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

Martha and Maria Jefferson and Harriet Hemings shared a father--but there the likeness ends, as their lives took widely diverging paths. Martha received a fine education in Paris while Jefferson was ambassador there, but it did not prepare her to be a planter's wife on her return to rural Virginia. She devoted her life to her father, yet when he died, that famous connection could not protect her. Maria emerges as a strong-headed young woman who was determined to create an independent family life, even when it went against her father's will. Born into slavery, Harriet Hemings would leave Jefferson's home at twenty-one to make a life in freedom that has been shrouded in mystery ever since. In their struggles to shape their own lives, we see both the possibilities and the disappointments that resulted from the American Revolution. The great irony of their stories is that the Revolution made little difference in the lives of Jefferson's acknowledged daughters, but brought the greatest opportunity to his daughter born a slave.

Categories: Mystery