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"Thomas Jefferson had three daughters: Martha and Maria by his wife, Martha Wayles Jefferson, and Harriet by his slave Sally Hemings. In Jefferson's Daughters, Catherine Kerrison, a scholar of early American and women's history, recounts the remarkable journey of these three women--and how their struggle to define themselves reflects both the possibilities and the limitations that resulted from the American Revolution. Although the three women shared...
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Chronicling her remarkable journey to definitively understand her heritage and reclaim it, a black descendant of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings' family offers a compelling portrait to ensure the nation lives up to the ideals advocated by her legendary ancestor.
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"Master of the Mountain," Henry Wiencek's eloquent, persuasive book--based on new information coming from archaeological work at Monticello and on hitherto overlooked or disregarded evidence in Jefferson's papers--opens up a huge, poorly understood dimension of Jefferson's world."-- Publisher's description.
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This program explores the fascinating story of Thomas Jefferson's admiration for Voltaire and how the French philosopher, steadfast advocate of political and religious freedom, influenced not only Jefferson but many of the other founding fathers. Striking parallels are observed between life at Voltaire's rural retreat at Ferney near Geneva and Jefferson's estate at Monticello. Narrated by Academy Award-winning actor Cliff Robertson, this visually...
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This is the little-known story of how a newly independent nation was challenged by four Muslim powers and what happened when America's third president decided to stand up to intimidation. When Thomas Jefferson became president in 1801, America faced a crisis. The new nation was deeply in debt and needed its economy to grow quickly, but its merchant ships were under attack. Pirates from North Africa's Barbary coast routinely captured American sailors...
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Until he was twenty-one years old William Wells Brown could neither read nor write, which makes this work all the more remarkable, dramatic and moving. Brown based his novel on the oft-repeated claim that Thomas Jefferson, who wrote magnificently about human freedom while continuing to buy, work, and sell slaves, had fathered many slave children. According to the legend, one of these children, a beautiful young girl, was later sold at auction. Brown...
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From her earliest days, Patsy Jefferson knows that though her father loves his family dearly, his devotion to his country runs deeper still. As Thomas Jefferson oldest daughter, she becomes his helpmate, protector, and constant companion in the wake of her mother death, traveling with him when he becomes American minister to France. It is in Paris, at the glittering court and among the first tumultuous days of revolution, that fifteen-year-old Patsy...
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Much has been written about Thomas Jefferson, with good reason: His life was a great American drama-one of the greatest-played out in compelling acts. He was the architect of our democracy, a visionary chief executive who expanded this nation's physical boundaries to unimagined lengths. But Twilight at Monticello is something entirely new: an unprecedented and engrossing personal look at the intimate Jefferson in his final years that will change the...
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"As Alexander Hamilton's star has risen, Thomas Jefferson's has fallen, largely owing to their divergent views on race. Once seen as the most influential American champion of liberty and democracy, Jefferson is now remembered largely for his relationship with his slave Sally Hemings, and for electing not to free her or most of the other people he owned. In this magisterial biography, the eminent scholar John B. Boles does not ignore the aspects of...
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Three prominent Americans debate the merits of unchecked immigration, national security, and civil rights. While it sounds like a contemporary, made-for-TV event, this confrontation takes place in 1799, with three of America's Founding Fathers as participants: Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, and Aaron Burr. Legendary radio dramatist Norman Corwin created this imagined discussion from the participants' actual writings-proving that when it comes...
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Illuminating an enigma of the past, this is the provocative continuation of the irrefutable chronicle of Sally HemingsThomas Jefferson’s mistress, the mother of his children, and the slave he would never set free, even when the scandal nearly cost him the presidency. Epic in proportion yet rendered in exquisite detail, this controversial story begins in 1822, recounting the tale of Harriet Hemings, Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings’...
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"Thomas Jefferson and John Adams could scarcely have come from more different worlds, or been more different in temperament. Jefferson, the optimist with enough faith in the innate goodness of his fellow man to be democracy's champion, was an aristocratic Southern slave owner, while Adams, the overachiever from New England's rising middling classes, painfully aware he was no aristocrat, was a skeptic about popular rule and a defender of a more elitist...
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A real-life thriller—the true story of the unheralded American who brought the Barbary Pirates to their knees
After Tripoli declared war on the United States in 1801, Barbary pirates captured three hundred US sailors and marines. President Jefferson sent out navy squadrons, but he also authorized a secret mission to overthrow the government of Tripoli. He chose an unlikely diplomat, William Eaton, to lead the mission. But before Eaton
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"Whatever sense of hope the Founding Fathers may have felt at the new government's birth, almost none of them carried that optimism to their graves. Franklin survived to see the Constitution in action for only a single year, but most of the founders who lived into the nineteenth century came to feel deep anxiety, disappointment, and even despair about the government and the nation that they had helped to create. Indeed, by the end of their lives many...