Martha Jefferson is the very epitome of a daddy's girl. Her entire world revolves around him, and while others appear in her line of sight, the light never moves away from the one constant in her life, Thomas Jefferson. The pressures that he is under do nothing to lessen the attention that he lavishes on his daughters, both of whom have accompanied him to France. Upon their return, Martha is overjoyed to be home and back in familiar territory. But things are never going to be the same for the Jefferson's. Thomas Jefferson has been appointed as Secretary of State. But Martha is about to add her own stress to the mix.. a marriage to Thomas Randolph! What a marriage it should have been! But instead of everlasting happiness, she finds disappointment, debt, and an ever sure footing in the foundation of her father. While some of the ideas that they hold are not popular with some of their friends, they are views that are held and nurtured to a hope that it might one day come to pass. 

While the world crumbles around her, Martha does her best to run her plantation, but the ever increasing debt, and the unraveling of her husbands family have left deep imprints on him. While Tom tries his best to make things work, nothing seems to flourish under his hand, except the growing brood of his children. While Martha continues to run Monticello, Varina and Edgehill to the best of her abilities. While her husband sulks, and continues to borrow large amounts of money from her father, Martha does her best to smile and carry on as though nothing were wrong. But, everything is wrong. The papers have caught wind of Sally Hemings, and while everyone denies the relationship, there are things that Martha notices, but cannot get her father to confirm. The charmed childhood she held so fond in memory, has turned to the ugly realities of adulthood, and the facing of truths that are not always pleasant. When her sister Maria dies, Martha is left feeling alone and wondering where her comfort will come from. Tom cannot or will not help, and there are none that she can truly turn to. 

When Thomas Jefferson is elected President, Martha does her best to continue caring for things at home, but she misses her father. The short visits he makes back to Monticello are brief and always filled with work. Visitors stream to and from the house, and Martha wonders when they will ever be truly alone. But of course, things cannot last forever, and even great men, lions in the foundations are only mortal....



This book is a MUST READ! It was one that I was able to finish in two settings, and kept you engaged from the first page to the last. You hoped for the best, you cared for some of the characters while wishing some of the others would simply drop off the pages, and laughed at some of the antics. I will say that I was a little surprised that there was no mention of the falling out between Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, both great men in our history. They of course both made up and corresponded later in their lives, but on an interesting note, they both died within hours of each other on the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. But other than that little note (history nerd moment), this book was fantastic! There is not a dull moment in this book!! Take it from the book lady here... this is a book that is worth the time!

Thomas Jefferson was well known for his fastidious recordkeeping and letter writing. Jefferson kept a garden book and recorded weather conditions daily, providing some of the best documentation in history. Jefferson kept all of his well organized papers, letters, and correspondence at Monticello. It is through these, Thomas Jefferson's own words, that the story of America's First Daughter can be told. And, what a story they tell! Gripping from the first sentence. 

 

     "The letters of a person, especially of one whose business has been chiefly transacted

      by letters, form the only full and genuine journal of his life."  

     ~THOMAS JEFFERSON TO ROBERT WALSH, MONTICELLO

 

 

While visiting my brother and his family in Lynchburg, VA. We visited Monticello, Thomas Jefferson's home in Charlottesville. Fascinating place. While there, I picked up this book at the gift shop in Monticello. Not only was Thomas Jefferson our nation's third president as well as the author of the Declaration of Independence, But also an inventor and an architect. He designed Monticello and had an extraordinary collection of books in his library. He designed a revolving book stand, Which he could read 4 to 5 books. He was also responsible for the building of the University of Virginia as well and had a unique system of categorizing his books.

Finally finished! It took long enough. Despite my slow going with this book it was fairly good and really interesting.I personally adore Thomas Jefferson, if you couldn't tell, and after a trip to Montecello and Poplar Forest I started this book. It's a pretty in depth look on both Jefferson's life as well as the close slave families, though as the titles suggests it does focus on the Hemings family more so then the others. There was a lot interesting facts, stories, letters and even some pictures included that sheds some light on their public and private lives. I enjoyed learning more about Sally Hemings' family as well as her personal situation within the soical web of Jefferson's life. There was so much that I didn't know about her or her family that some of it was entirely new to me. This was also one of those books where every time I learned something remotely interesting that I didn't know I simply had to tell someone, I found a lot of it fascinating.My only real complaint about this book is that the author tends to sound...bitter almost. It proved distracting at times and was one of the main reasons I kept putting the book down. As non-fiction I don't expect a lot of free-thought to be included unless it's in a separate section, and while she does do that she also includes speculation that comes off as bias during the informative parts as well. It happened enough that I would get irritated and simply stop reading for days. I found it a tad unprofessional on the author's part to put forth an opinion so rigidly that it overshadows some of the information. Overall it's a really good book and it's worth reading if you have an interest in Thomas Jefferson or Sally Hemings but be aware that the author's personal voice does tend to come through at times.

This book is incredibly well-written. It is clear that AGR has a firm grasp on the relationship between Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson.