JANUARY–MARCH, 2009 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES PAGE 31

Virginia Reviews

Reviews prepared by staff members of the Library of Virginia Sara B. Bearss, Editor

Kevin J. Hayes. The Mind of (1997), Annette Gordon-Reed pre- a Patriot: Patrick Henry and sented the strong case that Thomas the World of Ideas. Charlot- Jefferson had a long-term intimate tesville and London: Uni- relationship with his slave Sally versity of Virginia Press, 2008. ix Hemings. Gordon-Reed’s second + 184 pp. ISBN-13: 978-0-8139- book on the subject, The Hemingses 2758-9. $22.95 (­hardcover). of Monticello: An American Family, This small, moderately priced is a detailed effort to take a much volume is the most original and If descriptions of Sally closer look at that relationship most important contribution to and the intertwined lives of those understanding Patrick Henry to be Hemings are accurate, around it. This volume received published in many years. Kevin J. the 2008 National Book Award for Hayes, who is the most able stu- she looked much like her Nonfiction. dent of Virginia’s colonial literary elder half-­sister Martha. The Hemingses starts not with culture, closely examined all of Sally Hemings but with Elizabeth the evidence that is available on GORDON-REED REVIEW Hemings, daughter of a white ship’s the sadly neglected topic of Patrick captain and an African mother. Henry’s reading habits. For too A slave of the Virginia planter long, Henry has been perceived as John Wayles, Elizabeth Hemings Thomas Jefferson portrayed him, Patrick Henry knew his Brit- bore him several children, includ- as an intuitive, poorly educated ish and ancient history, his Bible, ing Sally Hemings. Sally became genius without deep knowledge his Shakespeare, and his geogra- the property of Thomas Jefferson of history and literature or even phy. He also knew his law, and he shortly after his marriage to Mar- of the law, his chosen profession. read and wrote poetry. The Patrick tha Wayles Skelton, John Wayles’s The author of The Mind of a Patriot Henry that Kevin Hayes introduces widowed daughter. If descriptions dispels that myth through a close to readers of The Mind of a Patriot of Sally Hemings are accurate, she analysis of Henry’s reading habits. is a well-rounded professional and looked much like her elder half- A very valuable portion of the family man of unusual oratorical ­sister Martha. Gordon-Reed care- book is an appendix of nearly forty talents who was also a reader and fully constructs a description of pages that lists the titles of all of student, a man whose mind was as what a young Sally Hemings’s life the books that Henry is known impressive as his natural abilities. at Monticello may have been like. to have owned or read. From that — reviewed by Brent Tarter, editor, Even before Sally Hemings and basic information and a reexami- Dictionary of Virginia Biography nation of Henry’s life and career, the author demonstrates that Sara B. Bearss is senior editor of the Henry was much better-read than Annette Gordon-Reed. The Dictionary of Virginia Biography, pub- any of his previous biographers had Hemingses of Monticello: An lished by the Library of Virginia. She has understood and that Henry’s read- American Family. New York: greatly enjoyed her time in the review ing, a form of self-education, sup- W. W. Norton & Company, editor’s chair and would like to thank ported his great natural abilities to 2008. 798 pp. ISBN-13: 978-0-393- her colleagues for their cogent reviews make him one of the preeminent 06477-3. $35.00 (hardcover). and the readers of Virginia Libraries for men of Revolutionary Virginia and In Thomas Jefferson and Sally their thoughtful comments and sugges- of the American Revolution. Hemings: An American Controversy tions over the years. PAGE 32 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES JANUARY–MARCH, 2009

Thomas Jefferson became inti- able print-on-demand from Xlibris involved in the creation of North- mate, the Hemingses received Corporation at http://www.xlibris. western Hospital, which evolved special privileges both at Wayles’s com. into The Hospital for the Insane in plantation and at Monticello. Rob- Dr. Francis T. Stribling served as the new state of West Virginia, and ert and James Hemings were given superintendent of Virginia’s West- in establishing the first hospital in better training in a trade and were ern Lunatic Asylum (after 1894, Virginia for the mentally ill within later essentially freed by Jefferson. Western State Hospital) before, dur- the state’s African-American popu- James traveled to Paris with Jeffer- ing, and after the Civil War. Alice lation. son when the latter became minis- Davis Wood wrote a brief biogra- The letters featured in this pub- ter to France. It was while Jefferson phy in 2004. While researching Dr. lication cover a variety of subjects, was in France that Sally arrived as Francis T. Stribling and Moral Medi- including Dix’s visits with the Stri- the companion and caretaker of cine, Wood transcribed correspon- bling family, the Superintendent’s Jefferson’s younger daughter Polly. dence between Stribling and Doro- Association (an association of the While in Paris, Jefferson and Hem- thea Dix, the nineteenth-century American Psychiatric Society), con- ings began the relationship that crusader for America’s mentally troversial policy decisions made by lasted for the rest of his life. On ill, that is housed in the records the Superintendent’s Association, their return to Monticello Sally of Western State Hospital in the and Dix’s work to build new hospi- and the other Hemingses benefited archives collection at the Library tals for the mentally ill. Wood also from this relationship. Her children of Virginia and at the Houghton prints Civil War correspondence by Jefferson and her other relatives Library, Harvard University. This between Dix and Frank Stribling, often received special privileges, compilation of twenty-five tran- Francis Stribling’s son, who was and the slaves freed in Jefferson’s scribed letters between the two a Union prisoner of war at Point will were all Hemingses. reformers is a continuation of the Lookout in Maryland. In 1858 Dix Gordon-Reed draws on private author’s study of Stribling’s life. visited several hot springs while and public records to illustrate as An Intense Friendship begins with traveling from Staunton, Virginia, well as possible what life for Sally brief biographical sketches of Dix to Nashville, Tennessee, and let- and the other Hemingses was like. and Stribling. Wood writes about ters written to her friends during Gordon-Reed’s work is based on Dix’s childhood and the strained this time have been transcribed as conjecture, and she admits that relationship with her family, high- well. there is no way of knowing exactly lights Dix’s brief teaching career, An Intense Friendship provides what occurred either in Paris or at and focuses on the event that readers with access to letters writ- Monticello, but her suppositions spurred Dix into fighting for better ten by Dix and Stribling that are are based on the records available treatment of the insane throughout not otherwise readily available to and drawn from them, as opposed the United States, her experience researchers or readers. This compi- to the suppositions being made teaching Sunday school for the lation fills a niche for researchers of and the records contorted to fit female inmates at East Cambridge Virginia history, American history, them. Meticulously researched and Jailhouse. Through the aid and and American medical history. well-presented, The Hemingses of assistance of respected physicians — reviewed by Cassandra Britt Monticello is a fine addition to any she worked with state legislators to Farrell, map specialist and senior serious Jefferson scholar’s library, change treatments administered research archivist whether that scholar concurs with and where patients were housed. It Gordon-Reed’s conclusions or not. was through her attempts to focus — reviewed by Trenton E. Hizer, the nation’s attention on the plight Michael Dennis. The New senior finding aids archivist of the mentally ill that she met Dr. Economy and the Modern Francis T. Stribling. South. Working in the Wood devotes a chapter to Strib- Americas Series. Richard Alice Davis Wood. Doro- ling’s career, and more information Greenwald and Timothy J. Michin, thea Dix and Dr. Francis T. about him and his work can be series eds. Gainesville, Tallahas- Stribling: An Intense Friend- found in Dr. Francis T. Stribling and see, and Tampa: University Press of ship: Letters, 1849–1874. Moral Medicine. Stribling’s contribu- Florida, 2009. xii + 346 pp. ISBN- Waynesboro, Va.: Galileo Gian- tion to the treatment of the insane 13: 978-0-8130-3291-7. $75.00 niny Publishing, 2008. 155 pp. in antebellum Virginia cannot be (hardcover). ISBN-13: 978-1-4257-9791-1. $29.99 overstated. In addition to improv- Forty-five years ago, the histo- (hardcover). ISBN-13: 978-1-4257- ing the treatment of the mentally rian George B. Tindall published 9784-3. $19.99 (softcover). Avail- impaired at Western State, he was an influential scholarly essay JANUARY–MARCH, 2009 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES PAGE 33

entitled “Business Progressivism: their way, the state deprived itself moved away since the nineteenth Southern Politics in the Twenties.” of resources to improve its educa- century. Their cultural center is Its thesis was that unlike in much tional and public health services, at Bear Mountain, in Amherst of the rest of the United States, meet its transportation needs, and County, where members of the Progressivism in the South was improve the standard of living of nation annually gather and where intended to promote business and its working population. the author, who is a member of the industrial development, not social This is a stern assessment of the nation although resident in South reform. One of its prime exemplars kind to which business progressiv- Carolina, interviewed about two was Harry Flood Byrd, governor ism in Virginia has not often been dozen elders, leaders, and young of Virginia from 1926 to 1930. subjected since its introduction in people in the 1990s. From those The one-party politics, low taxes, the 1920s. As such, even at its high interviews, she compiled their life minimal regulation of business, price tag of $75, The New Economy histories, preserving details about and anti-organized-labor policies and the Modern South may make and insights into Monacan rural that dominated Virginia’s public an important and valuable contri- life in the twentieth century. policy for decades after Byrd’s rise Under Virginia’s 1924 Act to to power continued in modified Preserve Racial Integrity, which form into the final years of the cen- defined all people in the state as tury. This new study, in spite of its These personal accounts either “white” or “colored,” the regional title, is largely about late of Monacan life … Monacan were officially classified twentieth-century Virginia, and as “colored” and subjected to all it subjects the modern version of reveal how deeply, of the racial discrimination laws business progressivism to a search- of the Jim Crow period, includ- ing critique. although quietly, ing being excluded from public Virginia became a two-party they resented the schools. An Episcopal Church mis- state during the 1990s, but majori- sion furnished elementary educa- ties of both parties bought into the discrimination…. tion for Monacan children and also free market, limited government, provided a center of community low-tax ethos that became popu- WHITLOCK REVIEW life. Even after the laws requiring lar throughout the United States racial segregation were invalidated during the 1980s. Public policies or repealed, Monacan children of governors of both parties and bution to any future discussions still faced racial discrimination. of majorities in both houses of the about the propriety of continuing The county school system refused General Assembly favored business or modifying the public policies of for several years to allow them to interests and even to some extent Virginia and the other Southern attend school, and later some bus muted the voices of liberal reform states. drivers refused to stop and pick and social conservatism. They also, — reviewed by Brent Tarter, editor, them up. White students, reflect- if Michael Dennis is correct, failed Dictionary of Virginia Biography ing racial attitudes of the time, to calculate the fiscal and social sometimes shunned Monacan stu- benefits and costs. He found that dents. the consequences of the state’s Rosemary Clark Whitlock. These personal accounts of commitment to the free market The Monacan Indian Nation Monacan life in the twentieth political economy produced a of Virginia: The Drums of century exhibit the close-knit fam- statewide loss of jobs and a replace- Life. Contemporary Ameri- ily life and sense of community ment of lost jobs with poorly pay- can Indian Studies. J. Anthony that the Monacan shared with ing jobs, a widening of the income Parades, series ed. Tuscaloosa: Uni- one another. They also reveal how gap between rich and poor, and versity of Alabama Press, 2008. xix deeply, although quietly, they alienation and hardship among + 221 pp. ISBN-13: 978-0-8173- resented the discrimination, partic- the working poor. If, as often 1615-0. $45.00 (hardcover). ISBN- ularly the overbearing and insensi- happened, corporations failed to 13: 978-0-8173-5488-6. $24.95 tive falsification of their birth and meet commitments entered into (softcover). marriage records by Walter Ashby after receiving large incentives to Historically, the Monacan Plecker, the longtime director of relocate to Virginia, the state lost Indians resided between the Blue the state’s bureau of vital statistics money, jobs, and revenue. And by Ridge Mountains and the fall line whose ethnic cleansing of pub- spending to attract businesses that in Virginia, although many mem- lic records denied legal recogni- did not in the long run always pay bers of the Monacan Nation have tion to all of Virginia’s Indians PAGE 34 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES JANUARY–MARCH, 2009

and imposed severe hardships on In Virginia, coeditor Brian J. Publishing, 2008. 252 pp. ISBN-13: Indian as well as African-American Daugherity focuses on the National 978-1-60037-466-1. $29.95 (hard- residents of Virginia. Association for the Advancement cover). The cumulative effect of this of Colored People. Virginia had the Oral histories provide a unique series of personal narratives is largest state chapter in the coun- perspective for studying and instructive and moving. try, and its leadership and the civil understanding the past as histori- — reviewed by Brent Tarter, editor, rights attorneys in Virginia (Oliver cal events are examined through Dictionary of Virginia Biography W. Hill, Henry Marsh, Spottswood the eyes of those who lived Robinson, and Samuel W. Tucker, through them. In Making the Amer- to single out the best-known) ican Dream Work: A Cultural History Brian J. Daugherity and worked well with W. Lester Banks, of African Americans in Hopewell, Charles C. Bolton, eds. executive director of the Virginia Virginia, Lauranett L. Lee, curator With All Deliberate Speed: NAACP, and Thurgood Marshall, of African-American history at the Implementing Brown v. chief counsel for the national Virginia Historical Society in Rich- Board of Education. Fayetteville: mond, tells the story of Hopewell’s University of Arkansas Press, 2008. black population during the civil xvi + 339 pp. ISBN-13: 978-1-55728- rights era through their own words. 868-4. $64.95 (hardcover). ISBN- More than in any Interviews with the town’s resi- 13: 978-1-55728-869-1. $24.95 other state, the civil dents render fascinating accounts (softcover). of how they challenged legal and The twelve essays in this collec- rights movement in cultural racial obstacles, while Lee tion analyze how African-Amer- contextualizes their local stories icans in ten states and two cities Virginia had litigation within the larger history of the influenced attempts to implement at its heart…. African-American experience in or block implementation of the the United States. two Brown v. Board of Education DAUGHERITY AND BOLTON REVIEW The first, and briefer, section of decisions of the Supreme Court the book includes a short history of the United States. The first, in of slavery’s origins in this coun- 1954, declared that mandatory try, along with a description of racial segregation in public schools NAACP, to guide the effort to deseg- slave life related to such topics as was unconstitutional; the second, regate the state’s public schools in religion, control exercised by slave- in 1955, required that states that the face of determined resistance holders, resistance, plantation mis- had maintained racially segre- from the state’s Democratic Party tresses, gender, and recreation. Also gated public schools desegregate leadership. More than in any other included in this part are detailed them “with all deliberate speed.” state, the civil rights movement in descriptions of eight historic In fact, in most states, and in all of Virginia had litigation at its heart, sites in Hopewell: Kippax Planta- the states of the Old South, white and it had deep and powerful lead- tion, Weston Manor, Appomattox political leaders employed various ership and support at the com- Manor, City Point Historic District, legal and political tactics to resist munity level in many parts of the City Point National Cemetery, enforcement of desegregation, pro- state. Daugherity’s many detailed Beacon Theatre, the Downtown ceeding, as it were, with all delib- citations to original sources and Hopewell Historic District, and the erate delay. the scholarly literature give weight Hopewell Municipal Building. This volume treats the states of to his portrayal of the NAACP strat- The second section of Making Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Geor- egy in Virginia, which is one of the the American Dream Work, which gia, Indiana, Mississippi, Missouri, most impressive reform efforts in makes up most of the book, con- North Carolina, South Carolina, all of the state’s history. sists of transcriptions of ten inter- and Virginia and the cities of Las — reviewed by Brent Tarter, editor, views Lee conducted in the spring Vegas, Nevada, and Milwaukee, Dictionary of Virginia Biography and summer of 2005. The inter- reminding readers that desegrega- viewees include a Prince Edward tion was a national, not merely a County teacher who recalls her regional, problem. These essays Lauranett L. Lee. Making life growing up in Hopewell dur- demonstrate that each state’s offi- the American Dream Work: ing the Jim Crow era; a clergyman cial response was different, and A Cultural History of Afri- who emphasizes how important in each state the role of African- can Americans in Hopewell, grandparents and extended family Americans was also different. Virginia. Hampton, Va.: SPS Press members were to African-Amer- JANUARY–MARCH, 2009 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES PAGE 35

ican households; a minister who struction. Abner Linwood Holton, back by Virginia’s response of Mas- moved to Hopewell after twenty- a native of Big Stone Gap, won the sive Resistance to the Supreme four years in the military and who gubernatorial race and in doing so Court’s ruling in Brown v. Board of discusses racial issues in a context helped firmly reestablish Virginia’s Education. By the 1960s Virginia of international attitudes; a long- two-party system. Opportunity Time Republicans were progressively time volunteer to many service is Holton’s memoir. It is an honest, winning more votes. After his organizations; a recreation teacher forthright, funny, educational, and failed bid for the governor’s office striving to teach subsequent gener- informative discussion of his work in 1965, Holton immediately began ations; and a mother and daughter with Virginia’s Republican Party, his campaign for the 1969 guber- who describe their experiences as a his four-year term as governor, his natorial race. President Richard M. teacher and a student on the front family, and his life. Nixon joined him on the campaign lines of school desegregation. Holton’s passion for Republican trail, and his support, along with Especially interesting are the Party politics developed at a very the coalition of voters the unified recollections of the Reverend Cur- early age. Raised by loving parents, Republican Party put together that tis Harris, who sat on the city coun- Holton graduated from high school year, contributed to Holton’s vic- cil and was Hopewell’s first elected tory. With candid descriptions and African-American mayor, and his blunt opinion mixed with humor, wife, Ruth, who were both active Holton describes his term as Vir- in the civil rights movement. Their He is extremely proud of ginia’s governor. He is extremely son Kenneth Harris comments on the role his family played proud of the role his family played the town’s race relations after he in integrating Virginia’s public returned from military service in in integrating Virginia’s school system while he served in Vietnam. Lee also interviewed two public office. white citizens: a librarian at the public school system…. Many readers will find Holton’s Appomattox Regional Library pro- HOLTON REVIEW descriptions of key Republican vides a rich overview of Hopewell’s leaders such as Presidents Richard local history, while a native South Nixon and Ronald Reagan, Senator Carolinian recalls encounters John Warner, and New York Gov- between civil rights activists and as the United States was becom- ernor Nelson Rockefeller engag- members of the Ku Klux Klan. ing involved in World War II. He ing and enlightening. Of particu- Lee includes an informative attended Washington and Lee Uni- lar interest to many will be his bibliography of important scholar- versity, joined the navy, and was thoughts on the Republican Party’s ship on African-American history accepted into Harvard Law School, “Southern Strategy.” For those who and culture, oral history volumes a feat that the governor admits are not political junkies, beware: related to segregation and the civil with humor was a fortunate event, Holton makes twentieth-century rights movement, and a list of especially because he barely met Virginia politics interesting. Virginia repositories that contain Harvard Law School’s admission — reviewed by Cassandra Britt relevant primary source materials, requirements. After law school Hol- Farrell, map specialist and senior such as the Library of Virginia, the ton moved to Roanoke, where he research archivist Appomattox Regional Library Sys- practiced law and became involved tem, the Virginia Historical Soci- in Virginia’s Republican Party. His ety, and the Virginia Department goal, as that of many other Vir- Roger Mudd. The Place to of Historic Resources. ginia Republicans, was to create a Be: Washington, CBS, and — reviewed by John G. Deal, editor, two-party political system. the Glory Days of Television Dictionary of Virginia Biography Holton succinctly describes key News. New York: Public­ issues supported by progressive Affairs, 2008. xv + 413 pp. ISBN- Republicans such as the repeal of 13: 9781586485764. $27.95 (hard- Linwood Holton. Opportu- the state’s poll tax as a prerequisite cover). nity Time: A Memoir. Char- for voting, strengthening absentee- In the decades before the Inter- lottesville: University of voting laws to prevent voting in net and twenty-four-hour news Virginia Press, 2008. xiii + state elections by former Virginia outlets such as CNN, Americans 226 pp. ISBN-13: 978-0-8139-2720- residents, and lowering the voting got their news from newspapers, 6. $27.95 (hardcover). age to eighteen. As Holton points radio, and the network televi- In 1969 Virginia elected its first out, any strides Republicans made sion stations of CBS, NBC, and Republican governor since Recon- in the 1950s were temporarily set ABC. When television emerged as PAGE 36 VIRGINIA LIBRARIES JANUARY–MARCH, 2009

a dominant medium during the easy-to-digest, conversational style vied to have their stories aired on 1960s, the nightly network news- about why the Washington bureau Cronkite’s news broadcasts. This casts provided what newspapers (rather than New York) was the internal competitiveness, as well and radio could not: motion pic- center of the news universe and as a strong desire to beat out NBC tures to accompany the reporting how CBS covered the era’s major and ABC, made CBS News that and analysis of the day’s events. In stories, including the Cuban Mis- much stronger and instilled in the The Place to Be: Washington, CBS, sile Crisis; the assassinations of organization more than a bit of a and the Glory Days of Television John F. Kennedy, Robert Kennedy, swagger. News, Roger Mudd describes an era and Martin Luther King; the civil Very candid about his own unmatched in today’s media world rights movement; Vietnam; and and others’ successes and failures, in which one network bureau Watergate. Mudd relates many Mudd provides brief background dominated the dissemination sketches of the major and minor of news for almost two decades. players at CBS during these years, While examining CBS News dur- including such notables as Eric ing the 1960s and 1970s, he deftly A bit surprising, his Sevareid, Daniel Schorr, and Dan intertwines his own story as one of observations and Rather. Beyond simple descrip- the network’s most important cor- tions, Mudd characterizes their respondents. opinions sometimes often-prickly personalities. A bit Mudd, who has lived with his surprising, his observations and family in McLean, Virginia, for are negative and even opinions sometimes are negative more than three decades, began a bit gossipy…. and even a bit gossipy, especially his career at the Richmond News concerning their private lives and Leader and later at the newspaper’s MUDD REVIEW internal newsroom politics. radio station WRNL. By 1961 he The Place to Be: Washington, CBS, was at CBS News, where he became and the Glory Days of Television the network’s chief correspondent News is a must-read for those inter- on Capitol Hill and later Walter amazing stories of how correspon- ested in news gathering and broad- Cronkite’s chief substitute in the dents gathered news and presented cast media. In true journalistic nightly news anchor chair. When it on the air. In our age of instant fashion Mudd not only depended management selected Dan Rather worldwide communication, his on his own (no doubt) superb as Cronkite’s permanent replace- reminiscences of the laborious memory but also conducted recent ment in 1980, Mudd resigned, feel- process of news gathering, such as interviews with many of the major ing he had been treated poorly by physically flying film to New York subjects and consulted memoirs by CBS. He took a job at rival NBC, for processing and editing, will no others. This approach, along with where he later anchored the net- doubt astound younger readers. As Mudd’s wit and candor, elevates work’s Nightly News program. only an insider can, Mudd insight- The Place to Be far beyond most While Mudd’s personal story fully illustrates what made CBS so autobiographical and journalistic shapes the narrative, The Place to successful during these years, from works. Be is largely a history of CBS News the on-air and behind-the-scenes — reviewed by John G. Deal, edi- during a golden age in television talent to an atmosphere that was tor, Dictionary of Virginia Biogra- journalism. Through fifty-one at once collegial but also extremely phy VL short chapters Mudd writes in an competitive as correspondents