Publisher's Weekly Review
White, a former journalist who now works in public relations at Monticello, debuts with a vivid account of her search for proof that she is related to Thomas Jefferson and two of the families he enslaved, the Hemingses and the Hubbards. Mixing memoir and history, White describes growing up "Negro rich" in Washington, D.C., in the 1960s, her parents' tumultuous marriage, and her first brush with racism during a trip to Las Vegas at age 13. She learned from her older sister--who had heard it from a great aunt--that the family was somehow related to Thomas Jefferson, and was inspired to investigate the connection by Annette Gordon-Reed's The Hemingses of Monticello, which detailed the relationship between Jefferson and his slave Sally Hemings, who was also his wife's half-sister, and the TV series Roots. She recreated her family's genealogy by scouring the few historical records available, meeting with distant relatives and Jefferson scholars, and, with the help of DNA evidence, she eventually determined that she is a direct descendant of Sally Hemings's brother, Peter, and the great-granddaughter of Moncure Robinson Taylor, Jefferson's great-great grandson. Noting that the lives of Monticello's enslaved families were ignored in the plantation's exhibitions until recently, White issues a powerful call for reconsidering Jefferson's legacy and centering the Black experience in American history. This spirited memoir charts a hopeful path for a more honest reckoning with the legacy of slavery. (Nov.)
Kirkus Review
A Black descendant of Thomas Jefferson fashions a straightforward memoir about her life and struggles. Born in 1957, Jessup White, now the public relations and community engagement officer at Monticello, grew up in the middle-class suburbs of Washington, D.C., the daughter of a teacher and a civil servant. As she writes, "I grew up 'Negro rich.' It meant that my family was well-off for Black people." Her father's family, according to a vague understanding ("that's what they say"), had descended from Jefferson. By her teens, the author began to question her father about his ancestry, although he never knew his mother, who died early of tuberculosis, and was unsure about his grandmother's family name. Some of her relatives, she writes, passed as White. The author graduated from Howard University, worked for the New York Times and in TV news, and married and had children, all before she first visited Monticello. In 2010, she contacted historian Lucia Stanton, "an expert on slavery" who was at the estate researching the descendants of people enslaved by Jefferson. Using Stanton's diligent research as a launching pad, they unearthed documentation that identified one of Jessup White's ancestors who was the great-grandson of Jefferson. The plot thickened when they discovered that the author's great-great-grandmother had descended from the Hemings family line, the best documented of all the enslaved people and their kin who figure in Jefferson's bloodline. In this serviceable account, Jessup White chronicles how strange it was to meet her White relatives, members of the so-called First Families of Virginia (among them Taylors and Randolphs), who, she observes, weren't thrilled to know about her either. In 2014, DNA tests confirmed their research: Jessup White was indisputably a Jefferson descendant. Through her account, the author fleshes out many of the genealogical questions concerning Jefferson that have emerged in recent decades. From Colonial Virginia to today's Black middle class: Jessup White tells a story that will be meaningful to many readers. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Every family has secrets, and Jessup White's family carried theirs for generations. Fueled by her passion for American History, Jessup White chronicles her journey from her childhood in the elite African American neighborhoods of Washington, D.C. to the grounds of Monticello, where she now serves as the public relations and community engagement officer for Thomas Jefferson's estate. Along the way she uncovers previously unknown details about her family history and her direct lineage to Jefferson. Jessup White's quick paced memoir is broken up into short chapters that weave together the long-hidden details of her ancestry. Armed with her newfound familial truth, the author works directly with the foundation that oversees Monticello, and she helps rewrite the estate's well-known narrative to include the hundreds of enslaved people who worked for Jefferson. This timely, relevant, and important book should find a home with readers interested in American ancestry as well as those seeking information about Jefferson and Sally Hemmings and the history of slavery in the U.S.
Library Journal Review
In this family history, White describes being a 13-year-old Black girl growing up in Washington, DC, when she learned the legend handed down by her great aunt--that the family was descended from Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings--which White would spend much of her later life trying to prove. The Hemings lineage became clearer in later years, and as an adult White began to research her roots while also pursuing a career in journalism and enduring a rocky first marriage. White writes that the first time she toured Monticello and announced, "I'm a descendant," she was met with uncomfortable stares. But she kept mapping the family tree with the help of a Monticello genealogist, met many other Jefferson and Hemings descendants (both Black-presenting and white-presenting; some helpful, some not), and eventually struck gold with DNA evidence and historic documents that proved that she was indeed a direct descendant of Jefferson and of Peter Hemings (Sally's brother). White is now the community engagement officer at Monticello, fulfilling a lifelong goal to help tell the stories of all of her ancestors there. VERDICT A brisk read that uncovers another side of the Jefferson-Hemings family tree; for readers of genealogy and the history of American slavery.--Kate Stewart, Arizona State Museum
