For this groundbreaking triple biography, Kerrison has uncovered never-before-published documents written by the Jefferson sisters when they were in their teens, as well as letters written by members of the Jefferson and Hemings families. Leaving Monticello behind, she boarded a coach and set off for a decidedly uncertain future. She escaped slavery-apparently with the assistance of Jefferson himself. Harriet Hemings followed a different path. Once they returned home, however, the sisters found their options limited by the laws and customs of early America. Martha and Maria received a fine convent school education while they lived with their father during his diplomatic posting in Paris-a hothouse of intellectual ferment whose celebrated salonnières are vividly brought to life in Kerrison's narrative. Although the three women shared a father, the similarities end there. In Jefferson's Daughters, Catherine Kerrison, a scholar of early American and women's history, recounts the remarkable journey of these three women-and how their struggle to define themselves reflects both the possibilities and the limitations that resulted from the American Revolution. Maria by his wife, Martha Wayles Jefferson, and Harriet by his slave Sally Hemings. Thomas Jefferson had three daughters: Martha and.
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