My Thomas: A novel of Martha Jefferson's Life

"Thomas Jefferson wrote that all men are equal and all have a right to liberty, yet he kept in bondage numerous slaves, including his own wife's half brothers and half sisters. He was an aristocrat who early in his life came to champion the cause of the common man; he never much cared for public service, but he gave to it more than half his life. There were so many contradictions in Jefferson's life that even his friends claimed not to know him. Perhaps only one person knew him well. Now, after years of careful research, Roberta Grimes re-creates Martha Jefferson's journal to reveal our third President as we have never seen him before, through the eyes of the woman who loved him best." "When Martha Wayles Skelton meets Thomas Jefferson, he is a rising lawyer and legislator and she is a twenty-two-year-old widow who is determined not to marry again. She is beautiful, educated, and playful - with a mind and a spirit to match his own - and she becomes the one great love of his life, his confidante and his closest friend. They are married in 1772 as the pulse of rebellion begins to quicken, and for ten years as the revolution rages they struggle together to build Monticello and to raise their family. Thomas resigns from politics in 1781, believing he has done his share; but when Martha dies the following year, he returns to public service in misery. Forty years later, he still sadly calls her "the cherished companion of my life."" "In resurrecting Martha Jefferson's life and setting it in its proper historical context, Grimes has painted a wonderfully realistic portrait of colonial America that includes a very revealing look at the relationships between the races and the sexes. My Thomas is a first-rate biographical novel. Through it, readers will come to know intimately our most compelling American hero."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved