The Hemingses of Monticello was written by Annette Gordon-Reed and published by W.W. Norton & Company in 2008.
This adult nonfiction historical narrative was reviewed extensively by The New Yorker, and I will never attempt to compete with the king of all magazines. Go here to read their review : http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/books/2008/09/22/080922crbo_books_lepore
I read this book for pleasure. Having just visited Virginia and having visited Monticello in the past, I grabbed it when I saw it on the Just In library shelf. What really struck me about the book, is how much it explained to me what was going on in the recent Presidential campaign in regards to Obama’s race.
Jefferson thought that white blood mixed with African blood was what improved the African people. The white blood elevated the person to intelligence, good looks, creativity, etc. Now when I worked for the Obama campaign a few times, some of the people we canvassed talked about that they couldn’t vote for Senator Obama because he was black. Some of the campaign workers would answer, “But, he’s half-white.” And believe it or not, this seemed to settle them. A disturbing but true experience.
It is mostly an interesting read. Gordon-Reed does tend to repeat herself throughout, making and reiterating the same arguments so that I began to skim through many sections of the 662 page book. She had already convinced me the first time she’d made the argument so it became annoying for it to take up much space in another section and then sometimes, yet another section.
She also made a statement that bothers me still. She stated in regards to the Hemings’ women when Jefferson wasn’t at Monticello, “Indeed, it is hard to imagine just how these women occupied themselves during the many months when there were no daily household duties to perform.” My response to this is, “What? The other slaves took care of the Hemings’ enslaved women and they sat around eating bon bons, bored silly?” Life wasn’t easy then. Cooking took hours and hours. There were no grocery stores. What about all of the routine tasks that must have consumed them, tasks that we no longer have to do, just to have daily needs met? Making their own clothes, washing those clothes, taking care of their children, nursing their sick and injured family, gathering food, cooking that food, cleaning up the mess. My only conclusion is that Gordon-Reed has so removed herself from what it is like to be a housekeeper and stay-at-home mother, that she cannot see how demanding the role would be, especially 200 years ago. If you have children, how much “spare time” do you have, even when someone else cleans your house?
Not to mention the fact that most of the Hemingses could read and were intelligent and probably had a lot of things they wanted to do with their time when they weren’t burdened down with mundane mindless household chores.
This is why Virginia Woolf said every woman writer should have a room of her own and with a view. A room she can lock and keep the responsibilities of being the one who raises up the next generation at bay for a spare moment or two. Why is that women’s real work is the household chores and when relieved of that work, which I doubt the Hemingses really were, they can’t keep themselves occupied?
Jefferson didn’t free all of his slaves. He only freed a few. He was in terrible debt and so he treated most of them as property and they endured the horror of the auction after his death. Even the little children, being seperated from their parents. Children who had probably always thought they’d be kept with their parents since Jefferson kept most of the Hemingses together.
