There have been numerous biographies written on Thomas Jefferson. Virginia Scharff's book, by looking at Jefferson through the eyes of the women who surrounded him, adds another dimention to this crowded field. By the time I had finished reading this book, I felt differently about Jefferson; it adds another piece of understanding this brilliant, complex and difficult man. In the United States, we are quite familiar with the respect rightly accorded to Jefferson as a great political phosopher and a founding father of our democracy. Along with Madison, his idea of what the United States should become more closely resembles what eventually evolved, than the ideas of Adams or Hamilton. However the main thrust of Schraff's book is a look at Jefferson from the disstaff side and he is measured in a different light entirely.
Jefferson's attitude and ideas about womean and their place in his world is quite a contrast with the relationship of John and Abigail Adams and their equal and mutual respect for each other. Thomas Jefferson or his heirs burned all letters between him and his wife, Martha Wayles. There is also an absence of correspondence with his mother, Jane Randolph, so there is a good deal of speculation by Scharff when discussing these relationships. Because numerous letters exisit between Jefferson and his daughters and grandaughters, the chapters on them are more fully developed. There is nothing to help us understand how Sally Hemings felt about her relations with Jefferson. All of the women in the book are important in forming a clearer picture of Jefferson. Of prime importance were: the influence of Jane, his mother, as his father died when Thomas was only 14 years old; his wife, Martha, as they shared a great love which drove him to a period of depression when she died of childbirth at a young age; Sally Hemings, his slave mistress, whose relationship with him began when she was only 14 and lasted to his death; and his daughter, Patsy, who continued to pamper and cosset him after her mother's death to the detriment of her own marriage.
To understand Thomas Jefferson totally is impossible, but to have a clearer picture of who he was, it is important to understand the Virginia society which nurtured and acted on his development. Here was a society which could condone slavery and hypocritically discuss the importance of free men. Women's place in society was also clearly demarcated and boundaries never crossed. Jefferson's daughters and granddaughters colluded in keeping the reality of his life hidden. The reality was that he took advantage of a 14 year old slave who was half-sister to his wife, and kept her bound to him throughout his life begetting a shadow family of Hemings children while everyone around him turned a blind eye. He was also demanding and controlling with all the women in his life.
Thomas Jefferson's presidency is not discussed in this book, but his life at Monticello and his other plantation estates gives us a clear picture of his domestic life. He was not a good manager of money and while slave and land rich, the family was bankrupt and always on the edge of poverty. Life was precarious on many fronts. Childbirth was dangerous, epidemics culled the weak, and alcoholism was a widespread problem. Both of Jefferson's surviving daughters were faithful to weak husbands.
Scharff does justice to another side of Thomas Jefferson that is important to know. There is a genealogy table at the front of the book, but no birth and death dates beside the name. There is an addendum that supplies this, but I found myself flipping back and forth as she does not scatter many dates in the body of the book. I recommend this book to be read to add another dimension to understanding Jefferson. There are plenty of starting points for discussion for book groups, not the least is the issue of Sally Hemings and the disparity of the children she had with Jefferson and the family he shared with Martha Wayles Jefferson.
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