Jefferson's Daughters

October 15, 2017
The circumscribed paths of women's lives emerge from a deeply researched history. Kerrison (History/Villanova Univ.; Claiming the Pen: Women and Intellectual Life in the Early American South, 2005) illuminates women's experiences in early America through the lives of Thomas Jefferson's three daughters: Martha and Maria, his children by his wife, and Harriet Hemings, the offspring--one of four surviving children--of his relationship with the slave Sally Hemings. As the author acknowledges, Jefferson's long affair with Hemings has been well-documented by Annette Gordon-Reed and Monticello historian Lucia Stanton. Kerrison draws from those works as well as abundant historical and archival sources to portray "the benefits and perils" of each daughter's experiences. Jefferson's enlightened ideas about education extended only to men. He saw little use in educating females, who were not permitted entrance to the University of Virginia, which he founded. After her mother died, Martha accompanied Jefferson to Paris, attended a convent school, learned to speak French fluently, and absorbed France's antipathy to slavery. Still, like her sister, she was expected to embrace "the life of wife, mother, and plantation mistress"--including overseeing slaves--tasks that proved, "after Paris, a trial so arduous as to require heroism to be endured." While Martha was in France, the younger Maria was left behind with relatives; "her peripatetic childhood" was marked "by only brief periods of loving stability that came to sudden unannounced ends." Even after Jefferson returned to America, his political obligations kept him away from the family's home. Kerrison discovered more sources to document Martha's life than Maria's: a talented amateur pianist, Maria died in childbirth at 25, barely a memory for her surviving son. Martha lived into her 60s, keeper of family papers. But the author's greatest challenge was finding evidence of Harriet's life, both at Monticello and later, when she left Virginia and, passing as white, probably lived the rest of her life in Washington, D.C. Despite Kerrison's dogged and thoroughly detailed detective work, Harriet's life remains a mystery. An insightful contribution to women's history.

COPYRIGHT(2017) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from October 30, 2017
Kerrison (Claiming the Pen), associate professor of history at Villanova University, richly textures this tale of the lives of Thomas Jefferson’s three daughters. Two daughters, Martha and Maria, came from Jefferson’s marriage to Martha Wayles Skelton. The other, Harriet, was born to the enslaved Sally Hemings. Kerrison demonstrates her deep understanding of post-Revolution America, marshaling an impressive array of sources to illustrate the possibilities for “women, free blacks, and slaves” in the new country. Jefferson’s presence looms throughout, but Kerrison foregrounds the daughters’ stories, brilliantly recapturing the patterns of Southern women’s lives. Martha and Maria lost their mother at an early age and bounced from place to place before settling into homes of their own as married women. Harriet’s story is the most captivating and reveals much about the web of family connections woven in bondage. Harriet never knew Maria and Martha ignored Harriet at Monticello. When Harriet turned 14, Jefferson put her to work in Monticello’s weavers’ cottage. But in 1822, he facilitated Harriet’s departure to Washington, after which she passed as a white woman. Incisive and elegant, Kerrison’s book is at once a fabulous family story and a stellar work of historical scholarship. Maps & illus. Agent: Howard Morhaim, Howard Morhaim Literary.

December 1, 2017
When Thomas Jefferson's wife died, he was left to raise daughters. He took Martha with him to Paris, where he served as ambassador during its revolutionary fervor, an experience that provided Martha with an invaluable, cosmopolitan education. Though she married and had children, she devoted her life to her father. Maria, more than 10 years younger, never matched Martha for Jefferson's attention and lived an independent life as wife and mother until her early death. Harriet, Jefferson's daughter with the enslaved Sally Hemings, benefited from the promise her mother secured from Jefferson that their children would be freed. Though she had none of the privileges of her half-sisters, Harriet learned skills that served her well. 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. Though much less is known and written about Harriet, her inclusion offers a deeper perspective on life at Monticello, imbued with its master's ideals and contradictions.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)

November 15, 2017

Kerrison (history, Villanova Univ.; Claiming the Pen) contrasts the privileged upbringing of Thomas Jefferson's two acknowledged daughters with wife Martha--Martha Jefferson Randolph (the eldest and favored daughter), and Maria Jefferson Eppes--and the shadowy life of daughter Harriet Hemings, born to Sally Hemings, his mistress and slave. An interesting chapter describes Martha's and Maria's formative years, their childhoods in Paris with Jefferson, accompanied by Sally. While Martha and Maria went on to become Virginia plantation mistresses, Harriet made a new life for herself as a white woman in Washington, DC. While the details of Martha's and Maria's lives are rich and detailed, Kerrison mostly speculates on Harriet's experience, relying largely on the groundwork paved by Annette Gordon-Reed's The Hemingses of Monticello. Kerrison makes a valiant but unsuccessful, effort to track down Harriet under an assumed maiden name and her unknown husband in Washington using public records. VERDICT Although this work may be of interest to those who can't get enough of Jefferson and his personal life, Kerrison doesn't offer much in the way of original scholarship.--Kate Stewart, Arizona Historical Soc., Tucson

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2017

Villanova historian Kerrison won the Outstanding Book Prize from the History of Education Society for Claiming the Pen: Women and Intellectual Life in the Early American South and did considerable archival and DNA research for this account of Thomas Jefferson's three daughters, two free white girls and one an African American slave. Given the publisher, accessible writing aimed at all readers.

Copyright 2017 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.