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Understanding Thomas Jefferson
Recent biographies of Thomas Jefferson have stressed the sphinxlike puzzles of his character--famous champion of freedom yet lifelong slaveholder, foe of miscegenation yet secret lover of a beautiful slave for 30 years, aristocrat yet fervent advocate of government by the people. E. M. Halliday's absorbing and lucid portrait recognizes these and other puzzles about this great founder, but shows us how understandable they can be in light of his personal and social circumstances.
Halliday takes readers deep into Jefferson's private life--exploring his childhood, his literary taste, and his unconventional religious thinking and moral philosophy. Here, too, are his adamant opinions on women, the evolution of his ideas on democracy and freedom of expression, and fresh insights into his relationship with Sally Hemings.
304 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2001
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February 7, 2021
By E. M. Halliday
A quite comprehensive yet concise summary of TJ’s life story; his views on matters of race, religion, and women; and how historians and novelists treated his stories.
Life story
TJ’s father died when TJ was still young. TJ studied a lot and often in the company of upper class scions of Virginia. He had various episodes of passion. (As president, he once wrote that “You will perceive that I plead guilty … that when young and single I offered love to a handsome lady. I acknolege [sic] its incorrectness.” He was happily married to Martha, then a young widow. Martha is a competent house wife and gracious host. She gave TJ six kids during a decade of their marriage and died of illness. A stint of governorship made TJ want to retire. Had Martha not died, he might have been remaining in happy retirement.
When in Paris as ambassador, TJ is often entertained by John and Abigail Adams. TJ is a good friend of Lafayette who brought the news of the death of TJ’s baby daughter back in Virginia. While in Paris, a poor translation of his “Notes from Virginia” was distributed by a French printer. He decided to publish his lest the French translation was translated back to English. This book helped expatiate his view on a number of things. While in Paris, TJ met a beautiful Mrs. Cosway through his friend and spent quite some time with her and later communicated through long letters. Cosway, however, appear to be limited in intellect and eventually the affair died down. When TJ’s 8-year-old daughter Polly came to join her father in Paris to be educated there, she was accompanied by a then 14-year-old (but beautiful and fully developed) Sally Hemming, a slave of TJ’s who is also a half sister of his late wife Martha. All indications suggest that TJ was captivated by the very beautiful SH who became his mistress. SH eventually gave birth to 5 kids as white as anybody and TJ set some free when he died. TJ decided to take a 6-mo leave to check on his plantation and left Paris days before the fall of Bastille. Upon arriving home, he soon became Secretary of State and had to abandon his plan to return to Paris. When one of his daughters married, TJ gave the young couple 1000 acre of plantation and 25 slaves.
Rivalry between TJ and Alexander Hamilton is really down to vision for the young nation. AH envisions an industrial nation with strong central authority taking on large national debt; while TJ prefers the old agrarian society where rights largely stay with the state with no debt. (They also differ in whether to side with France.) In practice, TJ recognized the necessity (if not wisdom) of AH’s vision and compromised. Indeed, as President, he took on a large debt to fund the Louisiana purchase.
When TJ died on the 50th anniversary of the declaration of independence, he very much wanted to be remembered for being the: 1. Author of the Declaration of Independence; 2. Author of the Statue of Virginia for Religious Freedom; and 3. Father of the university of Virginia. In that final act of importance, TJ is met with ample difficulties. Among others, students are “wretchedly-prepared”. He realized that elementary and secondary schools all need great improvements. Rather than books, students are drawn to wine and whiskey (some things don’t change). Drunken students threw bottles through windows of professorial apartments and on one occasion a minor riot broke out, leading to the expelling of 3 students, one of which, ironically, is the great-grandnephew of TJ.
His views
Every person is the product of his time, education, and surroundings. TJ holds a lot of views that, 200+ years later, we may find objectionable — to say the least. TJ treated his slaves OK, but is a demanding task master. He thought slaves are fundamentally inferior but are faithful to masters. However, over time, especially after the long relationship with Hemming, his views probably changed, at least a bit. He was especially against the idea of miscegenation but actually wrote that a third crossing clears the blood — people of 1/8 black blood (octoroons) are no longer black. While some historians use his attitude towards miscegenation as reason to disavow his relationship with Hemming, one could just as well argue that TJ may see his act with SH as “clearing the blood” for her offspring. Interestingly, TJ believed that native Americans are noble. Indeed, crossing blood with them can be beneficial.
When a young man (E. Coles) urged TJ to use his prestige to lead a strong public movement towards emancipation and declared that he’ll take all his slaves to Illinois and set them free, TJ declined to take up on the cause. Indeed, he tried to dissuade the young idealist from carrying out the plan — to no avail. Coles followed through and was elected governor of Illinois on anti-slavery platform.
When it comes to women, TJ instructs his son: pleasing women and receiving pleasure from them in return, that is one of the essentials of a good life. His view is clearly chauvinistic: domesticity is a woman’s high virtue.
When it comes to moral philosophy, TJ essentially wants Christianity minus the theology. He believed that Jesus’s teaching had been “mutilated” and “misstated” by the writers of Gospels and followers. This view was obviously not well received at his time. “Nobody who denied the divinity of Christ was entitled to be called Christian” is a representative response of TJ’s view. Nevertheless, TJ pressed ahead with a 46-page document expounding his view. Later in life, he was very adamant that there shall be no official religion of the United States. He cited certain clerical “schemes” to secure the establishment of some form of Christianity as the official religion and said he would oppose them with all his power, “for I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man”. (Those who firmly believe that the founding fathers meant the USA to be a “Christian Country”, go get your facts straight.)
Historical treatments
Quite a few scholars went out of their way to prove —unconvincingly — the absence of sexual relationship between TJ and Sally Hemings. Even resorting to one-off “confession” of somebody else who claimed to have fathered SH’s kids. This was later disproved by genetic analysis. The details don’t matter. The point is that when it comes to important historical personages, people seem to want to hang on to their own *images* of these personages than to want to accept what reality might have been. The author reminds us that history is always going to have some fictional elements to it: we wouldn’t trust newspapers today 100%, but put a 200 years of distance, now they are held with a reverence. On the other hand, novelists took great creative licenses in writing historical novels. For example, SH was imbued with exquisitely sensitive intellect revealed in voluminous (albeit entirely invented) diary entries. It is perhaps due to conflicting narratives and drastically different images of the historical person that we today find TJ a mystery.
A quite comprehensive yet concise summary of TJ’s life story; his views on matters of race, religion, and women; and how historians and novelists treated his stories.
Life story
TJ’s father died when TJ was still young. TJ studied a lot and often in the company of upper class scions of Virginia. He had various episodes of passion. (As president, he once wrote that “You will perceive that I plead guilty … that when young and single I offered love to a handsome lady. I acknolege [sic] its incorrectness.” He was happily married to Martha, then a young widow. Martha is a competent house wife and gracious host. She gave TJ six kids during a decade of their marriage and died of illness. A stint of governorship made TJ want to retire. Had Martha not died, he might have been remaining in happy retirement.
When in Paris as ambassador, TJ is often entertained by John and Abigail Adams. TJ is a good friend of Lafayette who brought the news of the death of TJ’s baby daughter back in Virginia. While in Paris, a poor translation of his “Notes from Virginia” was distributed by a French printer. He decided to publish his lest the French translation was translated back to English. This book helped expatiate his view on a number of things. While in Paris, TJ met a beautiful Mrs. Cosway through his friend and spent quite some time with her and later communicated through long letters. Cosway, however, appear to be limited in intellect and eventually the affair died down. When TJ’s 8-year-old daughter Polly came to join her father in Paris to be educated there, she was accompanied by a then 14-year-old (but beautiful and fully developed) Sally Hemming, a slave of TJ’s who is also a half sister of his late wife Martha. All indications suggest that TJ was captivated by the very beautiful SH who became his mistress. SH eventually gave birth to 5 kids as white as anybody and TJ set some free when he died. TJ decided to take a 6-mo leave to check on his plantation and left Paris days before the fall of Bastille. Upon arriving home, he soon became Secretary of State and had to abandon his plan to return to Paris. When one of his daughters married, TJ gave the young couple 1000 acre of plantation and 25 slaves.
Rivalry between TJ and Alexander Hamilton is really down to vision for the young nation. AH envisions an industrial nation with strong central authority taking on large national debt; while TJ prefers the old agrarian society where rights largely stay with the state with no debt. (They also differ in whether to side with France.) In practice, TJ recognized the necessity (if not wisdom) of AH’s vision and compromised. Indeed, as President, he took on a large debt to fund the Louisiana purchase.
When TJ died on the 50th anniversary of the declaration of independence, he very much wanted to be remembered for being the: 1. Author of the Declaration of Independence; 2. Author of the Statue of Virginia for Religious Freedom; and 3. Father of the university of Virginia. In that final act of importance, TJ is met with ample difficulties. Among others, students are “wretchedly-prepared”. He realized that elementary and secondary schools all need great improvements. Rather than books, students are drawn to wine and whiskey (some things don’t change). Drunken students threw bottles through windows of professorial apartments and on one occasion a minor riot broke out, leading to the expelling of 3 students, one of which, ironically, is the great-grandnephew of TJ.
His views
Every person is the product of his time, education, and surroundings. TJ holds a lot of views that, 200+ years later, we may find objectionable — to say the least. TJ treated his slaves OK, but is a demanding task master. He thought slaves are fundamentally inferior but are faithful to masters. However, over time, especially after the long relationship with Hemming, his views probably changed, at least a bit. He was especially against the idea of miscegenation but actually wrote that a third crossing clears the blood — people of 1/8 black blood (octoroons) are no longer black. While some historians use his attitude towards miscegenation as reason to disavow his relationship with Hemming, one could just as well argue that TJ may see his act with SH as “clearing the blood” for her offspring. Interestingly, TJ believed that native Americans are noble. Indeed, crossing blood with them can be beneficial.
When a young man (E. Coles) urged TJ to use his prestige to lead a strong public movement towards emancipation and declared that he’ll take all his slaves to Illinois and set them free, TJ declined to take up on the cause. Indeed, he tried to dissuade the young idealist from carrying out the plan — to no avail. Coles followed through and was elected governor of Illinois on anti-slavery platform.
When it comes to women, TJ instructs his son: pleasing women and receiving pleasure from them in return, that is one of the essentials of a good life. His view is clearly chauvinistic: domesticity is a woman’s high virtue.
When it comes to moral philosophy, TJ essentially wants Christianity minus the theology. He believed that Jesus’s teaching had been “mutilated” and “misstated” by the writers of Gospels and followers. This view was obviously not well received at his time. “Nobody who denied the divinity of Christ was entitled to be called Christian” is a representative response of TJ’s view. Nevertheless, TJ pressed ahead with a 46-page document expounding his view. Later in life, he was very adamant that there shall be no official religion of the United States. He cited certain clerical “schemes” to secure the establishment of some form of Christianity as the official religion and said he would oppose them with all his power, “for I have sworn upon the altar of God, eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man”. (Those who firmly believe that the founding fathers meant the USA to be a “Christian Country”, go get your facts straight.)
Historical treatments
Quite a few scholars went out of their way to prove —unconvincingly — the absence of sexual relationship between TJ and Sally Hemings. Even resorting to one-off “confession” of somebody else who claimed to have fathered SH’s kids. This was later disproved by genetic analysis. The details don’t matter. The point is that when it comes to important historical personages, people seem to want to hang on to their own *images* of these personages than to want to accept what reality might have been. The author reminds us that history is always going to have some fictional elements to it: we wouldn’t trust newspapers today 100%, but put a 200 years of distance, now they are held with a reverence. On the other hand, novelists took great creative licenses in writing historical novels. For example, SH was imbued with exquisitely sensitive intellect revealed in voluminous (albeit entirely invented) diary entries. It is perhaps due to conflicting narratives and drastically different images of the historical person that we today find TJ a mystery.
November 19, 2015
While I enjoyed the philosophical discussion over whether or not Jefferson was as forward-thinking as historians have portrayed him, I found this book to be a little annoying. The final chapter talked about the value of historical fiction - in particular, how Jefferson has been portrayed in that genre - and the use of artistic license to fill in the unknown details. But the entire first half of Halliday's book itself is filled with conjecture, mainly over Jefferson's amorous forays, on which the author seems unusually fixated.
I picked up this book hoping to learn a little more about the man who built Monticello and the University of Virginia, and who was purported to be someone of great knowledge and humanitarian leaning. Instead, I learned that he was actually a documented racist and misogynist, with a few redeeming qualities. Like the review on the book cover said, I do feel that I got to know Jefferson a little bit better, having read this book; frankly, I like him a little bit less.
I picked up this book hoping to learn a little more about the man who built Monticello and the University of Virginia, and who was purported to be someone of great knowledge and humanitarian leaning. Instead, I learned that he was actually a documented racist and misogynist, with a few redeeming qualities. Like the review on the book cover said, I do feel that I got to know Jefferson a little bit better, having read this book; frankly, I like him a little bit less.
December 18, 2018
Understanding Thomas Jefferson is my third venture into the life of the founder and statesman. Fawn Brodie’s biography was quite comprehensive and Annette Gordon Reid’s book focused primarily on TJ’s relationship with Sally Hemmings. Halliday speculates on an old rumor as to whether or not Tommy had a fling with Betsey Walker while her husband was away for several months when the future president was twenty-four. Years later, a duel was proposed, but it was avoided through diplomacy. Gossip, even of the he said, she said variety, as always been a part of our history. Jefferson married a young widow, Martha Wayles Skelton. She was a veritable baby factory, delivering children on an annual basis. Only three survived past infancy. She died after ten years of marriage. Her death changed history as T.J. reentered politics, a pursuit he had relinquished in order to spend time with his better half. Two years after Martha’s death in 1782, Jefferson was sent to France as an ambassador. In 1784, he fell in love with an artist’s wife, Maria Cosway. She was a devout Catholic, and the author believes that theirs was a platonic relationship. As a former R.C., I would not be so sure of that. In Maria’s absence, Thomas pined for her a 5,000 word letter known as the “head and the heart” epistle. Cosway’s response was tepid. Like Jimmy Carter, he lusted in his heart. Jefferson’s daughter Polly arrived in Paris with a personal maid, the 14 year-old slave girl, Sally Hemings, the half sister of TJ’s dead wife, Martha. Martha’s father was also Sally’s baby daddy with one of his many slaves. Abigail Adams described Hemings as a light skinned, beautiful and well developed for her age. After two years in France, the lovebirds returned to Monticello and Sally gave birth to five or six children over the next thirty years. T.J. was forty-six and Sally sixteen. Woody Allen once said that the heart wants what the heart wants; bull****, even presidents think with a lower part of their anatomy; i.e. JFK, Clinton, Trump. With modern media, we are aware of Marilyn, Monica and Stormy. Of course the aforementioned former presidents could never match Jefferson’s political genius. Upon his death, Sally Hemings was listed under assets as an old slave woman with a value of $50. She was fifty six and died six years later at sixty two, almost as a footnote of history. DNA has radically altered her life story. Halliday returns to T.J. in his early thirties and in his belief in a participatory democracy and Alexander Hamilton’s view which supported a constitutional monarchy. The two brilliant men battled shape the future role of government. The author ponders Jefferson’s paradoxical views on slavery. He found the practice morally objectionable on a personal level, however, on practical level, his plantation required the labor of many slaves whom he believed to be inferior to whites. Miscegenation was also frowned upon by T.J. He made an exception for himself, although Sally Hemings was only ¼ black. After his death, his offspring with Sally passed for white. A chapter including Jefferson’s unorthodox views on Christianity should be presented to our modern day evangelicals who believe that our nation was founded on their religion. Jefferson’s bible removed all the divine aspects of Jesus Christ, instead focusing on the Messiah as a great moral philosopher. As a deist, Jefferson believed that God created the world but did not intervene in the affairs of men. Bravo, Tommy, I am your #1 fan (with apologies to Stephen King). He also wrote that women should not be involved in politics and that Marie Antoinette was the reason for the French revolution. The book closes with a review of the film “Jefferson in Paris”. Nick Nolte played the lead and provides the best one liner regarding T.J.’s sex life. Mr. Nolte is a bit vulgar but it is a great line nonetheless. Read the book.
October 23, 2010
Inspired to buy and read this after visiting Montecello. I love that this book delves into his personal life and travels outside of his Presidency. Appropriate since public life, for him, seemed to be contrary to real life and how he preferred to live. Great book.
June 23, 2019
Throughout this book, the author allows the reader to feel as if they are personally meeting Thomas Jefferson by adeptly summarizing his achievements and addressing his shortcomings when it came to racism and male superiority. The novel also highlighted several other of Jefferson’s works, such as “Notes on Virginia” and his “Head and Heart” essay. The impact Jefferson had made on American society, as eloquently described throughout the book, was his presence as a democratic figure and how he was able to articulate the fundamental power of the people within a free government. The theme of this text was through his several different relationships, Jefferson revealed aspects of his character that can’t be found through historical documents alone. When Jefferson wrote back to Maria Cosway in 1788, he described his current situation as similar to the testament of Abraham and Sarah and Hagar, “as if he was making a diary entry...rather than writing a letter” (100). The testament that Jefferson was writing about can be summarized as Hagar, an Egyptian slave, belonged to Sarah, Abraham's wife, and Sarah gave her maid, Hagar, to him. Halliday elaborates that this letter to Cosway, where Jefferson would “have agreed to be have been Abraham” (102), can be used to support the sexual relationship between him and Sally Hemmings, which Jefferson could have been internally comparing to van der Werff’s painting of this old testament when he sent the letter. I would recommend this book to those very interested in Thomas Jefferson and his career, because the author’s descriptions and analysis’ of his writings enables the reader to lunge in deeper into the mind of this influential founding father.
June 27, 2023
An unconventional biography of Jefferson that uses particular stories and writings to illuminate Jefferson's character while skipping a lot of his political career in favor of trying to get inside Jefferson's mind. It is very opinionated with the author, Halliday, using a lot of conjecture about what Jefferson could have been thinking when he did certain things, and lingers a lot on Jefferson's sexuality and relationship with Sally Hemmings. Way too much! If you're looking for an exhaustive history of Jefferson's life, this isn't it.
February 10, 2020
This one really did help me to better know and understand the man. It reminds me that I need to revisit Colonial Williamsburg and Monticello.
I found Halliday's treatment of the whole Sally Hemings issue to be thoughtful and informative.
I found Halliday's treatment of the whole Sally Hemings issue to be thoughtful and informative.
June 28, 2024
This biography ignores the political life of this Founding Father, instead choosing to focus on his personal relationships with his wife, Sally Hemmings & other women, as well as his views on race & slavery. It does give greater understanding to the man in a concise way. However, if you’re looking for a biography that encompasses all of his life, this is not it. An insightful book that gives depth to one of America’s founding fathers.
May 28, 2025
happy birthday..mr president 😉
June 13, 2009
An unconventional biography of Jefferson that uses particular stories and writings to illuminate Jefferson's character. It skips a lot of the Virginian's biography in favor of trying to get inside Jefferson's mind. A very different kind of biography, and very opinionated -- Halliday uses a lot of conjecture about what Jefferson could have been thinking when he did certain things, and lingers a lot on Jefferson's sexuality and relationship with Sally Hemmings. If you're looking for an exhaustive history of Jefferson's life, this isn't it. But this book goes a long way towards animating the mind of the man himself.
August 23, 2008
A quick-paced biography of Thomas Jefferson. Easy to read, which makes it enjoyable. Critics argue that this book focuses too much on pyschosexual analysis, and while the author does explore Jefferson's relationship with Sally Hemmings to a greater degree than he examines other areas of his life, I still think this is a good introduction into Jefferson's life.
January 28, 2008
Had good information about Jefferson's plantation life, and personal relationships. Thought Halliday made some leaps in logic, proclaiming Jefferson "must have" thought, did things that he sort of reports as fact but they aren't facts.
June 13, 2008
I really liked this one. I'm really interested in Thomas Jefferson and the author made things really easy to understand and made you felt like you were right there at his side watching his life unfold.
January 28, 2009
Halliday argued that Thomas Jefferson is not really an enigma, as other historians have suggested. This book is an essential addition to the library of anyone seriously interested in this monumental figure in American history.
June 26, 2009
This book did help me understand Thomas Jefferson better, but I was hoping for more information about his interest in horticulture. The information discussed, however, will help me in my quest to learn more about American history.
January 27, 2013
Not a detailled political history but rather an attempt to look at the paradoxes that the man presents. More of a book written around ideas than the fact driven history that I learned in the 50's and 60's in school.
June 5, 2013
The point of this book was to hypothesize a three dimensional and plausible Jefferson. As a result, much of the book is speculative, but the basis for what it deems the most probable assertion is pretty clearly spelled out.
March 26, 2016
Can't say that it did much for my understanding. The author seemed to dwell a great deal on past biographies, and where they strayed, even going into recent novels and movies. Not particularly satisfying to me. Jefferson still remains interesting, but am discouraged by such books.
June 12, 2008
Not a biography, not an attempt at a balanced portrait...but interesting nonetheless in exploring the fascinating character of one of America's true geniuses.
August 3, 2008
oh yeah, TJ is my homeboy!
July 11, 2009
An interesting perspective on a complicated, fascinating and hypocritical (in my opinion) man. The author did seem a bit hung up on the sexual side of Jefferson though.
Read
July 22, 2009A bit too much conjecture for me, and quite the emphasis on his libido...
November 29, 2010
I enjoyed working for E.M. Halliday, loved him dearly, miss him so much, and will never forget him!~April Sandmeyer
Read
July 29, 2011Makes me understand Jefferson, understand he was a racist, extremist that would probably live in Montana today. In a bunker. With 5 wives.
September 15, 2012
A strangely shallow and disorganized book. It seems more interested in Jefferson's love life than anything else. The result is curiosity hemmed in by limp prose. The insights contained are scattered.
Read
March 23, 2015Upon finishing this book, Halliday's through line within the novel is human nature's clash between, as Jefferson put it best a, "dialogue between my head and my heart,".
June 17, 2016
Very well done. A quick read and very helpful for a deeper and fuller perspective on Jefferson. Especially important is a chapter entitled "Slave Master - and Racist." Really worth the time to read.
December 6, 2021
Really humorous, witty and insightful. Sometimes you'll heartily chuckle, sometimes you'll have tears in your eyes. Chills.
May 7, 2013
This book never really got a good flow to it. Struggled to keep my focus as I was reading it.
September 28, 2017
I only read this book because I had to for a history class. I had to pick a book from a list of books and I had to write a book review. Honestly, I chose this one because one, I already knew some things about Thomas Jefferson and two, because it was cheap on Amazon Prime. That being said, this book was actually interesting and I enjoyed reading it. I learned some pretty interesting things about Jefferson that I did not know before. I won't spoil it for you but his life was quite different than I thought.
I recommend this book to anyone who loves biographies, history, or even just a simple interesting book.
I recommend this book to anyone who loves biographies, history, or even just a simple interesting book.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews