Description
A global history of how Thomas Jefferson's descendants navigated the legacy of the Declaration of Independence on both sides of the color line
The Declaration of Independence identified two core principles-independence and equality-that defined the American Revolution and the nation forged in 1776. Jefferson believed that each new generation of Americans would have to look to the "experience of the present" rather than the "wisdom" of the past to interpret and apply these principles in new and progressive ways.
Historian Christa Dierksheide examines the lives and experiences of a rising generation of Jefferson's descendants, Black and white, illuminating how they redefined equality and independence in a world that was half a century removed from the American Revolution. The Hemingses and Randolphs moved beyond Jefferson and his eighteenth-century world, leveraging their own ideas and experiences in nineteenth-century Britain, China, Cuba, Mexico, and the American West to claim independence and equal rights in an imperial and slaveholding republic.
About the Author
Christa Dierksheide is Brockman Foundation Jefferson Scholars Foundation Professor and associate professor of history at the University of Virginia, where she directs the Center for the Study of the Age of Jefferson. She lives in Charlottesville, VA.
Reviews
"This story of how Jefferson's lineal descendants grappled with his legacy is sophisticated and beautifully written. It blends intellectual, social, cultural, and family history in a unique and compelling manner to discuss broad themes relevant to the history of the United States during the nineteenth century and after."-Frank Cogliano, author of A Revolutionary Friendship: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and the American Republic
"Christa Dierksheide's eloquent and illuminating life histories of leading members of Thomas Jefferson's families, Black and white, reveal what became of the nation Jefferson envisioned. A welcome and timely contribution to our national self-understanding."-Peter S. Onuf, coauthor, with Annette Gordon-Reed, of "Most Blessed of Patriarchs": Thomas Jefferson and the Empire of the Imagination
"Christa Dierksheide brilliantly uncovers the legacy of Thomas Jefferson that you don't know about. At once a series of compelling biographies and a wider account of the reverberations of the American Revolution across time and space, this book is American history at its best."-Jay Sexton, director, Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy, University of Missouri
"Christa Dierksheide's extraordinary biography of the Hemingses and the Randolphs-Thomas Jefferson's white and Black descendants-bears witness both to the choking legacies of the past and to Americans' endless capacity for reinvention."-Nicholas Guyatt, author of Bind Us Apart: How Enlightened Americans Invented Racial Segregation
"Dierksheide has written a brilliant book about the fascinating legacies of Jefferson and Monticello as lived through his descendants, legal and extra-legal. Elegantly written and deeply researched, this is a remarkable contribution to the history of the United States in the nineteenth century."-Annette Gordon-Reed, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family
Book Information
ISBN 9780300226522
Author Christa Dierksheide
Format Hardback
Page Count 232
Imprint Yale University Press
Publisher Yale University Press
The Declaration of Independence identified two core principles-independence and equality-that defined the American Revolution and the nation forged in 1776. Jefferson believed that each new generation of Americans would have to look to the "experience of the present" rather than the "wisdom" of the past to interpret and apply these principles in new and progressive ways.
Historian Christa Dierksheide examines the lives and experiences of a rising generation of Jefferson's descendants, Black and white, illuminating how they redefined equality and independence in a world that was half a century removed from the American Revolution. The Hemingses and Randolphs moved beyond Jefferson and his eighteenth-century world, leveraging their own ideas and experiences in nineteenth-century Britain, China, Cuba, Mexico, and the American West to claim independence and equal rights in an imperial and slaveholding republic.
About the Author
Christa Dierksheide is Brockman Foundation Jefferson Scholars Foundation Professor and associate professor of history at the University of Virginia, where she directs the Center for the Study of the Age of Jefferson. She lives in Charlottesville, VA.
Reviews
"This story of how Jefferson's lineal descendants grappled with his legacy is sophisticated and beautifully written. It blends intellectual, social, cultural, and family history in a unique and compelling manner to discuss broad themes relevant to the history of the United States during the nineteenth century and after."-Frank Cogliano, author of A Revolutionary Friendship: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and the American Republic
"Christa Dierksheide's eloquent and illuminating life histories of leading members of Thomas Jefferson's families, Black and white, reveal what became of the nation Jefferson envisioned. A welcome and timely contribution to our national self-understanding."-Peter S. Onuf, coauthor, with Annette Gordon-Reed, of "Most Blessed of Patriarchs": Thomas Jefferson and the Empire of the Imagination
"Christa Dierksheide brilliantly uncovers the legacy of Thomas Jefferson that you don't know about. At once a series of compelling biographies and a wider account of the reverberations of the American Revolution across time and space, this book is American history at its best."-Jay Sexton, director, Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy, University of Missouri
"Christa Dierksheide's extraordinary biography of the Hemingses and the Randolphs-Thomas Jefferson's white and Black descendants-bears witness both to the choking legacies of the past and to Americans' endless capacity for reinvention."-Nicholas Guyatt, author of Bind Us Apart: How Enlightened Americans Invented Racial Segregation
"Dierksheide has written a brilliant book about the fascinating legacies of Jefferson and Monticello as lived through his descendants, legal and extra-legal. Elegantly written and deeply researched, this is a remarkable contribution to the history of the United States in the nineteenth century."-Annette Gordon-Reed, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family
Book Information
ISBN 9780300226522
Author Christa Dierksheide
Format Hardback
Page Count 232
Imprint Yale University Press
Publisher Yale University Press
