Beyond Jefferson: The Hemingses, the Randolphs, and the Making of Nineteenth-Century America

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...