On Thursday, April 12 at 6:00p.m., Catherine Kerrison, Ph.D., will visit Speakers’ Corner of Falvey Memorial Library. Kerrison recently published Jefferson’s Daughters: Three Sisters, White and Black, in a Young America.  In the collection here at Falvey, with additional copies available through Interlibrary Loan, Jefferson’s Daughters has been called “dogged and thoroughly detailed detective work,” and Kerrison’s writing considered “richly textured,” “recapturing the patterns of Southern women’s lives.”

If you aren’t familiar with Kerrison’s work, you can read these three selections in advance to prepare yourself for the event:

1. “The French Education of Martha Jefferson Randolph”

I did not know how curious I could be about the education of a founding father’s daughter until I read this article. You’ll learn about Martha (“Patsy’s”) lavish education at an Enlightenment-inspired girls’ school among a cloister of nuns. Kerrison weaves an approachable style and a truly intriguing topic in this essay to transport you back to immediately pre-Revolutionary France.

2. “Toward an Intellectual History of Early Southern Women”

Roughly a hundred years of US history separates vignettes of oppression and stories of highly educated, independent women in this essay by Kerrison. In fact, fortune often favored northerners at the beginning of this time period as well. Over the course of this essay you’ll discover how Southern women changed this northern, masculine-centric paradigm of learning in early American history.

3. “Sally Hemings,” Chapter in A Companion to Thomas Jefferson

Are you familiar with the story of Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson’s intimate relationship? Well, Kerrison retells the tale in a new light. She recounts this history from the point of view of Hemings rather than from the perspective of Jefferson and his reputation.

Article by William Repetto, a graduate assistant in the Communication and Marketing Dept. at the Falvey Memorial Library. He is currently pursuing an MA in English at Villanova University.