PositiveThe New York Times Book ReviewTo a nuanced study of Jefferson’s two white daughters, Martha (born 1772) and Maria (born 1778), [Kerrison] innovatively adds a discussion of his only enslaved daughter, Harriet Hemings (born 1801). The result is a stunning if unavoidably imbalanced book, combining detailed treatments of Martha’s and Maria’s experiences with imaginative attempts to reconstruct Harriet’s life … Martha and her daughters prompt Kerrison’s musings on women’s education, for ‘in spite of all their scholarly attainments, they remained, after all, women,’ with no obvious way to use their learning in their own day. And Harriet, who passed as white, most likely abandoning her family in the process, prompts Kerrison to wonder about the persistence of racism in American society.
