Sally Hemings (SH) has been seen as a symbol, or as a “problem.” She has been divorced from her context. I thought it would be useful to tell the family story, as a story. While finishing my first book, it occurred to me that there was a lot of information about the Hemingses that could be put in narrative form. What drew you to write about Sally Hemings and her family? Her most recent book is: The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family, which won the National Book Award for nonfiction on November 19.
She is considered one of our nation’s foremost scholars, and uses a lawyer’s approach to the historical craft. Thomas Jefferson’s relationship to his slave has been subject of much controversy-Gordon-Reed lucidly cuts to the facts of a complex relationship and fascinating family. Annette Gordon-Reed, professor of law at New York Law School, made a splash with her book Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy.
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