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history

America’s First Daughter #bookreview #historicalfiction

June 27, 2017 by admin

America’s First Daughter (Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie) is written from the point of view of Martha Jefferson Randolph, the only child of Thomas Jefferson to survive beyond young adulthood. Patsy, as she was called in her family, grew up fast and became her father’s fiercest protector. Through her eyes, we see the human side of Thomas Jefferson: though larger than life to the public, he grieved deeply after the death of his wife. He could be a loving father, but also an indifferent one. He continued public service after the Revolution with a great deal of reluctance, preferring his life as a Virginia farmer, but putting his own needs aside for the greater good.

The book is a novel, but the authors took great pains to research Patsy’s life, and the fictionalization was done with careful thought. For example, in the book Patsy’s first and only true love is William Short, an aide to her father. There is no definitive evidence she carried the torch for Short, but the authors found enough evidence of the possibility to make it an important part of the book.

I struggled to like Patsy, but I understood how her world was vastly different from mine. She disapproved of her father’s relationship with Sally Hemings but helped cover it up (again, possibly fictionalized). Her deepest concern was for her father’s legacy, and that led her at times to some unsavory behavior. I also struggled with the prevailing notion that appearances were important, which led to Jefferson’s substantial overspending to maintain Monticello for endless guests, leaving the family in constant debt.

Yet I found Patsy compelling, and Sally Hemings, who remains mysterious and reserved, emerges as a powerful character. The authors do not attempt to justify Jefferson’s hypocrisy as a champion of freedom who maintained a stable of slaves. What we would see now as rape and child molestation was, at the time, a fairly normal occurrence. One hopes we have made some progress!

It’s exciting to read and understand more about the women of this time period. America’s First Daughter is a great story of what it might have been like to be the daughter of such a famous man, yet to know the hardship and difficulty of being a woman in this time period.

The authors’ notes at the end of the book are compelling and add a great deal to the text. I don’t often pay a lot of attention to these, but in this case it’s worth your while to learn more about fact vs. fiction and their own challenges with Patsy and her father. In the end, I highly recommend this book. It will take you a while to get through, but it’s worth it.

Filed Under: books Tagged With: eighteenth century, historical fiction, history, martha jefferson randolph, thomas jefferson

Lady Liberty #adventures #NYC

November 27, 2015 by admin

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! If you’re just joining me, Friday posts concern our extended NYC visit (five months).

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Headed to Lady Liberty from the ferry.
Headed to Lady Liberty from the ferry.

We’ve been coming to NYC regularly since 2006, but until now have not visited the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, which is part of the Statue of Liberty National Park system. This time around, we weren’t going to miss it!

If you plan to go to NYC and want to see Lady Liberty, make your plans well in advance — especially if you want to go up into the crown (there’s more scheduling flexibility if you just want to go to the pedestal). We ordered our tickets about 60 days ahead of time.

You’ll need to provide photo I.D. and go through two airport-style security lines to get to see her.

As the ferry took us over to Liberty Island, I couldn’t help but think of my great-grandfather, who arrived in 1896 at the ripe old age of 20 and would have seen the Statue of Liberty while she was just a youngster, having herself arrived from France in 1886. What a sight, both for him and for me!

I recommend visiting the museum first, because if you go into the statue as we did, you’ll have to surrender your audioguide and get another one later.

View from the inside.
View from the inside.

You can reach the pedestal via wide, easy stairs, and the views of the city from there are incredible. We went up into the crown, but the path up there is a narrow, spiral staircase (one stair for going up, the other for going down). I had to stop on one of the landings because my claustrophobia kicked in.

Frankly, the crown isn’t that big of a deal. The windows looking out are tiny, and we spent all of about five minutes up there. Plus, if you go up in the summer, it’s stifling hot.

Turns out that product placement and merchandising aren’t recent innovations. Both were used to raise funds to build and transport the statue!IMG_3854

 

As we moved on to Ellis Island, I learned that it served as the main immigration portal for a relatively short time — 1892 to 1954. Most of my ancestors had spent generations in America, so the number of my ancestors who passed through Ellis Island is fairly small.

Also, the building my great-grandfather would have seen upon his arrival burned to the ground in 1897, so my view upon the ferry’s approach is very different from what his would have been.

For a small fee, you can research your family’s arrival to Ellis Island, but this information is also available online for free.

Though I was excited about seeing both the Statue and Ellis Island, I was ill-prepared for how emotional it would be for me. Millions came, many after long and arduous journeys on crowded ships with poor conditions. They came with little or no money, some with no knowledge of English, and they made a life here.

 

Nadine Galinsky Feldman is the author of The Foreign Language of Friends and the upcoming What She Knew, available March 2016. If you enjoy this blog, please consider purchasing a book or signing up for the newsletter to learn about upcoming promotions and giveaways.

Filed Under: fun, travel Tagged With: history, NYC, status of liberty, tourism, travel

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