Note: Thank you to NetGalley, Yale University Press, and author Christa Dierksheide for the advanced reader copy of this book. This review will also be posted on NetGalley. What follows is my unbiased review of the book.

I remember way back in the late 1970s or early 1980s watching a Phil Donahue show where he had as guests various descendants of Thomas Jefferson. The topic was whether or not the descendants of his illegitimate offspring should be included in the official records at Monticello. It was an interesting exchange at the time before DNA analysis was widely available and some of it stuck in my memory all these years later. It was one of the things that prompted me to request Beyond Jefferson: The Hemingses, the Randolphs, and the Making of Nineteenth-Century America as an advanced reader copy.

Christa Dierksheide researched what became of Thomas Jefferson’s descendants in the years following his death. The path of his legitimate grandchildren versus the illegitimate ones was quite different. After reading this book, I’d posit that the illegitimate ones actually fared better in the long run. Although two of them turned their back on their African-American heritage and passed themselves off as white, they did service to their country as equal citizens.

I learned quite a bit about the Opium Wars in China in the 19th century. Jefferson’s granddaughter, Ellen Randolph married a merchant involved in the opium trade between England, India, and China. His dealings were shady, to say the least. The same is true for two of her brothers, Jeff and Lewis, who tried to buy up federal land in Arkansas territory, anticipating that since it became a state they could make a windfall. They even tried to build a working cotton plantation, figuring they could demonstrate that the crop was viable and flip the plantation at the same time. The only problem was that the area of Arkansas where they chose to do it was not a good place to grow cotton. They left behind a mountain of debt and some very angry co-investors.

When Thomas Jefferson died, he freed Eston and Madison Hemings in his will. For a time, they lived nearby in Charlottesville, Virginia. Their mother, Sally, lived with them as well although she was not officially “free.” After she passed, they moved to Ohio, likely trying to escape the reprisals from Nat Turner’s Rebellion. One of Eston’s sons left behind his African-American identity and moved to Wisconsin, where they passed for white. He served in the Union Army during the Civil War, becoming a decorated colonel.

In his later life, Madison dictated a memoir about growing up as Thomas Jefferson’s illegitimate son on his plantation. Although much had been made during Thomas Jefferson’s life about his relationship with a slave girl much younger than him, it was mostly considered to be rumors that faded from memory after a time. Madison’s book reignited the rumors by putting faces to the names that had once been whispered about.

Dierksheide has done a tremendous amount of research, covering nearly the entire world. She traces Ellen Randolph throughout Virginia, Boston, England, and China. Pouring through all of these records is much more difficult than just going through the archives at Monticello where she is affiliated. She shows how Jefferson’s descendants were a part of the new nation as the world around them grew and changed. The legitimate grandchildren seemed to be looking for ways to enrich themselves, even if it was at the expense of other people. This was especially true of Jeff and Lewis. When the capture and sale of Africans was made illegal, they found themselves involved in trying to get around it in Cuba.

I also learned a lot about how slaves were a part of the early days of building railroads. I knew about Irish and Chinese immigrants being involved in the building of the railroads, but I’d never thought about the use of slaves. Dierksheide showed that slaves were used as much more than just household servants and field hands, something I never thought about before. In Virginia, as the planter class fell on hard times, they would rent out their slaves. Most of the time this kept the slaves away from the very dangerous blasting work involved with the railroads, as if anything happened to them their owners would have to be compensated. Still, many were killed during the building of the railroads, and their deaths haven’t been acknowledged.

I enjoyed Beyond Jefferson: The Hemingses, the Randolphs, and the Making of Nineteenth-Century America a great deal. The beginning was a bit slow. I found the history of the Randolphs to be a bit plodding. It picked up quite a bit once it was focused on the Hemings’. There was also quite a bit of history that I didn’t know before. We’re taught names and dates in school, but this book is a demonstration that it’s the people who create history that are important. The decisions and choices that Jefferson’s descendants made for themselves are interesting, as it seems the contrasts in that particular Founding Father lived on in many ways.