#  Gordon-Reed, Annette - Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy 

 





March 29, 1998

 

 

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**Annette Gordon-Reed**. University of Virginia Press; Updated ed. edition (March 29, 1998)  
[Publisher's Link](http://www.upress.virginia.edu/title/2650) When Annette Gordon-Reed's groundbreaking study was first published, rumors of Thomas Jefferson's sexual involvement with his slave Sally Hemings had circulated for two centuries. Among all aspects of Jefferson's renowned life, it was perhaps the most hotly contested topic. The publication of *Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings*intensified this debate by identifying glaring inconsistencies in many noted scholars' evaluations of the existing evidence. In this study, Gordon-Reed assembles a fascinating and convincing argument: not that the alleged thirty-eight-year liaison necessarily took place but rather that the evidence for its taking place has been denied a fair hearing. [Read more...](http://www.upress.virginia.edu/title/2650)

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  **[Annette Gordon-Reed](http://history.fas.harvard.edu/people/annette-gordon-reed)**

 **Charles Warren Professor of American Legal History, Harvard Law School  
Carol K. Pforzheimer Professor, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study  
Professor of History**

 A renowned law professor and scholar of American history, Gordon-Reed has taught at the New York Law School and at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. She has published six books, among them *The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family* (2008), which won numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize in history and the National Book Award for nonfiction.   
  
Gordon-Reed is also the author of *Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy* (1997), which examines the scholarly writing on the relationships between Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings. This book was a nonfiction finalist in the First Annual Library of Virginia Literary Awards.

 [Read more...](http://history.fas.harvard.edu/people/annette-gordon-reed)

 

 





 

 

 



 

 

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