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Product Identifiers

PublisherRandom House Publishing Group

ISBN-101101886242

ISBN-139781101886243

eBay Product ID (ePID)237562585

Product Key Features

Book TitleJefferson's Daughters : Three Sisters, White and Black, in a Young America

Number of Pages448 Pages

LanguageEnglish

Publication Year2018

TopicWomen, United States / 19th Century, Presidents & Heads of State, Historical, Siblings

IllustratorYes

GenreFamily & Relationships, Biography & Autobiography, History

AuthorCatherine Kerrison

FormatHardcover

Dimensions

Item Height1.4 in

Item Weight24.9 Oz

Item Length9.5 in

Item Width6.4 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceTrade

LCCN2017-043540

Reviews"Beautifully written . . . To a nuanced study of Jefferson's two white daughters, Martha and Maria, [Catherine Kerrison] innovatively adds a discussion of his only enslaved daughter, Harriet Hemings. The result is a stunning if unavoidably unbalanced book, combining detailed treatments of Martha's and Maria's experiences with imaginative attempts to reconstruct Harriet's life." -- The New York Times Book Review "A richly textured and satisfying book . . . a striking portrait of how women in Jefferson's era lived, bravely and resourcefully, in an age that demanded fealty and absolute obedience to men." -- Newsday "Intriguing . . . The most poignant literature gives a voice to the voiceless. And in Jefferson's Daughters . . . Catherine Kerrison tells us the stories of three of Thomas Jefferson's children, who, due to their gender or race, lived lives whose most intimate details are lost to time. . . . A highlight of Kerrison's work is that while noting the gender constraints that hemmed in white women, she does not sugarcoat their privileged status, nor deny their racism. . . . A historical narrative that allows us to reflect on the thoughts, fears and motivations of three women coming of age in a turbulent time, Jefferson's Daughters offers a fascinating glimpse of where we have been as a nation. It is a vivid reminder of both the ties that bind, and the artificial boundaries that painfully divide us." -- USA Today "Drawing on letters and journals, Kerrison presents an intimate portrait of a powerful man and his daughters through their respective paths to womanhood at a time of change and tumult that nonetheless held to racial and sexual restrictions." -- Booklist "A deeply researched history . . . Kerrison illuminates women's experiences in early America through the lives of Thomas Jefferson's three daughters. . . . An insightful contribution to women's history." -- Kirkus Reviews "Incisive and elegant, [Catherine] Kerrison's book is at once a fabulous family story and a stellar work of historical scholarship." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review) "Kerrison's research, downright detective work, tells a fascinating story of Jefferson's daughters and engages us in the very different worlds they inhabited." --Cokie Roberts, author of Founding Mothers "Marvelously researched and gracefully written, Jefferson's Daughters provides fresh details and carefully nuanced analysis not only on these three daughters but on Jefferson himself. It is another absolutely essential title for the bulging Jefferson bookshelf." --John B. Boles, author of Jefferson: Architect of American Liberty "Fascinating and infuriating, Catherine Kerrison's well-researched book shows the contradictions and compromises built into the foundation of our nation." --Laila Ibrahim, author of Yellow Crocus

SynopsisThe remarkable untold story of Thomas Jefferson's three daughters--two white and free, one black and enslaved--and the divergent paths they forged in a newly independent America FINALIST FOR THE GEORGE WASHINGTON PRIZE * "Beautifully written . . . To a nuanced study of Jefferson's two white daughters, Martha and Maria, [Kerrison] innovatively adds a discussion of his only enslaved daughter, Harriet Hemings."-- The New York Times Book Review Thomas Jefferson had three daughters: Martha and Maria by his wife, Martha Wayles Jefferson, and Harriet by his slave Sally Hemings. Although the three women shared a father, the similarities end there. Martha and Maria received a fine convent school education while they lived with their father during his diplomatic posting in Paris. Once they returned home, however, the sisters found their options limited by the laws and customs of early America. Harriet Hemings followed a different path. She escaped slavery--apparently with the assistance of Jefferson himself. Leaving Monticello behind, she boarded a coach and set off for a decidedly uncertain future. For this groundbreaking triple biography, history scholar Catherine Kerrison has uncovered never-before-published documents written by the Jefferson sisters, as well as letters written by members of the Jefferson and Hemings families. The richly interwoven stories of these strong women and their fight to shape their own destinies shed new light on issues of race and gender that are still relevant today--and on the legacy of one of our most controversial Founding Fathers. Praise for Jefferson's Daughters "A fascinating glimpse of where we have been as a nation . . . Catherine Kerrison tells us the stories of three of Thomas Jefferson's children, who, due to their gender and race, lived lives whose most intimate details are lost to time." --USA Today "A valuable addition to the history of Revolutionary-era America." --The Boston Globe "A thought-provoking nonfiction narrative that reads like a novel." -- BookPage, The remarkable untold story of Thomas Jefferson's three daughters--two white and free, one black and enslaved--and the divergent paths they forged in a newly independent America Thomas Jefferson had three daughters: Martha and Maria by his wife, Martha Wayles Jefferson, and Harriet by his slave Sally Hemings. In Jefferson's Daughters, Catherine Kerrison, a scholar of early American and women's history, recounts the remarkable journey of these three women--and how their struggle to define themselves reflects both the possibilities and the limitations that resulted from the American Revolution. Although the three women shared a father, the similarities end there. Martha and Maria received a fine convent school education while they lived with their father during his diplomatic posting in Paris--a hothouse of intellectual ferment whose celebrated salonni res are vividly brought to life in Kerrison's narrative. Once they returned home, however, the sisters found their options limited by the laws and customs of early America. Harriet Hemings followed a different path. She escaped slavery--apparently with the assistance of Jefferson himself. Leaving Monticello behind, she boarded a coach and set off for a decidedly uncertain future. For this groundbreaking triple biography, Kerrison has uncovered never-before-published documents written by the Jefferson sisters when they were in their teens, as well as letters written by members of the Jefferson and Hemings families. She has interviewed Hemings family descendants (and, with their cooperation, initiated DNA testing) and searched for descendants of Harriet Hemings. The eventful lives of Thomas Jefferson's daughters provide a unique vantage point from which to examine the complicated patrimony of the American Revolution itself. The richly interwoven story of these three strong women and their fight to shape their own destinies sheds new light on the ongoing movement toward human rights in America--and on the personal and political legacy of one of our most controversial Founding Fathers. "Beautifully written . . . To a nuanced study of Jefferson's two white daughters, Martha and Maria, Kerrison] innovatively adds a discussion of his only enslaved daughter, Harriet Hemings."-- The New York Times Book Review

LC Classification NumberE332.25.K47 2018