A President in the Family: Thomas Jefferson, Sally Hemings, and Thomas Woodson

(Hardback)

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Conceived during Thomas Jefferson's junket in Paris, Thomas Woodson was Jefferson's first child by Sally Hemings. He was banished from Monticello at the age of 12, after a journalist exposed Jefferson's relationship with his young slave. A President in the Family traces Thomas Woodson's subsequent journey from Virginia to Ohio where Thomas and wife Jemima, a former slave, would raise a productive and ambitious family. Their eldest son Lewis, author of the famous Augustine letters, would carry on the family tradition of education, leadership, and public service. A founder of Wilberforce University and described by some as the father of black nationalism, Lewis argued that the black race should not depend on white philanthropy to achieve success in America. His children and grandchildren would prosper as entrepreneurs, engineers, and educators. A President in the Family tells of the Woodsons' continuing struggle to correct accounts by Jeffersonian historians and their successful discovery of documentation that supports an oral history that survived independently in five branches of the family tree. Byron W. Woodson, Sr., a sixth-generation descendant of Jefferson, details the recent developments in the quest to corroborate family lore, to locate missing family members, and to reveal the truth about the complex day-to-day life at Monticello. This is the amazing story of the Woodson family and its steadfast effort to reveal its illustrious past to the American public.

Reviews

"A valuable new addition to the growing body of research on the relationship between Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson. Woodson retells the story of our nation's third President, filling the gaps of history with extensive research and his own family's story. This intimate examination teaches an important lesson about America through the complex prism of race."-Congressman Jesse Jackson, Jr.
"A very interesting read. Byron Woodson's book is a magnificent, sensitive, and scholarly book documenting the clandestine affair between Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, his slave and his wife's half sister. Before Sally Hemings' destiny found its proper place in history, her restless spirit roamed everywhere and belonged nowhere for over two hundred years. Her life has been vindicated by one of her descendants. The book is a significant contribution to American history."-Charles L. Blockson, Curator Charles L. Blockson Afro American Collection Temple University
"A President in the Family is really three stories. It is, first, the most complete account we have to date of the children of Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson. It is the fascinating story of a remarkable African-American clan of institution-builders, the Woodsons. And it is the saga of a family's passionate quest to recover their hidden heritage. This is a book about links and connections, a story to make all Americans proud."-Robert P. Forbes, Associate Director Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, & Abolition Yale University
A fascinating story that deserves our attention on its own terms.-William and Mary Quarterly
An inspiring story of triumph over disadvantage and prejudice featuring, among other memorable characters, an eminent black educator and founder of black nationalism.-The Historical Novels Review
Of considerable interest to students of African-American history and biography.-Kirkus Reviews
This heartfelt book...not gives not only another exhaustive account of our third President's private life but the subsequent history of the Hemings progeny....This book will not end the debates about the Jefferson-Hemings relationship, but it will be an important document in future discussions.-Library Journal
Woodson conveys the pain, pride, and persistence of a remarkable family that faced nearly 200 years of challenge and denial of their descent from the first-born son of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings....This is an important contribution to the honest presentation of American history and the entanglement of race.-Booklist
Woodson makes his case effectively, and Jefferson buffs will relish this latest installment in the Jefferson-Hemings saga.-Publishers Weekly
"A fascinating story that deserves our attention on its own terms."-William and Mary Quarterly
"An inspiring story of triumph over disadvantage and prejudice featuring, among other memorable characters, an eminent black educator and founder of black nationalism."-The Historical Novels Review
"Of considerable interest to students of African-American history and biography."-Kirkus Reviews
"This heartfelt book...not gives not only another exhaustive account of our third President's private life but the subsequent history of the Hemings progeny....This book will not end the debates about the Jefferson-Hemings relationship, but it will be an important document in future discussions."-Library Journal
"Woodson makes his case effectively, and Jefferson buffs will relish this latest installment in the Jefferson-Hemings saga."-Publishers Weekly
"Woodson conveys the pain, pride, and persistence of a remarkable family that faced nearly 200 years of challenge and denial of their descent from the first-born son of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings....This is an important contribution to the honest presentation of American history and the entanglement of race."-Booklist

Author Bio

BYRON W. WOODSON SR. is a son of Minnie S. Woodson, who researched the Woodson genealogy and wrote the Woodson Source Book. He is a sixth generation descendant of Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson and a great-great-grandson of the Reverend Lewis Woodson, the father of black nationalism. Byron Woodson gave a blood sample for the Hemings/Jefferson DNA test in 1997 and with his wife, Trena, has extended research to Thomas Jefferson's papers, uncovering new findings. Woodson is a graduate of Lincoln University (Pa.) and Temple University where he earned a MBA.