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A 2022 staff favorite recommended by Mary. Check our catalog: https://encore.cooklib.org/iii/encore/search/C__Sreclamation%20gayle%20white__Orightresult__U?lang=eng&suite=gold
A true story of one woman’s search for the truth of her heritage, spurred on by a relative’s casual remark that they were related to Jefferson. I was interested in both the process of finding relatives and tracing family ties, and the way that research is hampered by the grim reality of slavery. Particularly moving were the sections in which Jessup White learned about how relatives of hers, enslaved by other relatives, were abused or sold, their families broken apart, even when one might have been a favorite of Jefferson (or, indeed, related to him). This is the story of America in microcosm, as the author navigates black and white spaces, mixed ancestry, and our still roiled present-day relationship with race. People like Jessup White are instrumental in telling the fuller version of our history that has been omitted from the textbooks, in which slaves were sold to pay off Jefferson’s debts, where Hemings bargained for her children’s freedom, where a hill of unmarked graves represented the lives lost to unpaid toil by enslaved laborers.
Full disclosure: I know the author.
Full disclosure: I know the author.
challenging
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
Excellent and essential information to understand our country’s past.
Family histories, when structured with passion for the research and eagerness for the truth, are so much fun to read. Reclamation is one of those books. Gayle Jessup White is not trying to make a statement or rewrite history, but tell the story of her own family and her path to prove the truth in a family rumor she overheard as a child.
The story of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemmings is one well-known in historical circles, but the struggle to prove African American ancestry beyond 3 generations remains one of the greatest challenges in genealogy. The author talks quite a bit about this issue in relation to her years of searching for her family line.
I can only imagine what it must be like to have delved so far into historical research that she now has the opportunity and honor to help others with the same research and in the same family. What a great read.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
The story of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemmings is one well-known in historical circles, but the struggle to prove African American ancestry beyond 3 generations remains one of the greatest challenges in genealogy. The author talks quite a bit about this issue in relation to her years of searching for her family line.
I can only imagine what it must be like to have delved so far into historical research that she now has the opportunity and honor to help others with the same research and in the same family. What a great read.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
informative
reflective
medium-paced
informative
reflective
medium-paced
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
Gayle Jessup White grew up as the youngest child of a successful, wealthy, Black family, protected by her parents and siblings from the challenges (and dangers) of racial dynamics in the United States in the mid-twentieth century. Indeed, White admits that she was hardly conscious of her Blackness for much of her childhood and into adolescence, rather living carefree and patriotic in a community that celebrated her talents, her beauty, and her curiosity. When her older sister Jan offhandedly mentioned a family connection to third President of the United States and author of the Declaration of Independence Thomas Jefferson, it set Gayle off on a decades-long journey of ancestral research.
I loved White's descriptions of her childhood, feeling immersed in happy memories while maintaining an awareness of the reality of being Black in America in the 1960s through today. I also appreciated the integration of such a variety of source material: interviews, lists of genealogy, family lore, letters and photographs, DNA test results. That said, I found myself incredibly confused in the last third of the book, listening to the lists of names (which were repeated constantly throughout the generations, and even following along with the PDF accompaniment to the audiobook did not clarify for me the relationships that connected White's family to both Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings. White revealed information to the reader according to the order in which she discovered it herself, and while it was interesting to go on the journey with her, with the collection of data in front of me, it was quite difficult to follow along.
I loved White's descriptions of her childhood, feeling immersed in happy memories while maintaining an awareness of the reality of being Black in America in the 1960s through today. I also appreciated the integration of such a variety of source material: interviews, lists of genealogy, family lore, letters and photographs, DNA test results. That said, I found myself incredibly confused in the last third of the book, listening to the lists of names (which were repeated constantly throughout the generations, and even following along with the PDF accompaniment to the audiobook did not clarify for me the relationships that connected White's family to both Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings. White revealed information to the reader according to the order in which she discovered it herself, and while it was interesting to go on the journey with her, with the collection of data in front of me, it was quite difficult to follow along.
emotional
informative
inspiring
fast-paced