"Strange and Ironic Fates of Jefferson's Daughters"

[Linda Anderson]

l
Anyone who has visited - even since 1980 - knows the wonders of what has been accomplished at Thomas Jefferson's beloved home. It is well-worth a trip to the beautiful foothills of Virginia to see the house, its dependencies, its grounds, and to learn from the genius of Jefferson The Man. And I, for one, don't care if he fathered children by Sally Hemmings. He gave far more to our country in democratic principles that need to be remembered today.

I wasn't thinking of Jefferson so much in this article but how much the fate of married women depended on their husbands.

Annette Gordon-Reed wrote The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family which won the Putlizer Prize and the National Book Award. Sally Hemmings and Jefferson's wife, Martha, shared the same father, John Wales.