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My Name Is James Madison Hemings
A New York Times Notable Book
A powerful historical picture book about the child of founding father Thomas Jefferson and the enslaved Sally Hemings.
In an evocative first-person account accompanied by exquisite artwork, Winter and Widener tell the story of James Madison Hemings’s childhood at Monticello, and, in doing so, illuminate the many contradictions in Jefferson’s life and legacy. Though Jefferson lived in a mansion, Hemings and his siblings lived in a single room. While Jefferson doted on his white grandchildren, he never showed affection to his enslaved children. Though he kept the Hemings boys from hard field labor—instead sending them to work in the carpentry shop—Jefferson nevertheless listed the children in his “Farm Book” along with the sheep, hogs, and other property. Here is a profound and moving account of one family’s history, which is also America’s history.
An author's note includes more information about Hemings, Jefferson, and the author's research.
"This gentle, emotional book is a reminder that many presidents’ biographies have distressing aspects. . . . A simple but historically solid introduction to some of the moral crises slavery presented for our nation." -- The New York Times
"Through a poignant first-person monologue, Winter imagines the peculiar upbring- ing of Virginia slave James Madison Hemings, son of Thomas Jefferson and his enslaved mistress, Sally Hemings.”— Bulletin, starred review
A powerful historical picture book about the child of founding father Thomas Jefferson and the enslaved Sally Hemings.
In an evocative first-person account accompanied by exquisite artwork, Winter and Widener tell the story of James Madison Hemings’s childhood at Monticello, and, in doing so, illuminate the many contradictions in Jefferson’s life and legacy. Though Jefferson lived in a mansion, Hemings and his siblings lived in a single room. While Jefferson doted on his white grandchildren, he never showed affection to his enslaved children. Though he kept the Hemings boys from hard field labor—instead sending them to work in the carpentry shop—Jefferson nevertheless listed the children in his “Farm Book” along with the sheep, hogs, and other property. Here is a profound and moving account of one family’s history, which is also America’s history.
An author's note includes more information about Hemings, Jefferson, and the author's research.
"This gentle, emotional book is a reminder that many presidents’ biographies have distressing aspects. . . . A simple but historically solid introduction to some of the moral crises slavery presented for our nation." -- The New York Times
"Through a poignant first-person monologue, Winter imagines the peculiar upbring- ing of Virginia slave James Madison Hemings, son of Thomas Jefferson and his enslaved mistress, Sally Hemings.”— Bulletin, starred review
40 pages, Hardcover
Published October 25, 2016
2 people are currently reading
215 people want to read
About the author
Jonah Winter
65 books83 followersJonah Winter is the celebrated author of many picture book biographies, including Barack, which was a New York Times bestseller. His books include Here Comes the Garbage Barge, Sonia Sotomayor, Roberto Clemente, and more. A poet and a painter, Mr. Winter divides his time between Santa Fe and a small town in Pennsylvania.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 93 reviews
November 15, 2017
Can you imagine your father also owning you as a slave? James Madison Hemings was the son of founding father and third President of the USA Thomas Jefferson and a slave whom he owned, Sally Hemings. Winter cleverly tells this story in the first person, from James' point of view, so that readers can feel the psychological and emotional impact of having a father who owns you and doesn't acknowledge you as his child. So sad, wanting and needing a father's love and approval, and never getting it. In addition, James and his siblings, who according to the author's note at the end of the book, were recently verified via DNA testing to definitely be Jefferson's children, could easily have passed as white. Since not a lot is known about James' life, Winter tells us in the author's note what he invented and which facts are verified in the story. Apparently James' relationship to Jefferson wasn't publicly known until he gave a newspaper interview in 1873. I do like that the narrator, James, doesn't reveal until the end of the book the identity of his father, keeping the reader shocked that a father would treat his child that way, and then even more shocked to discover that that father was someone so famous. Winter cleverly places on those final pages illustrations of both Jefferson and James, so that readers can clearly see the family resemblance. This excellent book should make young readers think. Highly recommended!
April 3, 2017
Here is a picture book for older readers (we need more of them!) that doesn't tiptoe around the truth. Yippee, Jonah Winters! Beautifully told from the point-of-view of James Madison Hemings as a child, he tells how he feels to be "owned" by his father, treated a bit better than the other slaves at Monticello, but nowhere near like Jefferson treated his white grandchildren. Terry Widener's illustrations are right-on, perfect for the text. Usually Jonah Winter's mother, Jeanette, does his illustrations, but as much as I LOVE her work, I really like the way this book is presented as a whole. It was a brave topic to be tackled for a children's picture book and Jonah Winter did an admirable job.
October 10, 2020
This is an important picture book about Thomas Jefferson's son by Sally Hemings, and it is done well for a young audience. My 7 year old son loves Virginia history and history of the Presidents, and I wasn't sure whether he would be ready for this, but just as it has been helpful not to whitewash the story of Washington's enslavement of people, I took a risk of allowing him to get a glimpse of the more complicated history of Thomas Jefferson. The book handles the truth in an age-appropriate way, and I think the only thing that was difficult for my son to handle as a reader was the depth of his outrage and upset. He finds injustice to be upsetting in general, but the depth of personal cruelty involved in a person's own father being his enslaver was difficult, and struggle to articulate what it was about the book that made this difficult. I think it was, perhaps, that the story was overtly emotionless...perhaps to emphasize that James Madison Hemings stood no benefit from overt outrage or anger. The illustrations showed faces that were, for lack of a better term, passive. Expressionless. And several times, my son would exclaim, "Why aren't they ANGRY?" After reading it, he is eager to visit Monticello and learn more.
February 15, 2017
This is an outstanding picture book that introduces young children to the issue of slavery and family histories as a result of that institution. James Madison Hemings is one of Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson's children and this is Madison's story. Pair this with Jefferson's Children by Lanier and Feldman.
January 25, 2017
This is the biography of James Madison Hemings, the alleged son of Thomas Jefferson and his slave Sally Hemings.
December 19, 2018
**This originally appeared on a Non-Fiction for Youth discussion board for my Children's Literature class**
In the article, “How Nonfiction Reveals the Nature of Science,” the authors caution against selecting science books that contain “idealized descriptions of scientists as heroic and larger than life” (Zarnowski and Turkel, 2013, p. 298). This same advice could also be used when selecting nonfiction materials related to the Founding Fathers of the United States, of which Thomas Jefferson was one. Jefferson has been memorialized as a president and author of our nation’s founding document, The Declaration of Independence. This memorialization in text and architecture (the Jefferson Memorial) glosses over the more disturbing details of Jefferson’s life. Like all of us, he was imperfect, but after reading this book, he could also be viewed as hypocritical too (or some will argue, a man of his time). In the Author’s Note, Jonah Winter states that “Jefferson’s life and legacy are full of contradictions” (Winter, 2016, p. 31), which is putting the contradictions in Jefferson’s personal life and public politics, quite mildly!
In My Name is James Madison Hemings, we read about Jefferson’s son was born into slavery due to the slave status of his mother, Sally Hemings. We read about James’ efforts to reconcile that his master was also his father, and that he would never receive the same amount of love or education that Jefferson’s white children and grandchildren received. Although James, his mother, and his siblings were slaves, they were spared some of the harsher parts of slave life due to their biological connection to Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson spared the Hemings family from participating in backbreaking field labor, gave the Hemmings boys violins, and let the Hemings children learn to read and write, in a time when it was illegal to educate slaves in any manner.
There is debate nowadays on whether the relationship between Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson was consensual or not. While this book doesn’t talk about that aspect of the Hemings/Jefferson relationship, the book tells us that Sally and her children were relocated from the slaves’ quarters to the dependencies- rooms near a smokehouse and the horse stables. Moving the Hemings family to the section of Monticello where animals lived and died was an act of kindness with a double meaning; this relocation could be interpreted that the Hemings were viewed in a liminal status by Jefferson: not animals, but not quite human either. After Jefferson died, his children were freed from the bonds of slavery, but Sally, their mother, was not.
Although the author notes that he “presented this story in a first-person narrative as historical fiction” (Winter, 2016, p. 31), the spine label on my library copy says, “J B Hemings” for Juvenile Biography. If I were to recommend this book to someone, I would tell them not to be fooled by the slimness of the text. Although the book may be small in pages, the content within is intense for a children’s book. I would recommend this for an older elementary child due to the serious content of the book. The impressionistic art style of the illustrations mirrors James’ uncertainty about his father’s affections and his own place in the world.
You can read more about Sally Hemings and her legacy at the Monticello website.
Readalikes:
Lift Your Light a Little Higher: The Story of Stephen Bishop: Slave-Explorer by Heather Henson. (Synopsis from Kirkus Reviews): “This story whispers of the life of a man most contemporary American readers should know but don’t. Stephen Bishop, born circa 1821, had intimate knowledge of Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, where he served as guide for visitors who traveled far to tour the underground passageways. Despite the ban against teaching slaves to read, Stephen acquired literacy and wrote his name on the ceiling of Mammoth Cave by using smoke from a lighted candle. Henson weaves Bishop’s impressive scientific discoveries of cave life into the sparse narrative, demonstrating the magnitude of his contributions despite that little is known of his life or death…A story that recovers an important piece of African-American history inextricably tied to the history of Mammoth Cave, a national monument visited by 2 million people each year.”
Schomburg: The Man Who Built a Library by Carole Boston Weatherford. (Synopsis from Kirkus Reviews): “An eccentric, smart, and quirky bibliophile, Arturo Schomburg fueled his life with books. This picture book of free verse poems, lavishly illustrated in oils, opens with stories from Schomburg’s childhood in Puerto Rico, where he constantly asked why the history of black people had been left out of all the history books. Answering him, framed, date-stamped panels, appearing primarily on the right sides of the double-page spreads throughout, capture the stories of important historical black figures such as Phillis Wheatley, Frederick Douglass, and Paul Cuffee. The poem “Whitewash” will surprise some readers; Schomburg objected to the common practice of omitting from biographies the African heritage of prominent individuals such as naturalist and ornithologist John James Audubon, French writer Alexandre Dumas, Russian poet Alexander Pushkin, and German composer Ludwig van Beethoven. Alongside these, Schomburg’s personal and professional life unfolds in unframed images. Schomburg worked as a mail clerk with Banker’s Trust; his book-collecting and library building resulted from his life’s passion, not his vocation. All of the book’s details paint Schomburg as an admirable, flawed, likable, passionate man whose lasting legacy, Harlem’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, opens its doors to all who would learn more about the people its founder knew had been left out of the written record. A must-read for a deeper understanding of a well-connected genius who enriched the cultural road map for African-Americans and books about them.”
Citations:
Kirkus Reviews, (2016, June 28). Lift your light a little higher. Retrieved from https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-re...
Kirkus Reviews, (2017, May 24). Schomburg: the man who built a library. Retrieved from https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-re...
The Thomas Jefferson Foundation, Inc. (2018). The Life of Sally Hemings. Retrieved from https://www.monticello.org/sallyhemings/
Winter, J. and Widener, T. (2016). My name is James Madison Hemmings. New York: Schwartz & Wade Books.
Zarnowski, M. and Turkel, S. (2013). How nonfiction reveals the nature of science. Children’s Literature in Education 44(4), 295-310.
**You can read more of my reviews at http://thesouthernbookworm.blogspot.com/
In the article, “How Nonfiction Reveals the Nature of Science,” the authors caution against selecting science books that contain “idealized descriptions of scientists as heroic and larger than life” (Zarnowski and Turkel, 2013, p. 298). This same advice could also be used when selecting nonfiction materials related to the Founding Fathers of the United States, of which Thomas Jefferson was one. Jefferson has been memorialized as a president and author of our nation’s founding document, The Declaration of Independence. This memorialization in text and architecture (the Jefferson Memorial) glosses over the more disturbing details of Jefferson’s life. Like all of us, he was imperfect, but after reading this book, he could also be viewed as hypocritical too (or some will argue, a man of his time). In the Author’s Note, Jonah Winter states that “Jefferson’s life and legacy are full of contradictions” (Winter, 2016, p. 31), which is putting the contradictions in Jefferson’s personal life and public politics, quite mildly!
In My Name is James Madison Hemings, we read about Jefferson’s son was born into slavery due to the slave status of his mother, Sally Hemings. We read about James’ efforts to reconcile that his master was also his father, and that he would never receive the same amount of love or education that Jefferson’s white children and grandchildren received. Although James, his mother, and his siblings were slaves, they were spared some of the harsher parts of slave life due to their biological connection to Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson spared the Hemings family from participating in backbreaking field labor, gave the Hemmings boys violins, and let the Hemings children learn to read and write, in a time when it was illegal to educate slaves in any manner.
There is debate nowadays on whether the relationship between Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson was consensual or not. While this book doesn’t talk about that aspect of the Hemings/Jefferson relationship, the book tells us that Sally and her children were relocated from the slaves’ quarters to the dependencies- rooms near a smokehouse and the horse stables. Moving the Hemings family to the section of Monticello where animals lived and died was an act of kindness with a double meaning; this relocation could be interpreted that the Hemings were viewed in a liminal status by Jefferson: not animals, but not quite human either. After Jefferson died, his children were freed from the bonds of slavery, but Sally, their mother, was not.
Although the author notes that he “presented this story in a first-person narrative as historical fiction” (Winter, 2016, p. 31), the spine label on my library copy says, “J B Hemings” for Juvenile Biography. If I were to recommend this book to someone, I would tell them not to be fooled by the slimness of the text. Although the book may be small in pages, the content within is intense for a children’s book. I would recommend this for an older elementary child due to the serious content of the book. The impressionistic art style of the illustrations mirrors James’ uncertainty about his father’s affections and his own place in the world.
You can read more about Sally Hemings and her legacy at the Monticello website.
Readalikes:
Lift Your Light a Little Higher: The Story of Stephen Bishop: Slave-Explorer by Heather Henson. (Synopsis from Kirkus Reviews): “This story whispers of the life of a man most contemporary American readers should know but don’t. Stephen Bishop, born circa 1821, had intimate knowledge of Mammoth Cave in Kentucky, where he served as guide for visitors who traveled far to tour the underground passageways. Despite the ban against teaching slaves to read, Stephen acquired literacy and wrote his name on the ceiling of Mammoth Cave by using smoke from a lighted candle. Henson weaves Bishop’s impressive scientific discoveries of cave life into the sparse narrative, demonstrating the magnitude of his contributions despite that little is known of his life or death…A story that recovers an important piece of African-American history inextricably tied to the history of Mammoth Cave, a national monument visited by 2 million people each year.”
Schomburg: The Man Who Built a Library by Carole Boston Weatherford. (Synopsis from Kirkus Reviews): “An eccentric, smart, and quirky bibliophile, Arturo Schomburg fueled his life with books. This picture book of free verse poems, lavishly illustrated in oils, opens with stories from Schomburg’s childhood in Puerto Rico, where he constantly asked why the history of black people had been left out of all the history books. Answering him, framed, date-stamped panels, appearing primarily on the right sides of the double-page spreads throughout, capture the stories of important historical black figures such as Phillis Wheatley, Frederick Douglass, and Paul Cuffee. The poem “Whitewash” will surprise some readers; Schomburg objected to the common practice of omitting from biographies the African heritage of prominent individuals such as naturalist and ornithologist John James Audubon, French writer Alexandre Dumas, Russian poet Alexander Pushkin, and German composer Ludwig van Beethoven. Alongside these, Schomburg’s personal and professional life unfolds in unframed images. Schomburg worked as a mail clerk with Banker’s Trust; his book-collecting and library building resulted from his life’s passion, not his vocation. All of the book’s details paint Schomburg as an admirable, flawed, likable, passionate man whose lasting legacy, Harlem’s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, opens its doors to all who would learn more about the people its founder knew had been left out of the written record. A must-read for a deeper understanding of a well-connected genius who enriched the cultural road map for African-Americans and books about them.”
Citations:
Kirkus Reviews, (2016, June 28). Lift your light a little higher. Retrieved from https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-re...
Kirkus Reviews, (2017, May 24). Schomburg: the man who built a library. Retrieved from https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-re...
The Thomas Jefferson Foundation, Inc. (2018). The Life of Sally Hemings. Retrieved from https://www.monticello.org/sallyhemings/
Winter, J. and Widener, T. (2016). My name is James Madison Hemmings. New York: Schwartz & Wade Books.
Zarnowski, M. and Turkel, S. (2013). How nonfiction reveals the nature of science. Children’s Literature in Education 44(4), 295-310.
**You can read more of my reviews at http://thesouthernbookworm.blogspot.com/
November 5, 2019
Beautifully written and compelling story. Many gorgeous illustrations.
My only complaint is the cover art. The illustration of James Madison Hemings with an exceptionally long neck, more like a caricature, in my opinion demeans the nature of the story. The illustration, to me, removes him and his story from the realm of someone to take seriously and places him in the land of slightly stereotypic humorous fiction.
My only complaint is the cover art. The illustration of James Madison Hemings with an exceptionally long neck, more like a caricature, in my opinion demeans the nature of the story. The illustration, to me, removes him and his story from the realm of someone to take seriously and places him in the land of slightly stereotypic humorous fiction.
January 9, 2018
Well-done historical fiction. Gorgeous illustrations.
Read
February 13, 2017Really powerful long picture book about reckoning with history. I'm actually going to try and booktalk this to a group of 3rd and 4th graders today...
December 15, 2016
I love this author, and I love this book. It's a sad, quiet story told from the perspective of one of Thomas Jefferson's sons/slaves. I am embarrassed to say that I always assumed Jonah Winter was black because most of his children's books are about famous (or not-so-famous) people of color. I noticed the dedication to Ta-Nehisi Coates in this book, which led me to look for more about Jonah Winter. Turns out he's a white man who was raised in the segregated south before moving to New York.
My search led me to an interview from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in 2008. I love this quote: "As a nonfiction children's book writer, I see it as my job to educate children about historical figures who are either under-reported in the curriculum or else who, like Muhammad Ali or Roberto Clemente, were mavericks in standing up to a racist culture and carving a path for other members of their respective cultures. If I can make a difference in raising the tolerance and knowledge levels of today's children, then I feel as if I'm doing my job."
My search led me to an interview from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in 2008. I love this quote: "As a nonfiction children's book writer, I see it as my job to educate children about historical figures who are either under-reported in the curriculum or else who, like Muhammad Ali or Roberto Clemente, were mavericks in standing up to a racist culture and carving a path for other members of their respective cultures. If I can make a difference in raising the tolerance and knowledge levels of today's children, then I feel as if I'm doing my job."
December 1, 2016
This is a powerful historical fiction memoir of James Hemings, whom historians believe to be a son of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings. Although Jefferson never directly acknowledged his paternity, Hemings and his siblings were freed upon Jefferson's death, having lived the lives of enslaved persons. The author imagines the interactions with Jefferson based on known events. The thoughtful telling of the memoir in the voice of the adult Hemings is respectful of Jefferson, while acknowledging the hypocrisy of slavery, which Jefferson publicly decried. The tone of the writing is narrative, and not preachy, nor talking down to a children's audience. The realistic acrylic illustrations are evocative of Hemings memories as an adult, and picture life at Monticello as two distinct societies, that of a privileged white family and the enslaved people, both family and not. This is a stellar addition to units on the founding fathers and mothers of the American republic.
December 19, 2016
What must it have been like to learn that your father, one of the greatest men in the county, to be your owner? To establish that you are his property, just as much as his furniture and farm animals? To live together with your mother and siblings in one room under the house when your half-siblings and cousins got to stay in lavish rooms above ground? And what must it have been like to keep it a secret who your father is? To know that he will one day free you, but not your mother? Not the other enslaved people you work side-by-side each day? Winter gives us an idea in this excellently done, but emotionally challenging book.
February 28, 2023
James Madison Hemings, the son of enslaved person Sally Hemings and US president Thomas Jefferson, tells the story of his life in this historical fiction picture book. James Madison Hemings is born into a precarious world, the son of both a slave and the slave's owner, and he walks a fine line between the cruel and difficult life of a slave and that of privilege. Jonah Winter tells the story based primarily on an interview Hemings granted a few years before his death, and many of the details of the story are deeply poignant.
July 19, 2017
A picture book biography geared toward older readers on James Madison Hemings, child of slave Sally Hemings, and Thomas Jefferson. Very well done story told from the point of view of one of Jefferson's slave children, James. Explores what it means to be owned, and what it means to be treated differently than the other slaves, as well as the other white children in the family. Highly recommend.
January 4, 2017
It was an odd (complicated, controversial, and somewhat inappropriate) topic to cover in a children's picture book. Beyond that, there wasn't a lot to the book, not much to interest young readers and no particularly novel perspective to engage older children. If you have a child that you feel is old enough to explore this topic, Jefferson's Sons did a much more in depth and interesting job of it.
November 29, 2016
A good discussion starter on how Thomas Jefferson kept his children by Sally Hemings as slaves. These children were just one eighth African, making them fair-skinned and legally "white" according to the laws of Virginia in the early 1800s.
December 15, 2016
Very well written BUT should not be put in biography. As the author notes, it is historical fiction. We have enough problems with truthiness in this society. This story does need to be widely shared but kids also need to learn that this is an interpretation, not verbatim quotes.
December 11, 2016
Pair this with Ashely Byran's Freedom Over Me. Hard truths, but I refuse to shy away from them. American's need to know this history, own this history, never repeat this history.
May 11, 2023
This story is told in the voice of James Madison Hemings, born a slave to Sally Hemings, the enslaved mistress of Thomas Jefferson. Madison, as he was called, reflects back on his childhood, and what it was like to be the son of a famous father, but still a slave on his father’s plantation. We learn in the Author’s Note that the book was inspired by James Madison Hemings’s 1873 newspaper interview in which he told his family’s story. As the author notes, he was the only one of Sally Hemings’ children to go public about it. The author also drew from the historical account by Annette Gordon-Reed, The Hemingses of Monticello, which won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for History.
Gordon-Reed’s book reveals that Sally Hemings was one-fourth white, and was the half-sister of Jefferson’s wife Martha, who died in 1782 at age 34. Martha and Jefferson had two daughters; Sally served as the enslaved maid of their two daughters.
On May 17, 1784, the Confederation Congress appointed Thomas Jefferson as a Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of Versailles, directing him to join Benjamin Franklin and John Adams in Paris where he would eventually become the senior Minister in France. Jefferson’s wife was already dead, so he wanted his daughters to follow him, and Sally came along as a companion, purportedly for the girls. But Jefferson’s daughters were sent away to attend a boarding school outside of Paris. Jefferson, in his early forties, apparently began to have sexual relations with 14-year-old Sally. [It is only fair to note that “the age of consent in eighteenth-century Virginia was ten.” Of course, “consent” when you are virtually a child and moreover are owned by someone as a slave is a different matter.] By the time Jefferson was ready to return to the U.S., Sally was pregnant.
As Madison grew up he learned that Jefferson was his father although he was never to speak of it. But indeed, as the author notes, the truth was “self-evident” - in a deliberate reference to Jefferson’s words about freedom in the Declaration of Independence - from Sally’s children’s fair skin and resemblance to Jefferson. Although they were enslaved, the children did receive “somewhat special treatment,” because they were able to avoid working in the fields and do other jobs instead. Madison even learned how to read and write. “And yet,” the author writes in Madison’s voice, “my name was written in my father’s ‘Farm Book’ - the ledger where he recorded all his property. My brothers’ and sister’s names were also there, alongside the names of all the people he owned, right amongst the pages listing sheep and hogs.”
Sally Hemings was 53 at the time Jefferson died. It was thought her fate thereafter was laid out in oral requests by Jefferson, still loathe to mention her specifically in any document. Jefferson’s daughter Martha, who possibly had a great resentment for Sally ever since Jefferson took her as his “concubine,” granted Sally her “time” 8 years after Jefferson’s death. ["Granting time" was a way to confer a sort of freedom without formal emancipation, which would force the person to leave the state. Martha did however permit Sally at least to leave Monticello after Jefferson died to go live with their sons in Charlottesville.]. Why did Martha wait 8 years? It is unclear. Thomas Jefferson did free all of Sally Hemings's children as he had allegedly promised her he would: Beverly and Harriet were allowed to leave Monticello in 1822; and Madison and Eston were released in Jefferson's 1826 will.
Terry Widener uses acrylic illustrations with soft colors to depict the Hemingses and their life at Monticello.
Evaluation: This books for readers 5 and over may never see the light of day in states that want school children shielded from the truth about slavery, especially with respect to the Founding Fathers. But where it is allowed, it will encourage readers to think about all the questions it raises, including about the hypocrisy of the man who wrote in 1776, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
Gordon-Reed’s book reveals that Sally Hemings was one-fourth white, and was the half-sister of Jefferson’s wife Martha, who died in 1782 at age 34. Martha and Jefferson had two daughters; Sally served as the enslaved maid of their two daughters.
On May 17, 1784, the Confederation Congress appointed Thomas Jefferson as a Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of Versailles, directing him to join Benjamin Franklin and John Adams in Paris where he would eventually become the senior Minister in France. Jefferson’s wife was already dead, so he wanted his daughters to follow him, and Sally came along as a companion, purportedly for the girls. But Jefferson’s daughters were sent away to attend a boarding school outside of Paris. Jefferson, in his early forties, apparently began to have sexual relations with 14-year-old Sally. [It is only fair to note that “the age of consent in eighteenth-century Virginia was ten.” Of course, “consent” when you are virtually a child and moreover are owned by someone as a slave is a different matter.] By the time Jefferson was ready to return to the U.S., Sally was pregnant.
As Madison grew up he learned that Jefferson was his father although he was never to speak of it. But indeed, as the author notes, the truth was “self-evident” - in a deliberate reference to Jefferson’s words about freedom in the Declaration of Independence - from Sally’s children’s fair skin and resemblance to Jefferson. Although they were enslaved, the children did receive “somewhat special treatment,” because they were able to avoid working in the fields and do other jobs instead. Madison even learned how to read and write. “And yet,” the author writes in Madison’s voice, “my name was written in my father’s ‘Farm Book’ - the ledger where he recorded all his property. My brothers’ and sister’s names were also there, alongside the names of all the people he owned, right amongst the pages listing sheep and hogs.”
Sally Hemings was 53 at the time Jefferson died. It was thought her fate thereafter was laid out in oral requests by Jefferson, still loathe to mention her specifically in any document. Jefferson’s daughter Martha, who possibly had a great resentment for Sally ever since Jefferson took her as his “concubine,” granted Sally her “time” 8 years after Jefferson’s death. ["Granting time" was a way to confer a sort of freedom without formal emancipation, which would force the person to leave the state. Martha did however permit Sally at least to leave Monticello after Jefferson died to go live with their sons in Charlottesville.]. Why did Martha wait 8 years? It is unclear. Thomas Jefferson did free all of Sally Hemings's children as he had allegedly promised her he would: Beverly and Harriet were allowed to leave Monticello in 1822; and Madison and Eston were released in Jefferson's 1826 will.
Terry Widener uses acrylic illustrations with soft colors to depict the Hemingses and their life at Monticello.
Evaluation: This books for readers 5 and over may never see the light of day in states that want school children shielded from the truth about slavery, especially with respect to the Founding Fathers. But where it is allowed, it will encourage readers to think about all the questions it raises, including about the hypocrisy of the man who wrote in 1776, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."
Read
June 17, 2017Narrative:
What is slavery? What does it mean to be a slave? (Make a list on large paper of their background knowledge of slavery.) How would you feel if the man who owned you as a slave was also your father? How would that affect your relationship? The book we're going to read tells the story of a man who was born into slavery in 1805. See if you can figure out the name of his father before the end of the book.
Opening Moves:
*Foreshadow the problem of the story
*Activate background knowledge
*Raise questions that spark curiosity
Rationale:
My goal for the library next year is to expose the elementary students to more diverse cultures and settings than what they have previously been exposed. I selected this book because it looks at slavery in America, but through a different lens. Being told through the first person perspective, the text gives the students a very personal view. The book also brings up the topic of children that were fathered by masters and raises questions about those relationships. The topic of Thomas Jefferson's children is one that is widely debated and discussed. This book presents the topic on a level that is easily understood by kids and provides an opportunity to discuss different types of relationships. This selection adds an element of American history from a non-traditional view point to the set.
Source:
Fountas, I. C., & Pinnell, G. S. (2006). Teaching for comprehending and fluency: Thinking, talking, and writing about reading, K-8. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann Publishing.
What is slavery? What does it mean to be a slave? (Make a list on large paper of their background knowledge of slavery.) How would you feel if the man who owned you as a slave was also your father? How would that affect your relationship? The book we're going to read tells the story of a man who was born into slavery in 1805. See if you can figure out the name of his father before the end of the book.
Opening Moves:
*Foreshadow the problem of the story
*Activate background knowledge
*Raise questions that spark curiosity
Rationale:
My goal for the library next year is to expose the elementary students to more diverse cultures and settings than what they have previously been exposed. I selected this book because it looks at slavery in America, but through a different lens. Being told through the first person perspective, the text gives the students a very personal view. The book also brings up the topic of children that were fathered by masters and raises questions about those relationships. The topic of Thomas Jefferson's children is one that is widely debated and discussed. This book presents the topic on a level that is easily understood by kids and provides an opportunity to discuss different types of relationships. This selection adds an element of American history from a non-traditional view point to the set.
Source:
Fountas, I. C., & Pinnell, G. S. (2006). Teaching for comprehending and fluency: Thinking, talking, and writing about reading, K-8. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann Publishing.
January 4, 2017
Some years ago I read The Hemingses of Monticello by Annette Gordon-Reed about the slave family fathered by Thomas Jefferson with his maid Sally Hemings, herself the daughter of an inter-racial union between Jefferson's father-in-law John Wayles and his slave, Elizabeth Hemings. I was interested to see how this complicated family arrangement would be treated in a children's book. Poignantly, it turns out, as the story is told through the voice of young James Madison who carries the sad knowledge that "Master" is his father, but can never be a true father to him and his siblings.
The story gives a glimpse into the domestic side of Jefferson and his conflicted opinions and actions concerning the institution of slavery. The dust jacket suggests for ages 5-9, but I think the upper end of that range could benefit the most, with help from parents or teachers, to begin to understand the nuances of this less than shining part of our past that is still with us. The book is dedicated to Ta-Nehisi Coates.
The story gives a glimpse into the domestic side of Jefferson and his conflicted opinions and actions concerning the institution of slavery. The dust jacket suggests for ages 5-9, but I think the upper end of that range could benefit the most, with help from parents or teachers, to begin to understand the nuances of this less than shining part of our past that is still with us. The book is dedicated to Ta-Nehisi Coates.
December 26, 2016
Winter, Jonah My Name is James Madison Hemings, illustrated by Terry Widener. PICTURE BOOK. Schwatrz & Wade (Random), 2016. $18.
James Hemings was a slave on a plantation in Virginia. Like many slaves, his father was also his master. In James case, however, his master/father was Thomas Jefferson. Being only one-eighth black, he could have passed as white, but since he is property, such a life is not for him.
Winter takes a very interesting look at the life of Thomas Jefferson’s slave children. It is quite a lot of information and more detailed than the average picture book. I will definitely be showing this to my teachers, as I feel the material is more appropriate for the upper grades, I’d love to know if an elementary school would use and talk about this book. Anyone?
EL _ OPTIONAL. MS, HS – ADVISABLE. Cindy, Library Teacher
http://kissthebook.blogspot.com/2016/...
James Hemings was a slave on a plantation in Virginia. Like many slaves, his father was also his master. In James case, however, his master/father was Thomas Jefferson. Being only one-eighth black, he could have passed as white, but since he is property, such a life is not for him.
Winter takes a very interesting look at the life of Thomas Jefferson’s slave children. It is quite a lot of information and more detailed than the average picture book. I will definitely be showing this to my teachers, as I feel the material is more appropriate for the upper grades, I’d love to know if an elementary school would use and talk about this book. Anyone?
EL _ OPTIONAL. MS, HS – ADVISABLE. Cindy, Library Teacher
http://kissthebook.blogspot.com/2016/...
September 27, 2017
Beautiful picture book that is a fictionalized biography of James Madison Hemings, born both a slave and the son of his owner, Thomas Jefferson (and his slave Sally Hemings). The author shows what life may have been like for young James and his siblings, living in the shadow of their master and knowing he was also their father but that they must never acknowledge that fact. The author based the book on an 1873 newspaper interview with James in which he summarized his life and revealed his parentage--the only one of the Hemings children to do so. So the book really is historical fiction, because the author had to make educated guesses on things like who taught James how to read or did he play the violin like Jefferson did. The acrylic paintings illustrating the book are gorgeous, and the author's note explains the contradictions in Jefferson's life as well as the process of writing the book. I found it a compelling read and an important topic handled sensitively for a children's book.
February 18, 2019
Jonah Winter and Terry Widener have combined their talents to create a lovely picture book based on the true story of James Madison Hemings. Hemings was one of the sons of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings. The book is based primarily on an interview Hemings gave in 1873. The story is told simply, as if Madison, as he was known, were telling it. There are lovely illustrations of Monticello, and of Hemings's later life in Ohio. He is the only one of Sally Hemings's children who chose to live his life as a person of color - listed in census records as mulatto. His sisters and brothers changed their names and entered the white world but apparently kept in limited contact with Madison.
This is a gentle book, yet provides an honest look at the topics of race and of slavery in America. There is a detailed account, at an adult level, at the end of the book; this should helps parents answer questions children might ask.
This is a gentle book, yet provides an honest look at the topics of race and of slavery in America. There is a detailed account, at an adult level, at the end of the book; this should helps parents answer questions children might ask.
April 17, 2018
A young boy named James grew up in slavery. His mother and his siblings lived on a farm, working for their master, who was also their father. James was always so intrigued by his father and curious what he was always writing in his book. When his father got sick and was on his death bed, he released James and his siblings. Not until many years past, with his father dead, did he find that he was Thomas Jefferson, the president of the United States. This book would fit in with lessons about American History and slavery, showing life of a slave and how even the president had slaves during this era.
After reading this book, I feel like I truly had a good understanding of who James Madison Hemings was. I looked up different information about him after reading and noticed that the information in the story matched up with who he truly was. I would highly recommend reading this book.
After reading this book, I feel like I truly had a good understanding of who James Madison Hemings was. I looked up different information about him after reading and noticed that the information in the story matched up with who he truly was. I would highly recommend reading this book.
August 13, 2025
This story is told in the voice of James Madison Hemings, born a slave to Sally Hemings, the enslaved mistress of Thomas Jefferson.
The boy tells what it’s like to be the son of a rich white man but yet still a slave of that landowner. Madison and his siblings were treated better than other slaves (spared backbreaking farm work) and Madison learned to read, but he still was never favored like Jefferson’s white children and grandchildren.
The boy doesn't reveal until the end of the book the identity of his father when readers are shocked that such a learned and famous Founding Father would treat his children so poorly.
The illustrations are beautiful but the writing is straightforward and kind of dry. Still, it’s an important story due to it’s basis in historical fact.
The boy tells what it’s like to be the son of a rich white man but yet still a slave of that landowner. Madison and his siblings were treated better than other slaves (spared backbreaking farm work) and Madison learned to read, but he still was never favored like Jefferson’s white children and grandchildren.
The boy doesn't reveal until the end of the book the identity of his father when readers are shocked that such a learned and famous Founding Father would treat his children so poorly.
The illustrations are beautiful but the writing is straightforward and kind of dry. Still, it’s an important story due to it’s basis in historical fact.
July 2, 2017
Great book that tells the story of one of Thomas Jefferson's sons with Sally Hemings. This gives a simple story of the life of James Madison Hemings. Highlights the discrimination that James lived. Slavery is discussed with emphasis on how it must have been for Madison. Great author note at the end.
Would pair nicely with Jefferson's Sons: A founding father's secret children by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley.
Recommend
Would pair nicely with Jefferson's Sons: A founding father's secret children by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley.
Recommend
October 27, 2016
Wow!
This book was fantastic! I oftentimes don't enjoy illustrated biographies. They're usually just an easy to digest checklist of someone's life. But Winter really brought James Madison Hemings alive with a strong voice standing out distinct and assertive in his observations of his childhood. I had chills by the end. Such a unique perspective on slavery and our founding fathers. What's tragic is that this, of course, would've been a common occurrence and so even if this book stands out in kids lit, it's only one of countless stories of sons and daughters who were also property.
This book was fantastic! I oftentimes don't enjoy illustrated biographies. They're usually just an easy to digest checklist of someone's life. But Winter really brought James Madison Hemings alive with a strong voice standing out distinct and assertive in his observations of his childhood. I had chills by the end. Such a unique perspective on slavery and our founding fathers. What's tragic is that this, of course, would've been a common occurrence and so even if this book stands out in kids lit, it's only one of countless stories of sons and daughters who were also property.
March 22, 2017
A look into the life Madison Hemings, son of Thomas Jefferson. Mostly focuses on the mental gymnastics required for "mulatto" children to deal with when their father is also their "owner". There's an interesting afterward explaining that the Hemings children were legally "white" because Sally Hemings herself was the half sister of Jefferson's wife.
The pictures convey emotions of distance and loneliness, but our main character is often depicted simply standing with his arms at his side, which makes him seem passive or unintelligent. The storytelling style is flat. The vocabulary reads like a 19th century letter, difficult for a young audience.
The information and perspective the books gives is great, but they way it is conveyed is lackluster.
The pictures convey emotions of distance and loneliness, but our main character is often depicted simply standing with his arms at his side, which makes him seem passive or unintelligent. The storytelling style is flat. The vocabulary reads like a 19th century letter, difficult for a young audience.
The information and perspective the books gives is great, but they way it is conveyed is lackluster.
June 25, 2017
Interesting. Before reading this book, I had no idea Thomas Jefferson had kids with one of his slaves. The subject is a bit touchy, but the book did a good job handling it. The story was very readable, and wasn't overdone or too pushy. The tone was just firm enough, in my opinion. Since this topic (owners having kids with their slaves) was so hush-hush, the author didn't have a lot of primary sources to go on, so she had to use creative license to explain some things (how JMH learned to play violin, where he got it from, which grandkid taught him how to read, etc.).
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