Publishers Weekly
10/04/2021
White, a former journalist who now works in public relations at Monticello, debuts with a vivid account of her search for proof that she is related to Thomas Jefferson and two of the families he enslaved, the Hemingses and the Hubbards. Mixing memoir and history, White describes growing up “Negro rich” in Washington, D.C., in the 1960s, her parents’ tumultuous marriage, and her first brush with racism during a trip to Las Vegas at age 13. She learned from her older sister—who had heard it from a great aunt—that the family was somehow related to Thomas Jefferson, and was inspired to investigate the connection by Annette Gordon-Reed’s The Hemingses of Monticello, which detailed the relationship between Jefferson and his slave Sally Hemings, who was also his wife’s half-sister, and the TV series Roots. She recreated her family’s genealogy by scouring the few historical records available, meeting with distant relatives and Jefferson scholars, and, with the help of DNA evidence, she eventually determined that she is a direct descendant of Sally Hemings’s brother, Peter, and the great-granddaughter of Moncure Robinson Taylor, Jefferson’s great-great grandson. Noting that the lives of Monticello’s enslaved families were ignored in the plantation’s exhibitions until recently, White issues a powerful call for reconsidering Jefferson’s legacy and centering the Black experience in American history. This spirited memoir charts a hopeful path for a more honest reckoning with the legacy of slavery. (Nov.)
From the Publisher
"She’s a totally charming and frank memoirist, and I loved her candid, sometimes difficult to read story,"—Rumaan Alam, author of Leave the World Behind on the Best December 2021 Books — Today Show
“In a real-life version of ‘Roots,’ Gayle Jessup White’s compelling exploration of her family ties to Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings’ family demonstrates that America’s complex racial history is written in our DNA.” — Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
"Reclamation is a quintessential American story that should be required reading for anyone who doesn't understand the true contributions of African-Americans to this nation and how vital our presence was and remains to the core principles of democracy and freedom." — Bakari Sellers, New York Times best-selling author of My Vanishing Country
“In her quest to discover the truth behind her family's oral legend of its connection to Thomas Jefferson, Gayle Jessup White reveals the truth of our national history: that 'white' and 'black' are inextricably bound by blood and heritage. In so doing, she 'reclaims' our common humanity and gives new meaning to 'one nation, indivisible.'" — Susan Fales-Hill, television producer and author of Always Wear Joy
“Reclamation instantly reverberates with those of us who are desperate to rebuild our family trees, especially for Americans who lived during the colonial era. White proves that her transformative research and discovery is well worth the journey. Her epic family legacy, interwoven with one of the nation's founding fathers, is an emotional trip back in time. Indeed, it is a homecoming for us all.” — Cheryl Wills, Emmy Award-winning journalist and author of The Emancipation of Grandpa Sandy Wills
"From a girl of Black middle-class privilege to a politically charged race woman driven to unearth the truth of her ancestry, Gayle Jessup White takes us on a journey of self-discovery. White's memoir not only proves her ancestral connection to Thomas Jefferson but is a more graphic and sweeping look at how the politics of race and class play out at the highest and the lowest levels of American life." — Audrey Edwards, author of American Runaway: Black and Free in Paris in the Trump Years
"Thanks to Gayle Jessup White who sometimes feels 'battle scarred after another day spent fighting for equal recognition of Black History that for many is an afterthought.' Reclamation is about all of us who may not be descended from a President but who are descended from the same racial /racist history. It behooves us all to know that history. Doing so, will help contribute to a better America and, yes, a better world for all who live in it." — Charlayne Hunter Gault
“Armed with her newfound familial truth, the author . . . helps rewrite the estate's well-known narrative to include the hundreds of enslaved people who worked for Jefferson. . . [a] timely, relevant, and important book." — Booklist
"Jessup White tells a story that will be meaningful to many readers. Through her account, the author fleshes out many of the genealogical questions concerning Jefferson that have emerged in recent decades." — Kirkus Reviews
"19 Books We Can't Wait to Curl Up with This Fall!" — Essence
"One of November's Eagerly Anticipated Reads" — Ms. magazine
"A November 2021 Top Ten Pick" — Time
“Gayle Jessup White’s multilayered autobiography . . . will be especially interesting to amateur genealogists. But it is also of great interest in general. [Her feats] required superhuman persistence.” — BookPage
Bakari Sellers
"Reclamation is a quintessential American story that should be required reading for anyone who doesn't understand the true contributions of African-Americans to this nation and how vital our presence was and remains to the core principles of democracy and freedom."
Charlayne Hunter Gault
"Thanks to Gayle Jessup White who sometimes feels 'battle scarred after another day spent fighting for equal recognition of Black History that for many is an afterthought.' Reclamation is about all of us who may not be descended from a President but who are descended from the same racial /racist history. It behooves us all to know that history. Doing so, will help contribute to a better America and, yes, a better world for all who live in it."
Cheryl Wills
Reclamation instantly reverberates with those of us who are desperate to rebuild our family trees, especially for Americans who lived during the colonial era. White proves that her transformative research and discovery is well worth the journey. Her epic family legacy, interwoven with one of the nation's founding fathers, is an emotional trip back in time. Indeed, it is a homecoming for us all.
Booklist
Armed with her newfound familial truth, the author . . . helps rewrite the estate's well-known narrative to include the hundreds of enslaved people who worked for Jefferson. . . [a] timely, relevant, and important book."
Henry Louis Gates
In a real-life version of ‘Roots,’ Gayle Jessup White’s compelling exploration of her family ties to Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings’ family demonstrates that America’s complex racial history is written in our DNA.
Essence
"19 Books We Can't Wait to Curl Up with This Fall!"
Susan Fales-Hill
In her quest to discover the truth behind her family's oral legend of its connection to Thomas Jefferson, Gayle Jessup White reveals the truth of our national history: that 'white' and 'black' are inextricably bound by blood and heritage. In so doing, she 'reclaims' our common humanity and gives new meaning to 'one nation, indivisible.'"
Audrey Edwards
"From a girl of Black middle-class privilege to a politically charged race woman driven to unearth the truth of her ancestry, Gayle Jessup White takes us on a journey of self-discovery. White's memoir not only proves her ancestral connection to Thomas Jefferson but is a more graphic and sweeping look at how the politics of race and class play out at the highest and the lowest levels of American life."
Today Show
"She’s a totally charming and frank memoirist, and I loved her candid, sometimes difficult to read story,"—Rumaan Alam, author of Leave the World Behind on the Best December 2021 Books
Booklist
Armed with her newfound familial truth, the author . . . helps rewrite the estate's well-known narrative to include the hundreds of enslaved people who worked for Jefferson. . . [a] timely, relevant, and important book."
USA Today
With her new book “Reclamation: Sally Hemings, Thomas Jefferson, and a Descendant’s Search for Her Family’s Lasting Legacy” (Amistad, 288 pp., ★★★ out of four, out now), Gayle Jessup White begins to shift the scales. A descendent of Jefferson and Peter Hemings (Sally’s brother), White not only gives voice to her Black ancestors but adds historical significance to a new generation of Hemingses and Jeffersons… Reclamation” flourishes in bringing a new generation of Heminges and Jeffersons out of the shadows. But more importantly, this forceful piece of micro-history builds on the brilliant and breathtaking scholarship of Annette Gordon-Reed’s “The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family” while adding a sturdy stone onto America’s shaky blueprint.
USA Today
With her new book “Reclamation: Sally Hemings, Thomas Jefferson, and a Descendant’s Search for Her Family’s Lasting Legacy” (Amistad, 288 pp., ★★★ out of four, out now), Gayle Jessup White begins to shift the scales. A descendent of Jefferson and Peter Hemings (Sally’s brother), White not only gives voice to her Black ancestors but adds historical significance to a new generation of Hemingses and Jeffersons… Reclamation” flourishes in bringing a new generation of Heminges and Jeffersons out of the shadows. But more importantly, this forceful piece of micro-history builds on the brilliant and breathtaking scholarship of Annette Gordon-Reed’s “The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family” while adding a sturdy stone onto America’s shaky blueprint.
Time
"A November 2021 Top Ten Pick"
BookPage
Gayle Jessup White’s multilayered autobiography . . . will be especially interesting to amateur genealogists. But it is also of great interest in general. [Her feats] required superhuman persistence.
Ms. magazine
"One of November's Eagerly Anticipated Reads"
Time
"A November 2021 Top Ten Pick"
Library Journal
11/01/2021
In this family history, White describes being a 13-year-old Black girl growing up in Washington, DC, when she learned the legend handed down by her great aunt—that the family was descended from Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings—which White would spend much of her later life trying to prove. The Hemings lineage became clearer in later years, and as an adult White began to research her roots while also pursuing a career in journalism and enduring a rocky first marriage. White writes that the first time she toured Monticello and announced, "I'm a descendant," she was met with uncomfortable stares. But she kept mapping the family tree with the help of a Monticello genealogist, met many other Jefferson and Hemings descendants (both Black-presenting and white-presenting; some helpful, some not), and eventually struck gold with DNA evidence and historic documents that proved that she was indeed a direct descendant of Jefferson and of Peter Hemings (Sally's brother). White is now the community engagement officer at Monticello, fulfilling a lifelong goal to help tell the stories of all of her ancestors there. VERDICT A brisk read that uncovers another side of the Jefferson-Hemings family tree; for readers of genealogy and the history of American slavery.—Kate Stewart, Arizona State Museum
Kirkus Reviews
2021-09-07
A Black descendant of Thomas Jefferson fashions a straightforward memoir about her life and struggles.
Born in 1957, Jessup White, now the public relations and community engagement officer at Monticello, grew up in the middle-class suburbs of Washington, D.C., the daughter of a teacher and a civil servant. As she writes, “I grew up ‘Negro rich.’ It meant that my family was well-off for Black people.” Her father’s family, according to a vague understanding (“that’s what they say”), had descended from Jefferson. By her teens, the author began to question her father about his ancestry, although he never knew his mother, who died early of tuberculosis, and was unsure about his grandmother’s family name. Some of her relatives, she writes, passed as White. The author graduated from Howard University, worked for the New York Times and in TV news, and married and had children, all before she first visited Monticello. In 2010, she contacted historian Lucia Stanton, “an expert on slavery” who was at the estate researching the descendants of people enslaved by Jefferson. Using Stanton’s diligent research as a launching pad, they unearthed documentation that identified one of Jessup White’s ancestors who was the great-grandson of Jefferson. The plot thickened when they discovered that the author’s great-great-grandmother had descended from the Hemings family line, the best documented of all the enslaved people and their kin who figure in Jefferson’s bloodline. In this serviceable account, Jessup White chronicles how strange it was to meet her White relatives, members of the so-called First Families of Virginia (among them Taylors and Randolphs), who, she observes, weren’t thrilled to know about her either. In 2014, DNA tests confirmed their research: Jessup White was indisputably a Jefferson descendant. Through her account, the author fleshes out many of the genealogical questions concerning Jefferson that have emerged in recent decades.
From Colonial Virginia to today’s Black middle class: Jessup White tells a story that will be meaningful to many readers.
