The Hemingses of Monticello
The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family is a 2008 book by American historian Annette Gordon-Reed. It recounts the history of four generations of the African-American Hemings family, from their African and Virginia origins until the 1826 death of Thomas Jefferson, their master and the father of Sally Hemings' children.
It is based on Gordon-Reed's study of legal records, diaries, farm books, letters, wills, newspapers, archives, and oral history. Gordon-Reed wanted readers to "see slave people as individuals" and to "tell the story of this family in a way not done before". Jefferson scholar Joseph Ellis has called the book "the best study of a slave family ever written".
The book has won sixteen awards and was a finalist for the 2008 National Book Critics Circle Award in Biography and the 2009 Mark Lynton History Prize.
In 2008
- National Book Award for Nonfiction, and
- Society for Historians of the Early American Republic Book Award
In 2009
- Pulitzer Prize in History
- George Washington Book Prize,
- Anisfield-Wolf Book Award,
- New Jersey Council of the Humanities Book Award,
- Frederick Douglass Prize,
- Owsley Award from the Southern Historical Association, and
- Library of Virginia Literary Award