Beyond Jefferson : the Hemingses, the Randolphs, and the making of nineteenth-century America / Christa Dierksheide.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Dierksheide, Christa, 1980- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Jefferson, Thomas, 1743-1826--Family.

Jefferson, Thomas.

Hemming family.

Randolph family.

Jefferson, Thomas, 1743-1826--Influence.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (219 pages) : illustrations

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

New Haven : Yale University Press, 2024.

Summary:

A global history of how Thomas Jefferson's descendants navigated the legacy of the Declaration of Independence on both sides of the color line The Declaration of Independence identified two core principles--independence and equality--that defined the American Revolution and the nation forged in 1776. Jefferson believed that each new generation of Americans would have to look to the "experience of the present" rather than the "wisdom" of the past to interpret and apply these principles in new and progressive ways. Historian Christa Dierksheide examines the lives and experiences of a rising generation of Jefferson's descendants, Black and white, illuminating how they redefined equality and independence in a world that was half a century removed from the American Revolution. The Hemingses and Randolphs moved beyond Jefferson and his eighteenth-century world, leveraging their own ideas and experiences in nineteenth-century Britain, China, Cuba, Mexico, and the American West to claim independence and equal rights in an imperial and slaveholding republic.

Contents:

Introduction

part one. Britain. Joseph and Ellen Coolidge : The Opium War and Anglo-Americans in China, 1838-1844 ; Nicholas Trist : Imperial Power in Cuba and Mexico, 1839-1848

part two. Slavery. Thomas Jefferson Randolph : Slave Leasing and the Railroad in Virginia, 1826-1852 ; Meriwether Lewis Randolph : Slavery and Land Speculation in Arkansas, 1835-1838

part three. Race. Madison Hemings : Migration and Belonging in Virginia and Ohio, 1827-1873

J. W. Jefferson : Race, History, and the Civil War, 1852-1890

Epilogue.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on publisher supplied metadata and other sources.

ISBN:

9780300280302

0300280300

OCLC:

1458761556