![]() For it suggests the arrogant, aloof abstraction of a man who, having helped spearhead a revolution at home, doesn't notice the one in France going on around him who writes inspiringly of man's need for liberty without any sense of being contradicted by the existence of his own slaves. Jefferson remains a remote figure in the novel, but this works well. Sally's feelings for Jefferson are powerfully depicted: despite her affection for the man, they stop short of love, simply because she is literally never free to love. But the focus remains fixed on Sally and the ambivalence of her situation. Becoming pregnant, she returns to Jefferson's Virginia plantation and, as the years follow, runs her master's household while raising a counterpart black family to his existing white issue.Īlternating between a third-person and first-person narrative, Sally Hemings is enlivened by a background of historical incidents (the French revolution, Jefferson's presidency) and characters. ![]() Dispatched to Paris to serve the Jefferson household (Jefferson was, in the 1780s, the fledgling United States's ambassador to France), the adolescent Sally finds that her duties include sharing her widower master's bed. ![]() Despite a paucity of known facts about the real Sally, Chase-Riboud creates a character of compelling richness. ![]() This confirmation of the novel's main premise gives an added frisson to what was already a good read. ![]()
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