Jefferson's Daughters by Catherine Kerrison

For instance, there are several Marthas in this book, so beware. She’d be, after all, “a mother of children destined for freedom.”įor the casual reader, “Jefferson ’s Daughters” may be a challenge but that’s not author Catherine Kerrison’s fault it’s because of naming habits of eighteenth-century people. Sixteen-year-old Sally, pregnant with her master’s child, didn’t have to come home to Virginia at all in France, she was legally free, but she chose to return after negotiating with Jefferson. Eleven-year-old Maria, a sweet child, was soon sent to Philadelphia, to boarding school.

Seventeen-year-old Martha, wishing to avoid being suddenly “supervised,” quickly became betrothed. Just two years later, Thomas Jefferson, his daughters, and his slaves returned home to Virginia, reportedly to great fanfare. No record was made of Sally’s feelings, although Kerrison imagines she was unhappy. Maria must have been rather used to being uprooted: over the years, her father had sent her to several homes to be raised and educated. In 1787, Jefferson sent for his second daughter, then-9-year-old Maria, who arrived in Paris with 14-year-old “companion-maid” Sally Hemings. Shortly after she arrived in Paris, she was sent to a convent school, and considered the idea of becoming a nun. Known as a lively, intelligent girl, young Martha was quick with languages, could sing and dance, and had become her father’s best support after her mother’s death. Jefferson sent his youngest two daughters, along with Elizabeth ’s youngest daughter, Sally, to his sister-in-law’s home. With him, he took his daughter, 11-year-old Martha and James, the son of Elizabeth Hemings, Jefferson ’s late wife’s slave and her half-sister. Martha Jefferson would spend just “a little over half of her married life” and much heartbreak there.Īfter having birthed several children, most of whom didn’t live, Martha sickened and died in the fall of 1782 perhaps compassionately, Thomas Jefferson was sent by the U.S. When young Thomas Jefferson married the widow Martha Wayles Skelton, their first nights were spent inside a promise: Monticello, on the grounds he’d received from his father, was only partially completed. Parents are supposed to love each of their children differently but equally though, in the new book “ Jefferson’s Daughters” by Catherine Kerrison (c.2018, Ballantine Books, $28, 448 pages), history sometimes shows otherwise… You might be asked, but you can’t choose one child over another. That’s a question heavy with danger, as any parent knows.

Jefferson's Daughters by Catherine Kerrison