The multigenerational saga of Thomas Jefferson's hidden slave family tells the story of the Hemingses, whose close blood ties to our third president had been systematically expunged from American history until very recently. Gordon-Reed traces the Hemings family from its origins in Virginia in the 1700s to the family's dispersal after Jefferson's death in 1826. It brings to life not only Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson but also their children and Hemings's siblings, who shared a father with Jefferson's wife, Martha. The Hemingses of Monticello sets the family's compelling saga against the backdrop of Revolutionary America, Paris on the eve of its own revolution, 1790s Philadelphia, and plantation life at Monticello.

Annette Gordon-Reed tells the legendary story of the Hemingses of Monticello, an American slave family with direct blood ties to the American President Thomas Jefferson. Gordon-Reed vividly describes the relationships between Jefferson, his mistress, slave Sally Hemings, and the rest of the Hemings family.