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    Sally Hemings: A Novel
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    Sally Hemings: A Novel
    Unavailable
    Sally Hemings: A Novel
    Ebook514 pages9 hours

    Sally Hemings: A Novel

    By Barbara Chase-Riboud

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Bringing to life one of the greatest and most controversial love stories, this fictional account reveals the beautiful and elusive Sally Hemings, Thomas Jefferson’s mistress for 38 years whom he loved and lived with until he died. Adding to the scandal, she was a quadroon slave and Jefferson fathered a slave family whose descendants are alive today. In this novel, Jefferson and his mistress are fully realized, as are many of the other personages of the early RepublicAaron Burr, Dolly and James Madison, John and Abigail Adams, and Sally’s mother Elizabeth, who was Jefferson’s father-in-law’s mistress. This brilliant and highly acclaimed novel is a contemporary masterpiecea poignant, tragic, and unforgettable meditation on the history of race and sex in America.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherChicago Review Press
    Release dateApr 1, 2009
    ISBN9781569766798
    Unavailable
    Sally Hemings: A Novel
    Author

    Barbara Chase-Riboud

    Barbara Chase-Riboud is the bestselling author one biography and six historical novels, including the internationally celebrated Sally Hemings. A distinguished poet who has published three collections, she won the Carl Sandburg Poetry Prize for Best American Poet for her second collection, Portrait of a Nude Women as Cleopatra, and her first collection, Memphis & Peking was edited by Toni Morrison and released to critical acclaim. She is also a celebrated artist, and the recipient of many fellowships and prizes. She was the first African American graduate of the School of Design and Architecture at Yale University in 1960, and received a knighthood in Arts and Letters from the French government in 1996. She lives in Paris, Rome, and New York.

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    Reviews for Sally Hemings

    4/5

    54 ratings4 reviews

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    • 4/5
      A harrowing read. Beautifully crafted but difficult and frustrating at times - I was relieved to finish. Jefferson was too unlikeable. I wasn't sure what the point of the census taker story line was besides recording Sally and her sons as white - seemed a bit of a redundant section the further into the book I got.I don't know much about this period of history so I think I missed quite a bit of context.
    • 5/5
      I have always been interested in Jefferson as a person, not as much as a President, although that may sound strange. He was conflicted, as evidenced in his stand on slavery, being against it in principle, yet unable to divest himself of the ones he had. The story of Sally's life, as told here, even though a work of fiction, does play on the known facts of her life, & could almost BE biographical in nature. I was glad to see all of the rumors finally put to rest by DNA evidence that revealed that the Hemings clan's descendants ARE in fact related to the great man. I don't understand why there was all the secrecy to begin with, it was no secret that the masters of the plantations & their sons often had slave mistresses that bore their children.
    • 4/5
      Fascinating book fictionalizing the romance between Thomas Jefferson and his slave, Sally Hemings. DNA has shown the relationship occurred, but the reality of their love is disputed. It is truly hard to understand the actions of the man who wrote "all men are created equal" and yet held his own sons in slavery!
    • 3/5
      This is the ficional account of the love story between Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson. Many of the events in the book did occur. I believe the genealogical information on the Hemmings family is fairly correct. An interesting read if you are a fan of this era.