Historian and legal scholar Annette Gordon-Reed presents this epic work that tells the story of an American slave family and its close blood ties to Thomas Jefferson--information that had been systematically expunged from history until very recently.

Gordon-Reed brings to life not only Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson but also their children and Hemings' siblings, who shared a father with Jefferson's wife, Martha. The Hemingses of Monticello sets the family's compelling saga against the backdrop of Revolutionary America, Paris on the eve of its own revolution, 1790's Philadelphia, and plantation life at Monticello.

"Thomas Jefferson often described his slaves at Monticello as 'my family.' Annette Gordon-Reed has taken that description seriously. Surely more seriously than Jefferson ever intended! The result, the story of the Hemings family, is the most comprehensive account of one slave family ever written. It is not a pretty story, but it is poignant beyond belief.”--Joseph J. Ellis, author of American Sphinx.