Virgina Reviews

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.

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