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

Written by:
Catherine Kerrison
Narrated by:
Tavia Gilbert

Unabridged Audiobook

Ratings
Book
11
Narrator
2
Release Date
January 2018
Duration
17 hours 3 minutes
Summary
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
 
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
Reviews
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Paulette T.

I am totally enthralled with this book! The historical detail is fascinating, and the perspective on the evolution of both women and racial divisions leaves much to be pondered. My only question....the author totally leaves out any reference to "Thomas" the alleged first son of TJ and Sally who was banished from Monticello after the Callendar story broke. I read "A President in the Family" by his descendant, Byron W Woods on, Sr over ten years ago. I so admire the detailed research that she did, especially in searching for Harriet, just wondering about the ommission of the Woodson story

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