Thomas Jefferson's wife had died before he was elected the third President of the United States. I know nothing about their marriage but that they had a daughter. Sally Hemings is a controversial relation in Jefferson's story, but I gather that it is generally accepted by modern scholars that they did indeed have some sort of liaison. The nature of that liaison is more debatable, but it is possible that Jefferson sired more than one child with Hemmings. Finally, in deciding which book to read, I learned that Jefferson apparently was something of a misogynist, had an obsession with a married woman (before his own marriage), and could be domineering with his daughter.
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| https://www.amazon.com/Mr-Jeffersons-Women-Jon-Kukla/dp/1400043247 |
I have chosen to learn about the women in Thomas Jefferson's life according to Mr. Jefferson's Women by Jon Kukla (mostly because it is relatively short and readily available at my public library). I will supplement Kukla's story with the Introduction, Conclusion, and relevant parts of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: an American Controversy by Annette Gordon-Reed.*
* I dropped the ball on reading this one. I read most of the introductory parts, which sounded like the book would make a fascinatingly objective statement of the facts from a lawyer's perspective. But before I could get any further, my library copy, the only one in my library's system, was requested by another patron and I had to return said copy. Maybe someday I'll get around to reading more.
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