Sally Hemings: A Novel

Author - Barbara Chase-Riboud ... [Goo?] [Posters]

This Paperback Book item from St. Martin´s Griffin was reviewed on 4-Nov-2008.

Search ISBN:0312247044 offer from Abebooks or used books from Alibris. Sally Hemings: A Novel Reference Book. Classifications : Popular Fiction Literature & Fiction Book Clubs Custom Stores Specialty Stores Books Historical Genre Fiction Literature & Fiction Subjects Books General AAS United States World Literature Literature . Click the following link to view the cover of Sally Hemings: A Novel.

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1) Paperback Book Sally Hemings: A Novel by St. Martin´s Griffin. This was a wonderful book although it was fiction. It was extremely interesting to see how the interest in Sally Hemmings was and also how the relationship developed which seemed to be a co-dependent one. Also how she kept their relationship private and how she was in love with him but at the same time she realized that she was loving a man that could not and would not duplicate the affection. The worst part of the book was the end in where she watched her fmaily get sold off. So much for love right.¤

2) Paperback Book Sally Hemings: A Novel by St. Martin´s Griffin. I was a guide at Thomas Jefferson´s Monticello when the DNA evidence linking Jefferson to Hemings exploded in the mid-1990s, and know how affected many were by the mere thought of this relationship being real. The reverberations are still being felt a full decade-plus later.

Barbara Chase-Riboud published this novel a full 15 years before the Jefferson-Hemings relationship was all but confirmed (despite the protestations of a still vocal minority), and what better way to contextualize something about which we know so little than with a work of fiction? With actual evidence to contradict her being quite scarce, Chase-Riboud is able to turn the tale into a detailed, dramatic story. It really doesn´t matter who the main protagonists happen to be. I am reminded of Michael Shaara´s "The Killer Angels", in which the author used very well known situations and "characters" (Lee, Chamberlain) to create tense, gripping scenes that undoubtedly did not occur exactly as written.

It´s not a work of history, and regardless of your opinion re: whether Jefferson did or didn´t you´ll find yourself turning page after page.¤

3) Paperback Book Sally Hemings: A Novel by St. Martin´s Griffin. I just visited Monticello and I must say that Chase-Riboud did an amazing job with bringing depth and vitality to the spirit of Monticello. She incorporated so much fact into this story it reads as an autobiography. Without a doubt this is a classic and a must read for all history courses. The author incorporates race, sex, power and Jeffersonian ideals into Sally Heming´s legacy.

The language used to describe this affair is very balanced and gives a well-rounded testament to how many people were touched by Jefferson´s life. It also helps present day Americans revaluate how we view Jefferson´s politics and the true meaning of the Declaration of Independence.

I could read this book over and over and I highly recommend visiting Monticello to truly grasp the details that Chase-Riboud has put in the book to bring Sally Hemings´ truth to life.
¤

4) Paperback Book Sally Hemings: A Novel by St. Martin´s Griffin. "It has long been known that the best blood of Virginia may now be found in the slave markets."

The story of Sally Hemmings a squadron slave, is at the
centre on this story along with her master Thomas Jefferson, who had chosen her as his mistress. Unlike other slaves,
Sally has been favoured; given the best to wear of clothes, as she developes a taste for finery and tasty clothes, the best of everything was hers; including French lessons while in Paris, music and dressmaking. But would this goodwill shown to her, serve her through to the end? Will Thomas Jefferson make an honest woman of this graceful and elegant woman? And also, will she be freed? Don´t miss out on this very fascinating and enlightening novel, and especially if you love big fat books.
Reviewed by Heather Marshall Negahdar (SUGAR-CANE 24/08/06)
¤

5) Paperback Book Sally Hemings: A Novel by St. Martin´s Griffin. Barbara Chase-Riboud does a miraculous job writing her novel Sally Hemings. Not only does she give the reader a clear view of the effects that slavery placed upon African Americans, the novel was written using Sally Hemings as the speaker. It gives an insight to the way that slaves did feel when they were owned by white masters. This book was exciting to engage upon and from chapter to chapter more information about Thomas Jefferson and his personal side and emotions were shown unlike in other biographies.Jefferson was forced to deal with the pain of death in his family with his wife and some of their children who died at a young age. When the book shared the comfort and tenderness that Sally Hemings had for this man it was remarkable to read about and the author put this into words, which really helped the reader visualize the situation. This book gave useful information about slave life in Virginia and the free life in Paris, yet helped the reader to actually see that relationships between two people can be inevitable and we notice that Sally Hemings was questioning herself throughout the book to see if she truly wanted her freedom from her lover Thomas Jefferson.The words that were spoken to Sally from her brother, Mother, Martha and the other characters in this novel prove that she was a strong willed woman, who was not only beautiful physically, but on the inside as well. This book was recommended to me and i am very glad that i had the opportunity to read it.¤

6) Paperback Book Sally Hemings: A Novel by St. Martin´s Griffin.

7) Paperback Book Sally Hemings: A Novel by St. Martin´s Griffin. When this stirring work by Philadelphia-born Paris-based sculptress and historical-fiction writer Barbara Chase-Riboud first appeared in 1979, it was dismissed by many mainstream historians as "hogwash." But with DNA evidence proving that Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, did indeed father at least one child by his black slave mistress, Sally Hemings, Chase-Riboud´s book deserves a new read. With her painstaking eye for research, Chase-Riboud unfolds a complex 19th-century quilt of miscegenation, denial, hypocrisy, slavery and, yes, love in Virginia. She brings to life Heming´s relationship with Martha, her half-sister and the President´s wife on his Monticello estate; Jefferson´s seduction of Hemings in Paris after Martha´s death; and his lifelong concubinage of Hemings until his own death, when she and her offspring were freed. Chase-Riboud avoids the sentimental "tragic-mulatto trap" that other writers have fallen into when they deal with slave relations by making Hemings not only multidimensional and believable, but, given late-20th-century political scandals, chillingly contemporary. Along with the novel´s other sub-themes, including black disenfranchisement and the fear of reenslavement, Riboud intimates that Jefferson-- despite his racist rantings in Notes on the State of Virginia, which Chase-Riboud uses as epigraphs--may have actually loved this black woman, and that the relationship between Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings was perhaps the clearest example of the American imperative of "seeking a more perfect union," a controversial portrayal that Chase-Riboud makes plausible with skillfully written prose. --Eugene Holley Jr.¤

Page Updated: Robert N. Goolsby, 2-Dec-2008, 03122470449780312247041, 440-000-860-320-7WB-OOB-8

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