A review by alreads13
The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family by Annette Gordon-Reed

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

Annette Gordon-Reed is a true historical detective. She pieced together so many stories from bits and pieces of information and caught the tiniest details to shed light on stories that have been purposely obfuscated. She looked at the Hemings’s lives from every possible angle and surrounded them with so much context you couldn’t doubt what she was saying. This book is a long one, but so worth it. It’s an important founding story of this country that needs to be told, and I’m so grateful it has been brought more completely into the light. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Slavery, Grief, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Child death, Domestic abuse, Miscarriage, Racial slurs, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, and Kidnapping

Minor: Alcoholism