Review: America's First Daughter

For me, America's First Daughter started a little slow, but ended up being well worth reading.

The novel, written by Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie, follows the story of Martha "Patsy" Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson's daughter. It takes us from the Virginia colony to Paris and back to the newly formed United States and eventually the White House.

In the first third or so, I was afraid it was going to get bogged down in romance. I don't mind romance in historical fiction; in fact, sometimes it's required if it's an important part of history or its a story that follows families over generations. However, I want it to part of the plot, not the plot. I want it to be romance in historical fiction, not historical fiction in romance. I was a little afraid starting out that this was going to be the latter, but it rebounded later in the story.

Martha Jefferson Randolph

Martha, known as Patsy, was a constant in her father's life, giving her a window into politics and international relations most women of her time would not have had. After her mother dies when she is a child, Patsy resolves to take care of her father, following him to Paris during his time as a diplomat there and eventually serving as his "First Lady" during his time as president.

This book also takes an interesting tack with regard to the relationship between Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, his slave and mistress. It doesn't gloss over the relationship; indeed, Martha's feelings about it are a central theme of the book. However, since it is from Martha's perspective, it also is presented through the eyes of someone of that era. However, the authors present Martha as in favor of emancipation, so they use that to find ways to work in some of the ethical implications of a master and major proponent of liberty sleeping with his slave. They also manage to work in some discussion of the inequality faced by women in this period, without hitting you over the head with it.

A Philosophic Cock, engraved by James Akin, 1804. 

This political cartoon mocked President Jefferson, 

the strutting rooster, with his concubine 

Sally Hemings (pictured as a hen) – at the same time 

denying her humanity and privacy.

American Antiquarian Society. From Monticello.org

The book also doesn't shy away from Martha's efforts to clean up her father's reputation, either. In fact, the book is laid out for us through Martha's reminiscences as she goes through (and burns) her father's old letters, attempting to sanitize his legacy for the future.

In the end, I think the authors did a good job of capturing the humanity and flaws of the major characters and managed to share a lot of detail I didn't know about, and this is a time period I am very familiar with. In addition, the historical note at the end is well worth reading, as it explains some of the decisions the authors made with regard to how to portray history.

The only thing I might have wished to see more of was Sally herself. We really don't know what is going on in her mind or emotions; we don't know how (outwardly) coercive her relationship with Thomas is, for example. This does make sense in the context in which it is written, though; it is hard to imagine Sally and Martha speaking candidly about these things, and the book is from Martha's perspective.

This might have been a good opportunity for chapters alternating different character perspectives (a plot device I like), which could have been done pretty easily since the chapters are set up as reactions to the letters as Martha reads them. I suppose the flaw in this approach is that any story from Sally's point of view would have to really be conjecture; as least with  Martha we have her public actions to inform any conjecture.

I suppose the trade off for having chapters from Sally's perspective would have been an increase in conjecture and loss of historical accuracy for a more nuanced story. Sadly, often the trade off of historical fiction.

Overall, an interesting look at an interesting woman. A biography of Martha Jefferson Randolph will be going on my list.