympathetic character. I disliked her feelings for and the way she treated Sally Hemings. Her humanistic attitudes toward slaves and slavery in principle didn't seem to extend to being compassionate toward those tied by the bonds of slavery living in her own home. Perhaps this was a true inconsistency in Martha Jefferson's character but it didn't serve to endear her to me in this fictionalization of her life.
The passage of time was marked by the marriages of her children, growth of her oldest son and little else. We see little of the slaves that live at Monticello and even less of the accomplishments and struggles of Thomas Jefferson's life.
The last hundred pages of the book was by far the most interesting and enjoyable. There were times when I was reading that I struggled to continue but I'm glad I made it to the end, the ending made the struggle worthwhile.
December 13, 2016
I was not a big fan of Gunnings's Sawtucket novels, but since I have a great interest in Thomas Jefferson, I thought I would give her another try. Sadly, this one was worse. The problem I had with the Sawtucket novels was that she creates female protagonists who are very passive and then suddenly become empowered. I felt like I was getting hit over the head with anachronistic feminism (kind of like that really bad film version of The Scarlet Letter with Demi Moore). She does her research but then lets her theme/agenda get the better of her. In this story of Martha Jefferson Randolph, passivity reigns supreme. It seems her agenda this time is to show how oppressed women of the times were, even the daughters and wives of wealthy, famous persons. And of course, there is a parallel made between Martha's suffering and the Jefferson slaves. This will be the last time I read a novel by Sally Gunning.
May 25, 2016
Monticello: A Daughter and Her Father; a Novel by Sally Cabot Gunning is a haunting, bittersweet and melancholy tale between Thomas Jefferson and his daughter Martha Jefferson Randolph. Gunning uses historical research and uses letters from Randolph to express her opinion on slavery.
What I found haunting, bittersweet and somewhat melancholy is how things could have so much different if women were treated as adults rather than as chattels of males as shown in Monticello. I am sure Gunning's interpretation of the role of women during Jefferson's time, is historically accurate, and thanks to her novel it tells about how Randolph suffered due to societal constraints.
I also appreciated how Gunning's book showed the quandary both Jefferson and Randolph felt when it come to slavery.
Recommend.
Review written after downloading a galley from Edelweiss.
What I found haunting, bittersweet and somewhat melancholy is how things could have so much different if women were treated as adults rather than as chattels of males as shown in Monticello. I am sure Gunning's interpretation of the role of women during Jefferson's time, is historically accurate, and thanks to her novel it tells about how Randolph suffered due to societal constraints.
I also appreciated how Gunning's book showed the quandary both Jefferson and Randolph felt when it come to slavery.
Recommend.
Review written after downloading a galley from Edelweiss.
October 10, 2016
This was the story of Martha Jefferson, her father President Thomas Jefferson, and their lives at Monticello with the backdrop of lush hills and vivid beauty of Virginia, late 1700-early 1800. I felt the writing was a bit muddled and at times I found myself drifting during the telling of the history of Jefferson, his slave and presumed mistress Sally Hemings, and their illegitimate children. The plot centered around Martha, who not only had trouble dealing with Hemings and her children, but had issues of her own. After marrying Tom Randolph and giving birth to 12 children, she struggled keeping herself and family happy, all the while trying to keep feet planted firmly in her birthplace of Virginia. Slavery, love, betrayal, heartache, and commitment all encompass this interesting but yet shocking historic tale of one of America's first families.
January 8, 2022
As a college student, Sally Cabot Gunning worked in a museum that focused on the American Revolution. A long-time resident of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, where her own family history stretches back 300 years, it was only natural for Gunning to grow curious about the Colonial Era. But the curator of this museum further fanned the flame of her curiosity by telling her the true stories behind items in their collection.
“He educated me on the stories that I never heard,” she says. “The version that he told of the Boston massacre, which influence one of my novels, was quite different from the one I had read about in school. And also the fact that Paul Revere never finished his ride; he was captured, but you never hear about that. It fascinated me that there was this other hidden story to so much of the history that we read about schoolbooks, and I got very interested in digging it out.”
In most of her historical novels, Gunning portrays life of the era as seen through the eyes of an invented character, a minor person that history would otherwise overlook—a whaling man’s widow bucking laws that pass her property and rights to her nearest male relative; a girl just off the boat from England sold by her father into indentured servitude to pay for their passage. Using these invented characters, she tells the true story of the daily struggles of the common man and the mindset of the times. But when her historical research led her to correspondence between Thomas Jefferson and his daughter, Martha, Gunning became intrigued enough to consider writing about a real-life, well-known character.
“I found Martha particularly fascinating,” says Gunning. “When she turned fourteen, she wrote her father a letter: ‘I wish with all my heart the Negroes could be free.’ And that hooked me on the Jeffersons. So away I went.”
The result was the historical novel, Monticello, a slow-moving story that follows Martha from seventeen years old until she is almost sixty. Throughout the book, Monticello itself is treated as another character. When she is away from the grand estate, Martha’s mood turns glum. And each time she returns, the grandeur of its architecture and the splendor of its fields are enough to make her feel bright again, to infuse her thoughts with hope.
Several storylines run through the book. Martha marries, has children of her own, and passes on her own childhood lessons—read everything, perfect the art of conversation, never flaunt and never cower. There are feuds within the extended family, problems with money, and even a few seamy peccadillos. But above all else, slavery and the question of how good men could allow it to continue lie at the Monticello’s heart.
The story opens with Martha returning from a five-year stint in France, where their slaves were treated as free servants and Thomas Jefferson espouses his beliefs in freedom and equality for all. Gunning reveals how he advocated not only for emancipation, but also for enfranchisement of the slaves. And in the first draft of the Declaration of Independence, he wrote that “slavery was a cruel war against human nature itself.”
As soon as Thomas Jefferson returned from France, though, his discourses about equality disappear. Although the Jeffersons do what they can to be fair and kind (in their eyes), they still make rigid demands and split families apart when stuck with downturns in fortune. This dichotomy is the central thematic strand woven through the entire book: that Martha and her presidential father professed desire to free their slaves but never took any action to do so.
“I was really curious,” says Gunning, “if they didn’t like slavery, why couldn’t they do anything about it? Why do they spend all their lives enmeshed in the system of slavery? It took a little work on my part to look at the situation through Martha’s eyes and not put my own preconceived thoughts from the days we live in right now onto her thought process. It seems that as hard as a white Virginia planter might want to end slavery, it wasn’t an easy thing to do. Owning a plantation wrapped them up in all kinds of complications. I’m not trying to make excuses, but I gained understanding. Let’s put it that way.”
Gunning writes about Martha’s laments, later in life, as she contemplates her father’s legacy, “pondering the man who could write and live ideas so violently opposed until she’d looked around and seen her father’s mountain as it really was, for perhaps the first time. This little mountain, her father’s world, was not a real world at all but a world her father could see or not see as it suited him, a world he had managed to pretend he could create and control down to the last perfect bloom.”
While slaves continue to work the plantation as before, one drastic change does occur. After Martha’s mother grows ill and dies, we witness the transformation of Sally Hemings from the role of house slave to something akin to mistress of the house, passing work off to others and giving birth to children that bear striking resemblance to the Jeffersons.
Gunning writes about Martha’s laments, later in life, as she contemplates her father’s legacy, “And there she saw a new Sally Hemings, grown older and lovelier as if overnight, gliding over the polished floors with the kind of confidence Martha had never seen in her before, as if she’d woken up one morning and realized how beautiful she was and how polished she’d become…a look a slave seldom gave a master—a look of new-discovered power.”
By telling this story through the eyes of an adoring daughter, we see the power and majesty of Thomas Jefferson, the man and the president. And by showing how Martha’s fervent hatred of slavery slowly takes a back seat to other concerns, such as crops and the mortgage, we see how human these mythological giants really were.
“He educated me on the stories that I never heard,” she says. “The version that he told of the Boston massacre, which influence one of my novels, was quite different from the one I had read about in school. And also the fact that Paul Revere never finished his ride; he was captured, but you never hear about that. It fascinated me that there was this other hidden story to so much of the history that we read about schoolbooks, and I got very interested in digging it out.”
In most of her historical novels, Gunning portrays life of the era as seen through the eyes of an invented character, a minor person that history would otherwise overlook—a whaling man’s widow bucking laws that pass her property and rights to her nearest male relative; a girl just off the boat from England sold by her father into indentured servitude to pay for their passage. Using these invented characters, she tells the true story of the daily struggles of the common man and the mindset of the times. But when her historical research led her to correspondence between Thomas Jefferson and his daughter, Martha, Gunning became intrigued enough to consider writing about a real-life, well-known character.
“I found Martha particularly fascinating,” says Gunning. “When she turned fourteen, she wrote her father a letter: ‘I wish with all my heart the Negroes could be free.’ And that hooked me on the Jeffersons. So away I went.”
The result was the historical novel, Monticello, a slow-moving story that follows Martha from seventeen years old until she is almost sixty. Throughout the book, Monticello itself is treated as another character. When she is away from the grand estate, Martha’s mood turns glum. And each time she returns, the grandeur of its architecture and the splendor of its fields are enough to make her feel bright again, to infuse her thoughts with hope.
Several storylines run through the book. Martha marries, has children of her own, and passes on her own childhood lessons—read everything, perfect the art of conversation, never flaunt and never cower. There are feuds within the extended family, problems with money, and even a few seamy peccadillos. But above all else, slavery and the question of how good men could allow it to continue lie at the Monticello’s heart.
The story opens with Martha returning from a five-year stint in France, where their slaves were treated as free servants and Thomas Jefferson espouses his beliefs in freedom and equality for all. Gunning reveals how he advocated not only for emancipation, but also for enfranchisement of the slaves. And in the first draft of the Declaration of Independence, he wrote that “slavery was a cruel war against human nature itself.”
As soon as Thomas Jefferson returned from France, though, his discourses about equality disappear. Although the Jeffersons do what they can to be fair and kind (in their eyes), they still make rigid demands and split families apart when stuck with downturns in fortune. This dichotomy is the central thematic strand woven through the entire book: that Martha and her presidential father professed desire to free their slaves but never took any action to do so.
“I was really curious,” says Gunning, “if they didn’t like slavery, why couldn’t they do anything about it? Why do they spend all their lives enmeshed in the system of slavery? It took a little work on my part to look at the situation through Martha’s eyes and not put my own preconceived thoughts from the days we live in right now onto her thought process. It seems that as hard as a white Virginia planter might want to end slavery, it wasn’t an easy thing to do. Owning a plantation wrapped them up in all kinds of complications. I’m not trying to make excuses, but I gained understanding. Let’s put it that way.”
Gunning writes about Martha’s laments, later in life, as she contemplates her father’s legacy, “pondering the man who could write and live ideas so violently opposed until she’d looked around and seen her father’s mountain as it really was, for perhaps the first time. This little mountain, her father’s world, was not a real world at all but a world her father could see or not see as it suited him, a world he had managed to pretend he could create and control down to the last perfect bloom.”
While slaves continue to work the plantation as before, one drastic change does occur. After Martha’s mother grows ill and dies, we witness the transformation of Sally Hemings from the role of house slave to something akin to mistress of the house, passing work off to others and giving birth to children that bear striking resemblance to the Jeffersons.
Gunning writes about Martha’s laments, later in life, as she contemplates her father’s legacy, “And there she saw a new Sally Hemings, grown older and lovelier as if overnight, gliding over the polished floors with the kind of confidence Martha had never seen in her before, as if she’d woken up one morning and realized how beautiful she was and how polished she’d become…a look a slave seldom gave a master—a look of new-discovered power.”
By telling this story through the eyes of an adoring daughter, we see the power and majesty of Thomas Jefferson, the man and the president. And by showing how Martha’s fervent hatred of slavery slowly takes a back seat to other concerns, such as crops and the mortgage, we see how human these mythological giants really were.
November 14, 2016
This is the second novel about Martha Jefferson Randolph, Thomas Jefferson's eldest daughter, I read this year and unfortunately this one doesn't quite measure up to the scope and detail of America's First Daughter. On the other hand, Sally Cabot Gunning does provide a sympathetic look at the world of early nineteenth-century Virginia farmers, with their constant debt, conflicted consciences over slavery, and the undercurrents beneath their polite society. Gunning’s writing is elegant, the period details exact, and the dissipation of Martha’s youthful exuberance into the weariness of being a dutiful daughter, wife and mother is often palpable.
October 16, 2019
I struggled to finish this book. So depressing to read of the mostly unhappy life of Thomas Jefferson's daughter. I really think I might abstain from reading any more biographies for awhile - too much like reality TV.
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