The alleged affair between Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, and his slave Sally Hemings was proven as a fact by DNA analysis in 1998. While many historians continue to deny the affair, some have accepted the love affair between Jefferson and Hemings as fact, and many historical omissions regarding the affair have been revised since the 1998 DNA results. However, the identity and the dignity of the Hemings family, which were previously ignored in the official history, have been restored not only by science but also by literature. This book examines how African American writers have depicted the issues of race, gender, and identity for Sally Hemings and her descendants in modern and postmodern novels.


The Author: Yoriko Ishida is Associate Professor of English at Oshima National College of Maritime Technology in Japan. She completed her doctoral work at the Graduate School of Humanities and Sciences of Nara Women’s University. Ishida was granted a research fellowship from the Institute of National Colleges of Technology, Japan, for her work at Hiroshima Jogakuin University where she received her Ph.D. She translated Barbara Chase-Riboud’s Sally Hemings into Japanese and has also published several books written in Japanese on history, literature, and gender studies. Her current research focuses on gender formation in the shipping world and maritime history.