A President in the Family: Thomas Jefferson, Sally Hemings, and Thomas Woodson [Hardcover]

Byron W. Woodson Sr. (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 28, 2001

Conceived during Thomas Jefferson's junket in Paris, Thomas Woodson was Jefferson's first child by Sally Hemings. He was banished from Monticello at the age of 12, after a journalist exposed Jefferson's relationship with his young slave. A President in the Family traces Thomas Woodson's subsequent journey from Virginia to Ohio where Thomas and wife Jemima, a former slave, would raise a productive and ambitious family. Their eldest son Lewis, author of the famous Augustine letters, would carry on the family tradition of education, leadership, and public service. A founder of Wilberforce University and described by some as the father of black nationalism, Lewis argued that the black race should not depend on white philanthropy to achieve success in America. His children and grandchildren would prosper as entrepreneurs, engineers, and educators. A President in the Family tells of the Woodsons' continuing struggle to correct accounts by Jeffersonian historians and their successful discovery of documentation that supports an oral history that survived independently in five branches of the family tree. Byron W. Woodson, Sr., a sixth-generation descendant of Jefferson, details the recent developments in the quest to corroborate family lore, to locate missing family members, and to reveal the truth about the complex day-to-day life at Monticello. This is the amazing story of the Woodson family and its steadfast effort to reveal its illustrious past to the American public.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Squabbles about Southern genealogies are usually confined to blue-haired ladies in local history societies but not when the family in question is Thomas Jefferson's. The possibility of a sexual liaison between the third president and his slave Sally Hemings has occupied scholars and gossipmongers since Jefferson's lifetime. Most of the recent debate has focused on the four children with the surname Hemings (Madison, Beverly, Harriet and Eston). But there may have been another child, Thomas Woodson (so named because, the story goes, he was sent from Monticello to the nearby Woodson plantation as a lad). Though the existence of young Tom is up for debate, one of those claiming to be his descendants tells his side of the story here. Woodson presents new evidence, the most persuasive piece of which is Jefferson's Farm Book, in which he recorded all the names of his slaves. Scholars have noted that no young Tom was recorded in 1790 (his putative year of birth). Woodson was stunned, then, to see that in 1790, four slaves' names had been recorded, and one of them was erased, a fact never reported by Jefferson scholars. Woodson's book is a tad histrionic, filled with words like "astounding," "preposterous," "repulsed" and lots of exclamation marks. There is also a bit too much extraneous material about the author's family details about his adoptive daughter's penchant for running away, for example. Still, Woodson makes his case effectively, and Jefferson buffs will relish this latest installment in the Jefferson-Hemings saga.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Woodson is a sixth-generation descendant of Thomas Woodson, who was the eldest of five children born to Sally Hemings, a slave in the household of Thomas Jefferson. This book is the latest installment in a bitter debate concerning whether the father of those five children was Thomas Jefferson himself. In this heartfelt book, the author clearly delineates those he sees as the heroes and the villains. The chief villains are the "establishment" Jefferson historians, such as Dumas Malone, who for many years declared that Jefferson could never have had an affair with one of his slaves. One of Woodson's "heroes" is Fawn Brodie, whose 1974 book Thomas Jefferson: An Intimate History argued that such a liaison had indeed existed. This book gives not only another exhaustive account of our third President's private life but the subsequent history of the Hemings progeny. Woodson bitterly criticizes the procedures followed in the DNA testing of 1997, which failed to establish conclusively that the Woodsons are descended from Jefferson. (Woodson himself contributed a blood sample to that test.) This book will not end the debates about the Jefferson-Hemings relationship, but it will be an important document in future discussions. Recommended for all academic and large public libraries. T.J. Schaeper, St. Bonaventure Univ., NY
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 312 pages
• Publisher: Praeger Trade; 1St Edition edition (February 28, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0275971740
• ISBN-13: 978-0275971748
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,128,581 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars The Only Problem Is It's Not True, June 10, 2002

By 

Queen Cobra, Goddess of Truth and Justice (Altamont Springs, Florida United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A President in the Family: Thomas Jefferson, Sally Hemings, and Thomas Woodson (Hardcover)

The existence of 'Black Tom' is highly questionable, though Woodson is quite right about the erasure in Jefferson's records, I've seen it too in a holograph edition of his Farm Book.
Unfortunately for Mr. Woodson's thesis 'Tom's' name should certainly have appeared more than once. His 'mother' and 'brothers and sister' are listed not only on Jefferson's Slave Census but in distributions of rations and clothing as well. 'Black Tom' supposedly lived at Monticello till 1802, his name most certainly should have appeared in those records just as the rest of the Hemmings family's names did.
However the even if the existence of 'Black Tom' were proven it would do the Woodsons no good. The famous DNA tests that proved the Eston Jeffersons are indeed descended from *A* Jefferson male, (possibly Thomas but his brother or nephew is equally probable) also proved that though Thomas Woodson was undoubtedly sired by a white man that man was *not* a Jefferson.
The Woodson family has chosen to ignore this incontrovertable scientific evidence and cling to their family myth. Frankly I find it pitiable that this extraordinarily accomplished and successful family should be so fixated on a fictitious illegitimate descent from a Founding Father. The achievements of generations of Woodsons, against unbelievable odds, is in itself a heritage to be proud of, they don't need Jefferson's blood to validate their role in American history.

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disapointing scholarship but interesting story, January 6, 2002

By 

goetzl (Princeton, NJ United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A President in the Family: Thomas Jefferson, Sally Hemings, and Thomas Woodson (Hardcover)

As a "roots" like story of a family's rise from slavery to the present day, this book is a pleasant read. However, for elucidating any ties to Thomas Jefferson, it is a tremendous disappointment. Having been greatly impressed by the poise, strength of character, and intelligence of Robert Cooley, the father one of the authors, I always hoped that his boast of being decended from Thomas Jefferson was true. However, the historic record left me in doubt. I bought "A President in the Family" with hopes that reading the Woodson family story would dispel some of that doubt, providing substance to the strong oral history. Sadly, I have been left hanging.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Move this one to the FICTION section, September 21, 2005

By 

R. Turner "Schoolteacher" (Charlottesville, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A President in the Family: Thomas Jefferson, Sally Hemings, and Thomas Woodson (Hardcover)

This is a well-written and fascinating story that has been passionately believed by generations of descendants of Thomas Woodson (allegedly the "Black Tom" who was the central piece of "evidence" in scandalmolnger James Thomson Callender's 1802 charge that Thomas Jefferson had a sexual relationship with Sally Hemings). But SIX different DNA tests of male-line descendants of three of Thomas Woodson's sons have proven beyond any serious doubt that the story is fiction. Serious scholars are still divided over whether Sally Hemings was more than one of his house slaves to Thomas Jefferson. A year-long study by more than a dozen senior scholars released in 2001 concluded the story was probably false with but a single mild dissent, but some scholars continue to embrace the story. But no serious scholar still contends that Thomas Woodson was the son of Thomas Jefferson. (It is not known whether he was the child of Sally Hemings.) When pressed to reconcile his claim with the DNA scientific proof that has repeatedly shown it to be false, Byron Woodson noted that there is no known sample of Thomas Jefferson's DNA (the 1998 tests used DNA from descendants of his cousins -- which should have carried the same y chromosome as the president) and reasoned that perhaps Jefferson was illegitimate. Woodson seems like a nice fellow, and it is understandable why he might hold on to his belief despite such powerful scientific proof that it is untrue. But the issue has been clearly resolved by reliable scientific testing, and this volume should now be moved to the FICTION section -- where many readers may well find it a most interesting read.