A Possible Love between a Master and a Slave
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This review introduces Annette Gordon-Reed’s The Hemingses ofMonticello critically. The book recounts the extended history of threegenerations of the Hemingses and the relationship between Thomas Jeffersonand them that developed at Monticello between 1735 and 1826. The author,however, questions the suggested sexual relationship between Jefferson andSally Hemings, Elizabeth’s youngest daughter, as to whether Sally’s sixchildren were fathered by the president, a long-standing controversy sincethe turn of the eighteenth century. The discussion of the specific contexts ofslavery and of social circumstance at that time makes the author’s argumentin the book convincing and thought-provoking. Gordon-Reed’s view of theJefferson-Hemings relationship as based on love, however, often relies onher own abstract reasoning, which creates many questionable points. Suchfactors overshadow the author’s efforts to recover Hemings from the silenceof history while ironically emphasizing Jefferson’s hegemony over her.
Abstract
This review introduces Annette Gordon-Reed’s The Hemingses ofMonticello critically. The book recounts the extended history of threegenerations of the Hemingses and the relationship between Thomas Jeffersonand them that developed at Monticello between 1735 and 1826. The author,however, questions the suggested sexual relationship between Jefferson andSally Hemings, Elizabeth’s youngest daughter, as to whether Sally’s sixchildren were fathered by the president, a long-standing controversy sincethe turn of the eighteenth century. The discussion of the specific contexts ofslavery and of social circumstance at that time makes the author’s argumentin the book convincing and thought-provoking. Gordon-Reed’s view of theJefferson-Hemings relationship as based on love, however, often relies onher own abstract reasoning, which creates many questionable points. Suchfactors overshadow the author’s efforts to recover Hemings from the silenceof history while ironically emphasizing Jefferson’s hegemony over her.