Gordon-Reed, Annette

"'It is staggering that there is no date commemorating the end of slavery in the United States.'--Annette Gordon-Reed. The essential, sweeping story of Juneteenth's integral importance to American history, as told by a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and Texas native. Interweaving American history, dramatic family chronicle, and searing episodes of memoir, Annette Gordon-Reed, the descendant of enslaved people brought to Texas in the 1850s, recounts the origins of Juneteenth and explores the legacies of the holiday that remain with us. From the earliest presence of black people in Texas--in the 1500s, well before enslaved Africans arrived in Jamestown--to the day in Galveston on June 19, 1865, when General Gordon Granger announced the end of slavery, Gordon-Reed's insightful and inspiring essays present the saga of a 'frontier' peopled by Native Americans, Anglos, Tejanos, and Blacks that became a slaveholder's republic. Reworking the 'Alamo' framework, Gordon-Reed shows that the slave--and race--based economy not only defined this fractious era of Texas independence, but precipitated the Mexican-American War and the resulting Civil War. A commemoration of Juneteenth and the fraught legacies of slavery that still persist, On Juneteenth is stark reminder that the fight for equality is ongoing"--Provided by the publisher.

Looks at the perceived character of the third president of the United States, Thomas Jefferson, discussing his intellectual influences, his ambition that propelled him into public life, the contradictions surrounding him and more.

A portrait of America's seventeenth president describes Andrew Johnson's failed efforts to bring about reconciliation following the Civil War, the antagonism of congressional leaders who sought his impeachment, and his legacy for the present.

Presents first-hand accounts, memoirs, letters, and recent DNA evidence that points to Thomas Jefferson's thirty-eight-year affair with his slave Sally Hemings, and refutes claims to the contrary.

Discusses the story of the Hemingses, an American slave family that had blood ties to Thomas Jefferson, who had an intimate relationship with Sally Hemings, his slave, and covers how the family of Elizabeth Hemings and John Wayles came under ownership to Jefferson through his marriage to Martha Wayles.