My Name Is James Madison Hemings
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15
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Average rating4
In an evocative first-person account accompanied by exquisite artwork, Winter and Widener tell the story of James Madison Hemings's childhood at Monticello, and, in doing so, illuminate the many contradictions in Jefferson's life and legacy. Though Jefferson lived in a mansion, Hemings and his siblings lived in a single room. While Jefferson doted on his white grandchildren, he never showed affection to his enslaved children.
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James Madison Hemings, the son of enslaved person Sally Hemings and US president Thomas Jefferson, tells the story of his life in this historical fiction picture book. James Madison Hemings is born into a precarious world, the son of both a slave and the slave's owner, and he walks a fine line between the cruel and difficult life of a slave and that of privilege. Jonah Winter tells the story based primarily on an interview Hemings granted a few years before his death, and many of the details of the story are deeply poignant.
