What do you think?
Rate this book
Martha Jefferson: An Intimate Life with Thomas Jefferson
Martha Jeffersonis the first and only biography of Thomas Jefferson’s greatest love and true kindred spirit, who died an untimely death at the young age of thirty-three in 1782. Drawing on a wealth of newly probed sources—including family letters, documents, and the handwritten notes left by Jefferson’s famed biographer, Dumas Malone—William G. Hyland Jr. captures the charm, sophistication, and grace, as well as a profound sense of history, of this little known and elusive figure who, until now, has been a mere footnote to the story of America’s founding.
Hyland brings us a conflicted and honest Martha Jefferson, who endured the Revolution as valiantly as some men—defending her very doorstep from raiding British troops—and presided over the domestic life of the Jeffersons’ “little mountain,” Monticello, during her husband’s long absences and historic rise to power. A revealing and insightful look at an often overlooked American woman, this book provides a unique and previously unexplored understanding of America’s Revolutionary Era, and the men and women upon whose bravery, talent, and resolve our nation was founded.
Hyland brings us a conflicted and honest Martha Jefferson, who endured the Revolution as valiantly as some men—defending her very doorstep from raiding British troops—and presided over the domestic life of the Jeffersons’ “little mountain,” Monticello, during her husband’s long absences and historic rise to power. A revealing and insightful look at an often overlooked American woman, this book provides a unique and previously unexplored understanding of America’s Revolutionary Era, and the men and women upon whose bravery, talent, and resolve our nation was founded.
- GenresBiography
293 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 2014
About the author
William G. Hyland Jr.
12 books7 followersWilliam G. Hyland Jr., a native of Virginia, received his B.A. from the University of Alabama and a J.D. from Samford University’s Cumberland School of Law. Before law school, he worked with a Top Secret security clearance for the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency in Washington, D. C. Hyland is a member of the Virginia and New York Historical Societies. He now lives and writes in Tampa Bay, Florida.
Son of author William G. Hyland
Son of author William G. Hyland
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
March 11, 2020
Native Virginian William G. Hyland Jr. has two books behind him featuring Thomas Jefferson, and his third moves to the Sage of Monticello’s late wife, Martha Skelton Jefferson. While it is a known fact that unfortunately Thomas burned all of his correspondence and musings upon Martha’s untimely death, Hyland claims in his introduction that through new resources found from Monticello slaves, the Skelton family, and Jefferson friends and neighbors, his research will provide a birth to death account of Martha. While it’s altogether likely that this cannot be done without speculation, Hyland goes further to state that he will shed new light on Martha’s relationship with Thomas “from the food they ate, the music they enjoyed, the books they read, and the clothes they wore.”
As the first chapter reiterates from the start that not much is known about her birth or upbringing (other than her mother dying in childbirth), Hyland chooses to describe what was typical of a child or teenager growing up on a Virginian plantation in the mid-eighteenth century. This includes not only cooking, sewing, soapmaking, and other chores, but also helping her father—now a widower of three—with plantation management and assorted business matters. As there is no known portrait of Martha, Hyland recollects many of her physical descriptions from the memories of her slaves, family, and friends. Similarly, her tastes, characteristics, and childhood stories (including the tradition held that both of her stepmothers were cold) were all handed down through later generations, while her knack for brewing beer can be accounted for in detailed ledgers.
After touching on Martha’s horse riding and musical pursuits on the harpsichord and guitar, Hyland moves briefly to her role as slave owner—where he suggests that due to her future husband’s distaste for the institution, she likely shared and influenced his views. She inherited an abundance of slaves and land from her father, John Wayles, whose life is recounted in an informative and exclusive chapter by Hyland. Martha would marry her father’s brother-in-law (her stepuncle), Bathurst Skelton, though he would die shortly after they give birth to a son—just a little over a year into their marriage. Emotionally distressed, Martha nonetheless bravely composed herself as an eligible widow, meeting the likes of Jefferson among other suitors before the premature death of her only child in 1770.
While a whole chapter is given to Jefferson’s upbringing including a fascinating history of both his father and mother’s backgrounds, Hyland pulls quotes from far too many secondary sources and even a work of historical fiction (which he appropriately addresses each time). Indeed, Martha and Thomas’s lives are redrawn in abundance from his “foremost” biographer Dumas Malone—or “slave” historian Annette Gordon-Reed, Thomas Fleming, and Jon Meacham among others—which rubs off in a way that feels a tad bit lazy and cheap. Nonetheless, Hyland’s descriptions of the couple’s marriage and domestic life at Monticello are told in vivid detail, from their uncorking of wine after a snowbound wedding ride, the birth and pains of her firstborn daughter, their design and continuing construction of the estate and the workers and slaves who tended to it, and the twosome’s fondness for like-minded activities:
Although countless books and articles have been written about the life and work of Jefferson, none have particularly noted a preoccupation to which both he and Martha devoted much time and interest—their mutual love for clocks and Jefferson’s specific fascination with watches. Probably more so than any other notable American statesmen, Jefferson had a special interest in timepieces, and his personal records and correspondence abound with references to them. He was a chronic gadgeteer, and, at his estate at Monticello, many devices are still preserved that he designed and had created for the purpose of making living more gracious and easy for Martha.
Speculation is duly noted and frequently overshadowed by the social history of late-eighteenth century family life, in which Hyland looks at the various ailments and complications in birth that would take the lives of many of the Jefferson children—as well as friends and family. Rather frustratingly, important dates and facts (especially births and deaths) are repeatedly given throughout the book, where Hyland constantly reminds his audience of Jefferson’s mother Jane dying in 1776, or the passing of his best friend and brother-in-law Dabney Carr. Fortunately however, the second half of the biography features a substantial drop in the quoting of other historians and books, where Hyland illustrates Tarleton’s infamous raid of Monticello among other occurrences with the intensity and emotion of the moment.
As Hyland relates Martha’s final days spent in pain after a troublesome birth, he investigates and dissects the various ailments that could have led to her untimely demise—including tuberculosis due to her coughing of blood. Jefferson’s extreme depression and melancholic mood is scarcely remedied by his daughter Martha, then just ten years old but faithfully devoted to her doteful father. Hyland deviates from his subject to Jefferson’s grief-bound trip to Paris, and dedicates too much emphasis on his meeting with Maria Cosway—not to mention his outright defense of Jefferson having any sort of relationship with Sally Hemings—which feels more suitable for the epilogue that follows.
Instead, he oddly concludes by arguing against the case of a Sally Hemings affair with the Sage, as well as defending the honor of Martha’s father John Wayles from fathering Sally—touching on Jefferson’s death but making no final mention or attempt at closure to his wife. With the fact that Thomas burned his wife’s letters after her death, Hyland’s work exceeds expectations on the basis of not being wholly comprised of speculation, yet he takes too many liberties from prior studies, as well as constantly feeling the need to defend Martha and Thomas’s role as slave owners. As there are still no known portraits of Martha to this day, illustrations are not provided for, though appendices can be found at the end.
As the first chapter reiterates from the start that not much is known about her birth or upbringing (other than her mother dying in childbirth), Hyland chooses to describe what was typical of a child or teenager growing up on a Virginian plantation in the mid-eighteenth century. This includes not only cooking, sewing, soapmaking, and other chores, but also helping her father—now a widower of three—with plantation management and assorted business matters. As there is no known portrait of Martha, Hyland recollects many of her physical descriptions from the memories of her slaves, family, and friends. Similarly, her tastes, characteristics, and childhood stories (including the tradition held that both of her stepmothers were cold) were all handed down through later generations, while her knack for brewing beer can be accounted for in detailed ledgers.
After touching on Martha’s horse riding and musical pursuits on the harpsichord and guitar, Hyland moves briefly to her role as slave owner—where he suggests that due to her future husband’s distaste for the institution, she likely shared and influenced his views. She inherited an abundance of slaves and land from her father, John Wayles, whose life is recounted in an informative and exclusive chapter by Hyland. Martha would marry her father’s brother-in-law (her stepuncle), Bathurst Skelton, though he would die shortly after they give birth to a son—just a little over a year into their marriage. Emotionally distressed, Martha nonetheless bravely composed herself as an eligible widow, meeting the likes of Jefferson among other suitors before the premature death of her only child in 1770.
While a whole chapter is given to Jefferson’s upbringing including a fascinating history of both his father and mother’s backgrounds, Hyland pulls quotes from far too many secondary sources and even a work of historical fiction (which he appropriately addresses each time). Indeed, Martha and Thomas’s lives are redrawn in abundance from his “foremost” biographer Dumas Malone—or “slave” historian Annette Gordon-Reed, Thomas Fleming, and Jon Meacham among others—which rubs off in a way that feels a tad bit lazy and cheap. Nonetheless, Hyland’s descriptions of the couple’s marriage and domestic life at Monticello are told in vivid detail, from their uncorking of wine after a snowbound wedding ride, the birth and pains of her firstborn daughter, their design and continuing construction of the estate and the workers and slaves who tended to it, and the twosome’s fondness for like-minded activities:
Although countless books and articles have been written about the life and work of Jefferson, none have particularly noted a preoccupation to which both he and Martha devoted much time and interest—their mutual love for clocks and Jefferson’s specific fascination with watches. Probably more so than any other notable American statesmen, Jefferson had a special interest in timepieces, and his personal records and correspondence abound with references to them. He was a chronic gadgeteer, and, at his estate at Monticello, many devices are still preserved that he designed and had created for the purpose of making living more gracious and easy for Martha.
Speculation is duly noted and frequently overshadowed by the social history of late-eighteenth century family life, in which Hyland looks at the various ailments and complications in birth that would take the lives of many of the Jefferson children—as well as friends and family. Rather frustratingly, important dates and facts (especially births and deaths) are repeatedly given throughout the book, where Hyland constantly reminds his audience of Jefferson’s mother Jane dying in 1776, or the passing of his best friend and brother-in-law Dabney Carr. Fortunately however, the second half of the biography features a substantial drop in the quoting of other historians and books, where Hyland illustrates Tarleton’s infamous raid of Monticello among other occurrences with the intensity and emotion of the moment.
As Hyland relates Martha’s final days spent in pain after a troublesome birth, he investigates and dissects the various ailments that could have led to her untimely demise—including tuberculosis due to her coughing of blood. Jefferson’s extreme depression and melancholic mood is scarcely remedied by his daughter Martha, then just ten years old but faithfully devoted to her doteful father. Hyland deviates from his subject to Jefferson’s grief-bound trip to Paris, and dedicates too much emphasis on his meeting with Maria Cosway—not to mention his outright defense of Jefferson having any sort of relationship with Sally Hemings—which feels more suitable for the epilogue that follows.
Instead, he oddly concludes by arguing against the case of a Sally Hemings affair with the Sage, as well as defending the honor of Martha’s father John Wayles from fathering Sally—touching on Jefferson’s death but making no final mention or attempt at closure to his wife. With the fact that Thomas burned his wife’s letters after her death, Hyland’s work exceeds expectations on the basis of not being wholly comprised of speculation, yet he takes too many liberties from prior studies, as well as constantly feeling the need to defend Martha and Thomas’s role as slave owners. As there are still no known portraits of Martha to this day, illustrations are not provided for, though appendices can be found at the end.
May 4, 2016
Bad on me when I continued reading this 'biography' when the author admits readily that there are almost no original sources about poor old Martha's short life. This book smacked of being a love story to Jefferson, constantly challenging all the stories and speculations regarding Sally Hemings and her mother Betty while giving us very few facts about Martha. "No doubt" is used liberally throughout the book as the author speculates on Martha's contributions to the design of Monticello, her relationship with her husband and Jefferson's development as a person and thinker, etc. etc. I would have been happier if Hyland had researched the life of the upper class, aristocratic white woman during the time of the Revolution and told us what is known about women's history, about women like Martha, particularly when there is almost nothing to prove his thesis.
An adjective that Hyland adores is 'infamous.' He can barely write the name 'Sally Hemings' without prefacing it with 'infamous.' While it is true that we have no absolute evidence that some of Sally's children were fathered by Jefferson, we do know that DNA from Jefferson's family proves the familial relationship between those children and the Jefferson family. Why then is Sally infamous? She was an enslaved woman and we all know, or should know, that to be an enslaved person meant that you were considered less than human, property, and could be abused and even murdered without the law objecting. We all know that many white men raped enslaved women with no repercussions. Even Hyland's hero Jefferson could have been guilty of this.
Martha asked for – and received – assurance from Jefferson on her deathbed that he would not marry again. (Selfish, yes, but Hyland explains that Martha had been terrorized by her stepmothers ... without proof. I couldn't actually find evidence in the book that Martha was misused by her stepmothers. Honestly, though, I began skimming the book after my eyes were unable to stop rolling from the speculative 'no doubts' and other dreamy ideas of the author's.) Can we believe that a very healthy, very physical young man like Jefferson would not only remain a widower but never have sex again?
Sally's mother Betty had been owned by Martha's father. When Martha married, Betty and her young children went with Martha to their new home. Years after Martha died, a rumor surfaced that Betty's children had been fathered by Martha's father, thereby making Sally her sister. You can imagine Hyland's head blowing off over this speculation. He makes some reasonable statements about why this couldn't be so (Martha's father was ill for the period before Sally's birth and living on a property miles away from where Betty was living at the time, for example) but the reason he gives as irrefutable? There wasn't any scandal in the newspapers of the time, accusing Martha's father John Wayles of fathering children with Betty Hemings.
Can Hyland, a historian, actually believe this? John Wayles was not only a landowner, he also had a business selling enslaved people. Fathering children with enslaved women was not unusual. Why would any of his peers accuse him in the newspapers of this?
Altogether, this book is a very messy 'biography.' Hyland should have contributed to the large numbers of Jefferson studies instead of this speculative, sloppy attempt.
RIP Martha. And Sally and BEtty. We most likely will never know anything more about any of them.
An adjective that Hyland adores is 'infamous.' He can barely write the name 'Sally Hemings' without prefacing it with 'infamous.' While it is true that we have no absolute evidence that some of Sally's children were fathered by Jefferson, we do know that DNA from Jefferson's family proves the familial relationship between those children and the Jefferson family. Why then is Sally infamous? She was an enslaved woman and we all know, or should know, that to be an enslaved person meant that you were considered less than human, property, and could be abused and even murdered without the law objecting. We all know that many white men raped enslaved women with no repercussions. Even Hyland's hero Jefferson could have been guilty of this.
Martha asked for – and received – assurance from Jefferson on her deathbed that he would not marry again. (Selfish, yes, but Hyland explains that Martha had been terrorized by her stepmothers ... without proof. I couldn't actually find evidence in the book that Martha was misused by her stepmothers. Honestly, though, I began skimming the book after my eyes were unable to stop rolling from the speculative 'no doubts' and other dreamy ideas of the author's.) Can we believe that a very healthy, very physical young man like Jefferson would not only remain a widower but never have sex again?
Sally's mother Betty had been owned by Martha's father. When Martha married, Betty and her young children went with Martha to their new home. Years after Martha died, a rumor surfaced that Betty's children had been fathered by Martha's father, thereby making Sally her sister. You can imagine Hyland's head blowing off over this speculation. He makes some reasonable statements about why this couldn't be so (Martha's father was ill for the period before Sally's birth and living on a property miles away from where Betty was living at the time, for example) but the reason he gives as irrefutable? There wasn't any scandal in the newspapers of the time, accusing Martha's father John Wayles of fathering children with Betty Hemings.
Can Hyland, a historian, actually believe this? John Wayles was not only a landowner, he also had a business selling enslaved people. Fathering children with enslaved women was not unusual. Why would any of his peers accuse him in the newspapers of this?
Altogether, this book is a very messy 'biography.' Hyland should have contributed to the large numbers of Jefferson studies instead of this speculative, sloppy attempt.
RIP Martha. And Sally and BEtty. We most likely will never know anything more about any of them.
May 30, 2022
Looked forward to reading this book about Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson. Considering all the problems within the book, I should not have bothered. William Hyland spent more time talking about the “infamous” Sally Hemings and quoting from the historical fiction novel My Thomas than actually digging up new sources on the principal figure of the book.
Problematic areas of the book include:
p 56 unsure when Peter and Jane settled at Shadwell and then on page 61 authoritative they may have moved there in 1739 and distinctly states Jane was born there in 1740.
Page 69 - “It is possible that Jefferson. Met his future wife as early as October 1768, when he accepted her father as a legal client just a few weeks prior to Bathurst’s death.” Problem is Hyland laid out two sentences prior that Bathurst Skelton died on September 30, 1768.
Page 81 - on Nov 11, 1771, Jefferson and Martha engaged. Talked about reason. Last sentence - “stability and live would have been alluring to Martha and her son.” Her son was already dead - p51, he died June 9 or 10, 1771
Page 86 - “It is likely that he had as his bridesman Dabney Carr…” while on page 88 when going through Jefferson’s family guest list “We cannot say whether Martha and Dabney Carr would have been in attendance, given their fast-growing family.
Page 97 - Discussing the Jeffersons settling into their new home at Monticello when first married in 1772, Hyland uses quotes from later in Thomas Jefferson’s career and states “Martha no doubt urged Jefferson to brush off such criticism. In love and content at Monticello, Jefferson took her advice and professed sublime indifference to politics. “I live on my horse from morning to night,” he declared to Henry Knox. “I rarely look into a book or take up a pen. I have proscribed newspapers.”” Hyland absurdly mixed up timeframes and applied sources from different times in Jefferson’s life to meet his needs.
Page 112 - “But it was not until 1774 that Peale himself first painted in Williamsburg, when Martha had resided there in the Governor’s Palace as First Lady of Virginia.” Peale was painting in colonial America during that period but Martha Jefferson was not serving as First Lady of Virginia on 1774.
Page 133 - yet another bad timeline talking about the triumph as the author of the Declaration of Independence in 1775…
P174 - “A favorite dish was squab pie, always served when Benjamin Franklin was a visitor at Monticello.” Sourcing? When did Ben Franklin visit Monticello, especially when Martha was alive?
Don’t waste your time with this book.
Problematic areas of the book include:
p 56 unsure when Peter and Jane settled at Shadwell and then on page 61 authoritative they may have moved there in 1739 and distinctly states Jane was born there in 1740.
Page 69 - “It is possible that Jefferson. Met his future wife as early as October 1768, when he accepted her father as a legal client just a few weeks prior to Bathurst’s death.” Problem is Hyland laid out two sentences prior that Bathurst Skelton died on September 30, 1768.
Page 81 - on Nov 11, 1771, Jefferson and Martha engaged. Talked about reason. Last sentence - “stability and live would have been alluring to Martha and her son.” Her son was already dead - p51, he died June 9 or 10, 1771
Page 86 - “It is likely that he had as his bridesman Dabney Carr…” while on page 88 when going through Jefferson’s family guest list “We cannot say whether Martha and Dabney Carr would have been in attendance, given their fast-growing family.
Page 97 - Discussing the Jeffersons settling into their new home at Monticello when first married in 1772, Hyland uses quotes from later in Thomas Jefferson’s career and states “Martha no doubt urged Jefferson to brush off such criticism. In love and content at Monticello, Jefferson took her advice and professed sublime indifference to politics. “I live on my horse from morning to night,” he declared to Henry Knox. “I rarely look into a book or take up a pen. I have proscribed newspapers.”” Hyland absurdly mixed up timeframes and applied sources from different times in Jefferson’s life to meet his needs.
Page 112 - “But it was not until 1774 that Peale himself first painted in Williamsburg, when Martha had resided there in the Governor’s Palace as First Lady of Virginia.” Peale was painting in colonial America during that period but Martha Jefferson was not serving as First Lady of Virginia on 1774.
Page 133 - yet another bad timeline talking about the triumph as the author of the Declaration of Independence in 1775…
P174 - “A favorite dish was squab pie, always served when Benjamin Franklin was a visitor at Monticello.” Sourcing? When did Ben Franklin visit Monticello, especially when Martha was alive?
Don’t waste your time with this book.
December 25, 2022
Want a biography about Martha Jefferson? This book is about everyone and everything… except her!
Hyland’s previous works were somewhat compelling and lead me to read this book, for I’ve always been interested in Martha and her father, John. The author is constantly jumping around from anywhere from 1748 to 1782 in less than a sentence. There’s no consistency whatsoever.
Secondly, Hyland seems to make the book about everyone in Martha’s life but her. We have finite details about Thomas Jefferson’s childhood, the life of her father, John, and so much more… but very few specific examples about the subject of the biography itself.
As if what I’ve already described isn’t chaotic enough, the author has clearly nearly word for word plagiarized several pages from Annette Gordon-Reed’s “The Hemingses of Monticello” from pages 75-78 of her book and pages 32-34 in his. While I cannot deny that his intent must’ve been to source Gordon-Reed, he failed to reconvey the information in his own rhetoric. To further beg the question, why is Hyland sourcing an author and historian he’s previously criticized with no mercy? (See his book “In Defense of Thomas Jefferson”).
The final nail in the coffin for this biography in my opinion is that the author fails to go through every event in as much detail as possible—it’s just a short and sweet explanation and a quick move to the next topic. As a historian, is the author’s job not to analyze these events and identify their impacts? In this case, Hyland fails to do so. For example, when discussing Martha’s father, John Wayles, to address the controversy regarding him and his slave Betty Hemings’ relationship, Hyland just shrugs it off and says that there was strong evidence against it, but fails to explain it. This may seem biased to many, however, it’s not that I do entirely believe the Wayles-Hemings relationship’s telling as held by historians, I just believe that there were sourcing facts that Hyland could’ve gone into, such as the dates of when the information was recorded, etc.
Despite all that I’ve said, it obviously cannot be easy to write a biography about a woman with whose biography depends heavily upon later and few contemporary sources. I do applaud Hyland’s excellent range of sources used to try and tell the story of Thomas Jefferson’s beloved “Patty”. In all though, I strongly believe that this book caters to an audience that is for more conservative Jefferson bibliophiles and/or those who know less about the world of Martha Jefferson.
Hyland’s previous works were somewhat compelling and lead me to read this book, for I’ve always been interested in Martha and her father, John. The author is constantly jumping around from anywhere from 1748 to 1782 in less than a sentence. There’s no consistency whatsoever.
Secondly, Hyland seems to make the book about everyone in Martha’s life but her. We have finite details about Thomas Jefferson’s childhood, the life of her father, John, and so much more… but very few specific examples about the subject of the biography itself.
As if what I’ve already described isn’t chaotic enough, the author has clearly nearly word for word plagiarized several pages from Annette Gordon-Reed’s “The Hemingses of Monticello” from pages 75-78 of her book and pages 32-34 in his. While I cannot deny that his intent must’ve been to source Gordon-Reed, he failed to reconvey the information in his own rhetoric. To further beg the question, why is Hyland sourcing an author and historian he’s previously criticized with no mercy? (See his book “In Defense of Thomas Jefferson”).
The final nail in the coffin for this biography in my opinion is that the author fails to go through every event in as much detail as possible—it’s just a short and sweet explanation and a quick move to the next topic. As a historian, is the author’s job not to analyze these events and identify their impacts? In this case, Hyland fails to do so. For example, when discussing Martha’s father, John Wayles, to address the controversy regarding him and his slave Betty Hemings’ relationship, Hyland just shrugs it off and says that there was strong evidence against it, but fails to explain it. This may seem biased to many, however, it’s not that I do entirely believe the Wayles-Hemings relationship’s telling as held by historians, I just believe that there were sourcing facts that Hyland could’ve gone into, such as the dates of when the information was recorded, etc.
Despite all that I’ve said, it obviously cannot be easy to write a biography about a woman with whose biography depends heavily upon later and few contemporary sources. I do applaud Hyland’s excellent range of sources used to try and tell the story of Thomas Jefferson’s beloved “Patty”. In all though, I strongly believe that this book caters to an audience that is for more conservative Jefferson bibliophiles and/or those who know less about the world of Martha Jefferson.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 5, 2021
As a way of introducing Martha Jefferson in this biography, the author describes her as "the most famous woman in American history that no one knows." The subtitle of this book is "an intimate life with Thomas Jefferson" and Thomas and Martha certainly did have that. Martha had eight pregnancies in their ten years together. She carried six babies to term and with each baby she became more frail. She tried to be a good wife and mother until her death at age 33. At the end of the book I felt sad that her life had been cut short, and her influence and love of her children and her husband too brief.
January 3, 2024
I have long been fascinated by Martha Wayles Skelton Jefferson.
Hyland crafted a decent biography of her, fleshed from the words of others since very little of Martha’s own survive.
The author did possess a flair for the dramatics especially with Martha’s death and made a lot of suppositions that cannot be backed up.
In the epilogue Hyland debunks that John Wayles was Sally Hemings’ father and even made the inane statement if it were true why didn’t Wayles leave Betty Hemings and her children anything on his will. I disagree with his “findings.”
Hyland crafted a decent biography of her, fleshed from the words of others since very little of Martha’s own survive.
The author did possess a flair for the dramatics especially with Martha’s death and made a lot of suppositions that cannot be backed up.
In the epilogue Hyland debunks that John Wayles was Sally Hemings’ father and even made the inane statement if it were true why didn’t Wayles leave Betty Hemings and her children anything on his will. I disagree with his “findings.”
March 16, 2024
I gave up reading this book on page 185. I feel like this was a missed opportunity. While there were sections that I felt brought Martha and Thomas Jefferson to life, these were overshadowed by inaccuracies, repetitive text, and generally poor formatting. I would not recommend this book.
March 31, 2020
Seemed a bit repetitive and speculative
November 18, 2022
Good biographical information
March 22, 2024
Did not finish. This book reads as slander to Sally Hemings and a love letter to Jefferson. Don’t waste your time.
June 23, 2016
Thomas and Martha Jefferson endured many hardships during the 10 years of their marriage, Infant deaths, the revolutionary era, and many absences from each other. Through it all they loved and supported each other. The grief stricken Thomas destroyed most letters and portraits of Martha after her death at 33 years of age, therefore, this author relied on other people's recollections and much research to complete her story. I enjoyed reading about Martha and learning more about that time in history. I was able to imagine her time in Williamsburg and Monticello since I have visited both areas I plan on reading more about Thomas Jefferson in the future
November 13, 2016
Martha Wayles Skelton was a young widow when she met Thomas Jefferson. By most accounts, he was quickly smitten with her and she with him. They had a loving and happy marriage for ten years before she died at a young age after having not recovered from childbirth. Her death devastated Jefferson who did not leave his room for weeks afterwards. Although she didn't live to serve as the first lady, there is a lot of evidence that she influenced Jefferson's thinking a lot.
Unfortunately for historians, Jefferson destroyed all of the letters between he and his wife so the biography is a bit sketchy but Martha still comes across as a force.
May 25, 2015
A love story, not included in any Bio. I've read on Thomas Jefferson. A man with many gifted talents, putting them aside to tend his dying wife. Author brings out what a soulpmate, as involved with the building of Monticello and saving what she could when the British attacked, looking to kill her husband. Her relationship with the Hennings from Martha's surrogate mother, Betty Henning, to Sally and her siblings. Much about devotion in the book. Author no sensation seeker.
Read
March 5, 2015PW
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews