This week at In The Past Lane, the American History podcast, we dive into the fascinating story of the daughters of Thomas Jefferson. Ever since the revelations in 1998 – courtesy of modern DNA analysis – that Thomas Jefferson did indeed have a longterm sexual relationship with an enslaved woman named Sally Hemings, historians have examined the 3rd president in a new light. And his historic home, Monticello, has transformed the way it presents the life of Jefferson, devoting increasing amounts of attention and space to Sally Hemings and the many hundreds of other enslaved people who lived and worked there. But what of the six children Hemings and Jefferson had? What was their fate in a nation dedicated to slavery? To explain one of these lives, Harriett Hemings, and to compare it to that of her white half-sisters Martha and Maria Jefferson, I speak with historian Catherine Kerrison, the author of a new book, Jefferson’s Daughters: Three Sisters, White and Black, in a Young America.
In the course of our conversation, Catherine Kerrison explains:
The lives of Jefferson’s two white daughters, in particular Martha, who was educated in Paris and grew up to be an intellectual like her father.
How Martha raised her own family at Monticello, where – quite ahead of her time- she provided her daughters with a level of education equal to that of her sons.
How Harriet, the enslaved African American daughter Jefferson had with Sally Hemings, grew up in very different circumstances.
How Thomas Jefferson fulfilled his promise to Sally Hemings that he would free their three children when they turned 21 years of age.
What happened to Harriett Hemings when she settled in Washington, DC and began a new life passing as a free white woman.
How these stories of Jefferson’s daughters and their different fates reveal both the power of race and the fact that it’s a socially constructed concept.
Recommended reading:
Catherine Kerrison, Jefferson’s Daughters: Three Sisters, White and Black, in a Young America (Ballantine, 2018)
Annette Gordon-Reed and Peter S. Onuf, “Most Blessed of the Patriarchs”: Thomas Jefferson and the Empire of the Imagination (WW Norton)
Annette Gordon-Reed, The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family (W.W. Norton, 2009)
Annette Gordon-Reed, Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy (University Press of Virginia, 1997)
Shannon Lanier, Jefferson’s Children: The Story of One American Family
More info about Catherine Kerrison – website
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Music for This Episode
Jay Graham, ITPL Intro (JayGMusic.com)
Kevin McCleod, “Impact Moderato” (Free Music Archive)
Andy Cohen, “Trophy Endorphins” (Free Music Archive)
Blue Dot Sessions, “Sage the Hunter” (Free Music Archive)
Jon Luc Hefferman, “Winter Trek” (Free Music Archive)
The Bell, “I Am History” (Free Music Archive)
Production Credits
Executive Producer: Lulu Spencer
Technical Advisors: Holly Hunt and Jesse Anderson
Podcasting Consultant: Dave Jackson of the School of Podcasting
Podcast Editing: Wildstyle Media
Photographer: John Buckingham
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© In The Past Lane, 2019
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