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The Hemingses of Monticello
- An American Family
- Narrated by: Karen White
- Length: 30 hrs and 36 mins
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Publisher's summary
Pulitzer Prize, History, 2009
National Book Award, Nonfiction, 2008
This epic work tells the story of the Hemingses, whose close blood ties to our third president had been systematically expunged from American history until very recently. Now, historian and legal scholar Annette Gordon-Reed traces the Hemings family from its origins in Virginia in the 1700s to the family's dispersal after Jefferson's death in 1826.It brings to life not only Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson but also their children and Hemings's siblings, who shared a father with Jefferson's wife, Martha. The Hemingses of Monticello sets the family's compelling saga against the backdrop of Revolutionary America, Paris on the eve of its own revolution, 1790s Philadelphia, and plantation life at Monticello. Much anticipated, this book promises to be the most important history of an American slave family ever written.
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Brilliant scientist and witty conversationalist, best-selling author and architect of the great surveys that mapped the West after the Civil War, Clarence King was named by John Hay "the best and brightest of his generation". But King hid a secret from his Gilded Age cohorts and prominent family in Newport: for 13 years he lived a double life - as the celebrated White explorer, geologist, and writer Clarence King and as a Black Pullman porter and steelworker named James Todd.
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Race and Identity
- By Roy on 03-22-10
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They Were Her Property
- White Women as Slave Owners in the American South
- By: Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers
- Narrated by: Allyson Johnson
- Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Bridging women's history, the history of the South, and African-American history, this audiobook makes a bold argument about the role of white women in American slavery. Historian Stephanie E. Jones-Rogers draws on a variety of sources to show that slave-owning women were sophisticated economic actors who directly engaged in and benefited from the South's slave market.
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Women ARE just like men
- By Mary on 08-22-19
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Twilight at Monticello
- The Final Years of Thomas Jefferson
- By: Alan Pell Crawford
- Narrated by: James Boles
- Length: 11 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Much has been written about Thomas Jefferson, with good reason: His life was a great American drama, one of the greatest, played out in compelling acts. He was the architect of our democracy, a visionary chief executive who expanded this nation's physical boundaries to unimagined lengths.
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After Leaving Office
- By Roy on 09-23-10
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The Invisibles
- The Untold Story of African American Slaves in the White House
- By: Jesse Holland
- Narrated by: JD Jackson
- Length: 8 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Jesse J. Holland's The Invisibles is the first book to tell the story of the executive mansion's most unexpected residents: the African American slaves who lived with the US presidents who owned them. Interest in African Americans and the White House are at an all-time high due to the historic presidency of Barack Obama and the soon-to-be-opened Smithsonian National Museum of African American Culture and History.
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Riveting Book
- By Jean on 02-13-16
By: Jesse Holland
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A Perfect Union
- Dolley Madison and the Creation of the American Nation
- By: Catherine Allgor
- Narrated by: Anne Twomey
- Length: 15 hrs and 58 mins
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An extraordinary American comes to life in this vivid, incisive portrait of the early days of the republic—and the birth of modern politics hen the roar of the Revolution had finally died down, a new generation of American politicians was summoned to the Potomac to assemble the nation's newly minted capital. Into that unsteady atmosphere which would soon enough erupt into another conflict with Britain in 1812, Dolley Madison arrived, alongside her husband James.
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A great first lady!
- By Anna Walker on 04-04-11
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New England Bound
- Slavery and Colonization in Early America
- By: Wendy Warren
- Narrated by: Elizabeth Wiley
- Length: 10 hrs and 4 mins
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In a work that fundamentally recasts the history of colonial America, Wendy Warren shows how the institution of slavery was inexorably linked with the first century of English colonization of New England. While most histories of slavery in early America confine themselves to the Southern colonies and the Caribbean, New England Bound forcefully widens the historical aperture to include the entirety of English North America.
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Don't waste your time or money
- By Dis Carded on 09-03-17
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The Honor Code
- How Moral Revolutions Happen
- By: Kwame Anthony Appiah
- Narrated by: Kwame Anthony Appiah
- Length: 6 hrs
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In this groundbreaking work, Kwame Anthony Appiah, hailed as "one of the most relevant philosophers today" (New York Times Book Review), changes the way we understand human behavior and the way social reform is brought about. In brilliantly arguing that new democratic movements over the last century have not been driven by legislation from above, Appiah explores the end of the duel in aristocratic England, the tumultuous struggles over foot binding in 19th-century China, the uprising of ordinary people against Atlantic slavery, and much more.
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Horribly Boring
- By Merle N. Savedow on 02-10-21
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Frontier Grit
- The Unlikely True Stories of Daring Pioneer Women
- By: Marianne Monson
- Narrated by: Caroline Shaffer
- Length: 5 hrs and 48 mins
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Discover the stories of 12 women who heard the call to settle the West and who came from all points of the globe to begin their journeys. As a slave Clara watched helplessly as her husband and children were sold, only to be reunited with her youngest daughter as a free woman six decades later. As a young girl, Charlotte hid her gender to escape a life of poverty and became the greatest stagecoach driver who ever lived. As a Native American, Gertrude fought to give her people a voice and to educate leaders about the ways and importance of America's native people.
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only ok
- By Jane Orr on 06-14-21
By: Marianne Monson
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The Devil's Half Acre
- The Untold Story of How One Woman Liberated the South's Most Notorious Slave Jail
- By: Kristen Green
- Narrated by: Deanna Anthony
- Length: 10 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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New York Times best-selling author Kristen Green draws on years of research to tell the extraordinary and little-known story of young Mary Lumpkin, an enslaved woman who blazed a path of liberation for thousands. She was forced to have the children of a brutal slave trader and live on the premises of his slave jail, known as the “Devil’s Half Acre”. When she inherited the jail after the death of her slaveholder, she transformed it into “God’s Half Acre”, a school where Black men could fulfill their dreams.
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Preachy
- By Elizabeth Combs on 09-13-22
By: Kristen Green
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Sugar in the Blood
- A Family's Story of Slavery and Empire
- By: Andrea Stuart
- Narrated by: Lisa Reneé Pitts
- Length: 14 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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In the late 1630s, lured by the promise of the New World, Andrea Stuart's earliest known maternal ancestor, George Ashby, set sail from England to settle in Barbados. He fell into the life of a sugar plantation owner by mere chance, but by the time he harvested his first crop, a revolution was fully under way, binding together ambitious White entrepreneurs and enslaved Black workers in a strangling embrace....
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A sweet, historical gem
- By Adrian on 06-29-13
By: Andrea Stuart
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Shana wakes up one morning to discover her little sister in the grip of a strange malady. She appears to be sleepwalking. She cannot talk and cannot be woken up. And she is heading with inexorable determination to a destination that only she knows. But Shana and her sister are not alone. Soon, they are joined by a flock of sleepwalkers from across America, on the same mysterious journey. And like Shana, there are other "shepherds" who follow the flock to protect their friends and family on the long dark road ahead.
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Recommended, with some issues
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"Walden. Yesterday I came here to live." That entry from the journal of Henry David Thoreau, and the intellectual journey it began, would by themselves be enough to place Thoreau in the American pantheon. His attempt to "live deliberately" in a small woods at the edge of his hometown of Concord has been a touchstone for individualists and seekers since the publication of Walden in 1854. But there was much more to Thoreau than his brief experiment in living at Walden Pond.
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Good book. Terrible narration.
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American Sphinx
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For a man who insisted that life on the public stage was not what he had in mind, Thomas Jefferson certainly spent a great deal of time in the spotlight. Historian Joseph J. Ellis sifts the facts shrewdly from the legends and the rumors, treading a path between vilification and hero worship in order to formulate a plausible portrait of the man who still today "hover[s] over the political scene like one of those dirigibles cruising above a crowded football stadium, flashing words of inspiration to both teams".
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So: they did the DNA and … time to change appendix
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What listeners say about The Hemingses of Monticello
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- Lucie
- 01-03-09
A rich and fascinating history
The strength of this book is that doesn’t merely provide a narrative of two families’ lives ~ the Jeffersons and the Hemingses of Monticello ~ although it certainly does that very well. Equally important, it explores the underlying issues that frame the story of these two families, especially in terms of race, class, gender, and the condition of being enslaved as opposed to free. For some, these underlying issues may seem tedious; for others (and I’m among these), they greatly enrich the narrative.
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8 people found this helpful
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- K Courtney
- 07-23-18
Great Read for an unexpected reason
The author writes with great detail, seeing the obvious and what most folks see immediately , however she also will take the reader into much more... seeing and feeling deeper emotions, ideals and insights into each character. One finishes the book a new person yourself ... less judge mental and more openminded.
One feels you have not just learned something new about the characters of the book but discovered a new and wiser self.
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- njnc211
- 07-29-17
Repetitive but worthy
Many facts noted in this book are repeated several times at various points in the book. Provides many facts and footnotes into life at Monticello as a Hemings, as well as about Thomas Jefferson. Somewhat repetitive, narration is without much expression.
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- all our stories
- 07-04-23
A long book but worth the read.
When I received a paper copy of this book I thought I’d never read it, but the audio book made it doable. This book is filled with more information than I imagined. It was certainly worth the time it took to listen to it.
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- bookbug
- 06-03-12
An American History Masterpiece
Trying to understand how slavery became a Southern legal institution is essential to understanding American history.The author attempts this arduous task by revealing the relationship of two families through four generations, one black, another white. The Hemings and the Jeffersons were entangled long before Sally Hemings came into Thomas Jefferson's life. Sally was the half-sister of Thomas Jefferson's deceased wife--a mind-boggling thought the author tries to articulate. This audible book is as fascinating as the book and is narrated well. One criticism: the author keeps explaining again and again how we need to realize attitudes were different during the formation of the Jamestown colony. That is pretty obvious, although I don't remember thinking that as I read the book. However, all sides of the slavery issue are presented, including philosophical questions of the fact that the United States permitted slavery while proclaiming itself a democracy. The best part is the "love" story between Jefferson and Sally Hemings. Why didn't Sally remain in Paris instead of going back with Jefferson as his slave? Did she regret her choice? Why did Jefferson make a "treaty" with Sally to "free" her adult children? Did Jefferson love Sally or is it impossible to love someone you legally own? The answers are not fully resolved because scholars simply don't know, but the questions are intriguing and thought-provoking.
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- Ann
- 05-09-16
Beautiful book and compelling narration
This book is significant for its thoughtful exploration of the inner and outer lives of the Hemings family at Monticello. The double meanings of legal and extra legal actions relative to slavery are thoroughly explored but without sentimentality. Karen White is a magnificent narrator.
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- Martha Buford
- 12-21-21
The complexity of America race relations
Power does not improve racial family harmony nor the nation that engaged in that peculiar institution.
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- Penny Lewis
- 11-20-23
A great historical read
I really enjoyed this. Ms. Reed really brought the lives of the Hemmings’s to life
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- M. David Bostic
- 01-20-24
Felt like I was listening to a boring college professor.
Too much redundancy. Too much beating on each individual topic into the ground. Too much speculation.
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- Anonymous User
- 03-02-24
What a life he lived.
This was a very detailed account of the lives that were lived with and around Thomas Jefferson. It helped me understand “a little” about how, why T.J. might have been contemplating during the course of his life. He certainly had to maneuver a great deal around his private and public life, to accommodate his entire lifestyle. What a life he lived.
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