Four Years Later

 So there was a pandemic, then teaching in a pandemic, then the death of another parent, then writing another book through it all, which brings us to now. The new book!

Sally Hemings: Given Her Time from the Lives of American Women series edited by Carol Berkin for Routledge Press. Alas, Routledge seems uninterested in moving product given their pricing schemes. The series intended for professors to assign to their large surveys or for gift shops to sell to tourists at relevant historic sites will never ever ever reach their destinations because Routledge has priced the book so high that I am embarassed to do any promotion myself.  (Buy from their website, linked above, if you must. It's far less expensive there than from any other site.)

For highlights listen to this interview that I did with Gerald Horne for his "Freedom Now" progam on KPFT that aired September 7, 2024, at 11 am Pacific Time.:  https://archive.kpfk.org/mp3/kpfk_240907_110000freedomnow.mp3 

 If you like what you hear and want to know more, send me an e-mail. I'll send you a present.

In any case, I wrote it for my mom, because she told me to write it when I was offered the opportunity and because she always loved Sally Hemings. She, too, was a mother, and her mother, and her mother's mother, form the spine of this story. 

I also wrote this for my students who wanted to know more about her, and I will give my book to my students for free. Mom won't get to read this book, but they will.

 For the longest time, I was a bit embarassed to be ding it because the topic never felt like it was mine in the way the Frederick Douglass and women did. I felt like I was a usurper, treading on someone else's territory. Then, I felt ever more self-conscious as a White woman daring to imagine a Black woman's experience. Now, I feel that I did bring a perspective (and, I hope, respect) to her life. She saw the limits of the nation at its birth, and she is worth knowing.