Thomas Jefferson and his wife, Martha Wayles Skelton, had two daughters that survived to adulthood. Martha was born in 1772, and Mary was born in 1778. Martha and Mary lived a very rich lifestyle, and were educated in that manner. Thomas Jefferson oversaw their education and activities, with the hope that they would become well-educated and proper ladies. Martha traveled with her father, residing in Paris for a time. Martha married Thomas Mann Randolph in 1790, and went on to become the First Lady of Virginia. Mary, known as Maria as an adult, married her cousin John Wayles Epps in 1794. They had three children, though only one lived to adulthood. She died after giving birth to her last child, at age 25. Harriet Hemmings was Jefferson's daughter by his slave, Sally. Harriet was also born at Monticello, like her white half sisters. She was born a slave, thus she did slave labor on the property. She eventually escaped slavery, supposedly helped by Jefferson, though he did not legally free her.

I just learned that the descendants of Sally Hemmings have been granted the right to be buried at Monticello, which is great if that is what they choose to do. I read a book called Wolf By The Ears in elementary school, and they ignited my interest in Jefferson and Hemmings. I thought this book would be a tremendous asset since it compared the lives of his free and enslaved offspring. It was. I am really looking forward to reading The Hemmings Of Monticello that I have on my TBR, but it is further down on my pre-selected books to read for this year. This was a really well researched book, and it was really interesting to learn about their lives and the differences between them. It also covered how women, even free white ones, were severely limited in what they could do during this time period. I saw several comments about this book feeding the feminist agenda, and I do not think I would go that far with it. It is just simply a fact that white men controlled entirely too much about everyone else's lives. I enjoyed this book a lot.