All In The Family Summary

Improved Essays
All in the family, written by Annette Gordon-Reed is an article about third president of the united states of America, Thomas Jefferson and the possibility of him, having an affair with a slave.
Basically, the main point of the article has focused on Jefferson and the possibility of a male member of his family who had fathered at least one child with a mulatto slave Sally Hemings. The Monticello association, a group composed from six hundred and fifty descendants of Thomas Jefferson, who look after the Jefferson gravesite, got caught in a media circus after a DNA test result proved the that a male member of Jefferson family had been the father of six children and possibly seven children in all. It proves, that some of Hemings’s children are

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    The Other Family Summary

    • 905 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The reading The Other Family addresses an important problem in Canadian society. There is a hegemonic culture in Canada that causes immigrants to fear that they will lose their own customs and traditions. In the reading the little girl drew a picture of a family that was not representative of her own but that was what she knew to be a “Canadian family”. The reaction of her mother is indicative of the fact that this is a concern for their family and their heritage. This shows the overarching issue about the education system not being inclusive of all cultures as they should be in a multicultural country.…

    • 905 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Benjamin Banneker, the son of former slaves, former farmer, astronomer, and mathematician writes to Jefferson regrading to the worriment on slavery; in the excerpt, Banneker uses diction, allusion and appeals to Jefferson, adding more credibility to his concerns. Banneker integrates well educated and high diction in regards to his concerns on slavery. This is seen in lines 1, 15, 18, and 26. This shows Jefferson a display of respect, and dignity. Threw this, Jefferson is more likely to show his undivided attention to the subject at hand.…

    • 437 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Britney Sage Dr. Marie Guthrie ENG 101— C 29 September 2015 Hamilton In the article “How Hamilton Recasts Thomas Jefferson as a Villain,” Alana Semuels argues that a proponent of humane criminal codes for white, Jefferson advocated harsh, almost barbaric, punishments for slaves and free blacks. “The New York Times called Jefferson “The Monster of Monticello” (2). The author begins by stating Jefferson’s reputation in the musical; “draws critical praise” (2). We are all fascinated with Jefferson because we are unable to reconcile the rhetoric of his liberty in his writing and his slave ownership and support for slavery.…

    • 590 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The knowledge make me surprised that Thomas Jefferson had several children with a slave mistress Sally Hemmings. It hard to believe that a person as Jefferson always feels “hated” the slaves and blacks because he considers “it proceeds from the color of the blood”, and this shows that the blacks are naturally inferior to other races. And he still have the slave woman as his wife. Thomas Jefferson is also the president who had participated in drafting the Declaration of Independence. But honestly, it's hard to understand that a great man is famous for liberal laws could own a slave woman for himself.…

    • 144 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Thomas Jefferson-Leader or Hypocrite? Mihir Palan Thomas Jefferson’s advocacy for equality made him a hypocrite to many, as his alleged sexual affairs with his slave, Sally Hemings, created a strong distaste within individuals of present society. Now, is all this controversy valid, or is it all what Douglas L. Wilson calls presentism?…

    • 1206 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Jefferson’s Sons is a historical fiction novel based on the true events of Thomas Jefferson’s life. Jefferson’s Sons describes the lives of Beverly, Harriet, Maddy, and Eston. These are the illegitimate children of Thomas Jefferson, or as he is called in the book: Master Jefferson.…

    • 1373 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Monticello's Irony

    • 1070 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Taking an anti-slavery political stance in the late eighteenth century was not of the popular opinion; however, Thomas Jefferson, the author of the Declaration of Independence, did just that. The irony lies within the fact that Jefferson himself had slaves on his plantation Monticello, which causes one to wonder as if he really wanted the blacks to be free in America. On his plantation, he did not pay any of his slaves, or give them any compensation, besides room and board, that was different to how other whites treated their slaves. In Jefferson’s piece, Notes on the State of Virginia, he showcases his unpopular opinion that slaves should not be kept; rather, he suggests freeing them and allowing them to live in their own community—away from…

    • 1070 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Since the late 1780’s, there has been controversy as to whether or not there were sexual relations and children born between Thomas Jefferson, an American founding father and third president of the United States, and a young Virginian slave Sally Hemmings. Thomas Jefferson was born on a large estate in Virginia that was labored by many slaves. He was married to Martha Wayles Skelton at the time in 1772 which led to a double in property and slaves. He led many to believe he was strongly against blacks and stated that a biracial society in America was impossible due to his racial thoughts on the black society. Even with this public view, many believed Jefferson withheld a long lasting relationship with his household slave , Sally Hemmings.…

    • 277 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In elementary school, children learn about Thomas Jefferson who was one of the founding fathers, second vice president for eight years and third president for another eight years of the United States. Some kids later on also learned that Jefferson was a slave owner all his adulthood life and actually owned over hundreds of slaves in his famous home of Monticello. Although Jefferson never admitted his relationship with his slave Sally Hemings, he had also never denied it either and it was through his actions that proved he had cared for Hemings. Jefferson and Hemings' Relationship Sally Hemings was born a slave in Virginia to John Wayles, Jefferson's father in-law, in which he would inherit her and the rest of her family as well. Her mother, Betty Hemings, was a mulatto herself and was a concubine to Wayles as well.…

    • 725 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Thomas Jefferson, one of the most popular founding fathers, the main author of the Declaration of Independence, and the third president of the United States of America was revered by his contemporaries and is still to this day a well respected figure in American history. But, this does not mean that the man had no faults. Often in todays world Thomas Jefferson is looked back upon and has been scrutinized by many for his apparent hypocrisy on matters such as slavery and on what he believed limitations of the federal government were to be. Although some of Jefferson’s past can be dark and questionable, he was no hypocrite, but a man who understood that his decisions would have lasting effects on the new country, and that putting his own personal…

    • 1033 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In Notes on the State of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson discussed the lifestyle and the intellectual potential of slaves. Jefferson observed slaves first hand because he was a slave owner himself. These are questions that we ask ourselves about Jefferson; how did Jefferson view the existence of slavery and the intellectual capabilities of African Americans, and did Jefferson express misgivings about the institution of slavery? What we know now is that Jefferson gained an understanding of the lifestyle of slaves and realized that slavery was very brutal and stood without any authority. He saw areas within music where blacks were more advanced than whites and Indians.…

    • 1191 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “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.” (Thomas Jefferson) Some of the founding fathers were slave owners when Jefferson wrote the constitution. The founding fathers were wrong when they wrote “All Men Are Created Equal” because no one was treated equally. In the United States of America in 1776 everyone was not treated equally.…

    • 444 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “What stays in the Family” is a memoir by Lorna Crozier about a secret that she hid throughout her life. Her father was a drunk. Not only does she have an alcoholism father, but also have a manipulative mother. From a young age, Lorna Crozier suffered profoundly from her mother’s pragmatism. She was warned to keep her father’s issue a secret, since then, Crozier endured the guilt of tricking people, and the shame was torturing Crozier every single day.…

    • 588 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Term Project Paper: Understanding Family Secrets For our project, we have decided to take a closer look at the topic of family secrets, and more specifically at the four different types of family secrets. Family secrets involve information purposefully hidden or concealed by one or more family members. The four types of secrets are sweet, essential, toxic and dangerous. Galvin, Braithwaite, & Bylund (2015) describe sweet secrets as those that protect fun surprises and they are time limited. Essential secrets tend to foster closeness, and toxic secrets are labeled as poisonous.…

    • 1762 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In this narrative I analyze my family genogram. I explore my family’s makeup and history. I state my family’s relationships as well as my own. Then I discuss the emotions I encountered as I developed my family genogram. In addition, I elaborate on the importance of constructing genograms with co participants.…

    • 1222 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays