This was a lot of information in one book, and as the authors said, they even had to condense some of it. I'm thinking I may need to go to Monticello to truly appreciate the book. I'll admit the length was daunting, but I can see that it couldn't be much shorter to get the real feel of what it was like in the post colonial/ pre civil war days.
Summary in the nutshell: 10 year old (I think) Martha Jefferson is tasked by her dying mother to take care of her father. So she takes it to heart and basically does all the things the wife of a diplomat would do (within reason, of course). At first she tries to cope with her father's grief of the passing of his wife, and then she just wants to know that Thomas Jefferson loves her. And then, while in Paris and newly turned 16, she finds that she loves her father's secretary, William Short. But alas, she has to pick between her slave-owning father and the abolitionist love of her life. She goes back to Virginia with her father. The she marries a Randolph who could have been great, but was in desperate need of therapy. Then Thomas Jefferson became President, and Martha became the woman of the White House, or wherever they were at that time. And then she came back home and lived with her plethora of children and father. Small nutshell.
Things I learned:
* Depsite the appearance of southern gentility, they were often in debt with their creditors (future credit card holders?)
* I knew this before, but it was very apparent in the book: Men being able to be utter jerks to wives was extremely permissible and expected at time. GRRRR
* Some slave holders wanted abolition, but it was too strong of a current to free them, including the slave-owning Thomas Jefferson.
* France did NOT believe in slave ownership. (viva la france!)
* lots more, but I don't want to give it all away.
If you have 23+ hours, the narration is fairly good if you want to listen to it on Hoopla. Very heavy Southern Drawl. When did that happen? When did the colonists turn their cool sounding British accents to a drawl? Just wondering.