The President's Daughter (73 page)

Jefferson's presence in the novel is counterbalanced by that of Abraham Lincoln. Righting Jefferson's wrongs, Lincoln frees the slaves with the Emancipation Proclamation and redefines the nation. The connection between Jefferson and Lincoln is clearly depicted in the aftermath of the Battle of Gettysburg. After Harriet, a nurse, witnesses one of the bloodiest battles of the Civil War, she cannot help but make connections between her father's prose in the Declaration of Independence and Lincoln's rhetoric in the Gettysburg Address. Because her life has been shaped not only by her father's inaction regarding slavery and racial equality but also Lincoln's action that legally redefined her life as a free woman, Harriet understands the ways in which a president's decision can affect every aspect of a citizen's existence.

Chase-Riboud strategically interweaves the conflicting voices of great men who wrestled with the particularly American issues of race, slavery, equality, and national identity with the voices of those who were on the margins of history yet were central to America's racial anxieties. In
The President's Daughter,
she uses multiple points of view to complicate the novel's themes. Characters such as Harriet's mother, her uncle James Hemings, her father's former lover Maria Cosway, her cousin Thenia Hemings, and her brothers Thomas Hemings, Madison Hemings, and Eston Hemings have been silenced by history. By giving voice to these historical characters whose presence may have influenced the real Harriet Hemings's life, Chase-Riboud positions the novel within a context that makes Harriet's reconstructed history all the more compelling. Their voices work with and against Harriet's version of her experiences, thus imparting a deeper understanding of what is at stake in her complicated yet historically marginalized story. Another set of characters from Harriet's imagined life, such as her longtime friend and lover Charlotte Newell, her husbands Thance and Thor Wellington, and her granddaughter Roxanne Wellington, enrich the novel by fleshing out Harriet's hidden double life in a way that raises the stakes of the lie that defines it.

Perhaps the most important historical character here, aside from Thomas Jefferson, is Adrian Petit. As Jefferson's former valet, he knows how the historical
and cultural context of Revolutionary France gave rise to Harriet's parents' liaison. As a close friend to James Hemings, he understands the depths of the tension between him and his sister Sally. As Harriet's guardian, Petit tells her stories of her parents' life in Paris and of the early years at Monticello she had not been privy to as Jefferson's slave. By filling in the empty spaces in her biography, Petit helps Harriet to define her new life as a free white woman. Chase-Riboud uses Petit's point of view to build a bridge between
Sally Hemings
and
The Presidents Daughter.
By including passages from the former novel in the latter, she underscores their intertextual relationship. In order to understand herself, Harriet Hemings must come to terms with her parents' controversial relationship, her mother's conflicted relationship with her brother James, as well as her father's long-term relationship with Maria Cosway. In all of these ways, Petit's help is invaluable.

The novel chronicles Harriet Hemings's shift from an enslaved black perspective to a free white one. It soon becomes clear that her journey will be more complicated than just leaving Monticello and crossing the Mason-Dixon Line to freedom. While erasing her personal history of enslavement, her family's traditions, and her ties to her Virginian roots is painful, it is nearly impossible for Harriet to assume and maintain the social position of a free white woman. Playing this role entails a high degree of conscious duplicity, which results in guilt and loneliness that can only be mediated by her social success. Harriet defines her private life against Jefferson's public one. She becomes an abolitionist who volunteers to support travelers on the Underground Railroad. She uses her position as a rich white woman to combat slavery.

The President's Daughter
enters into a rich dialogue with other texts in the passing genre such as Charles Chestnutt's
The House Behind the Cedars
(1900), James Weldon Johnson's
The Autobiography of An Ex-Colored Man
(1912), and Nella Larsen's
Passing
(1929). Like male protagonists that pass, Harriet is able to transgress class lines, moving from poor and enslaved to rich and upper class when she becomes an important member of Philadelphia's high society. But unlike most other female characters that pass, Harriet Hemings does not die a tragic death.

This novel's title echoes that of the first African American novel,
Clotel; or, The President's Daughter
(1853) by William Wells Brown. In it, Brown tells his version of the story of Jefferson's slave daughter, using the figure of the illegitimate, highly beautiful, tragic mulatto to critique American slavery and her hypocritical founding father. Until the election of President Barack Obama in 2008 and the arrival of his African American family (which includes two legitimate African American daughters) to the White House, the figure of a president's
daughter who was black was considered the embodiment of America's racial tragedy.

The President's Daughter
resonates with social, historical, and cultural issues that continue to challenge Americans even into the twenty-first century. It engages African American literary history in a way that complicates our assumptions about the central genres in the black literary tradition: the passing narrative and the autobiography. Not just a sequel to
Sally Hemings, The President's Daughter
is a multivoiced, fictive critique that interrogates Jefferson's legacy as both the father of Sally's children and a founding father, thus revealing it to be as bankrupt as he was throughout his life.

1. As the novel begins, we meet Harriet Hemings in the process of saying goodbye to her brothers Eston and Madison and her infamous parents, Sally Hemings and Thomas Jefferson. Each has his or her own unique response to her departure. Why?

2. Why does Harriet seem to be angry with her parents? What do her final interactions with them reveal about her feelings toward leaving her family and Monticello?

3. In his letter to Mr. Francis C. Gray, Thomas Jefferson defines the moment when black becomes white. What is the significance of the content of Jefferson's letter, particularly the equation, to Harriet Hemings's life?

4. What is the crime of miscegenation? Why does Jefferson want to (or need to) be absolved from it? Do you think it is a crime? Why or why not?

5. As a Frenchman who has worked closely with the Jefferson-Hemings family for decades, Adrian Petit has an interesting perspective on Harriet's complicated family history. What does she learn about the family's time in Paris? Does it change the way she thinks about her parents or herself?

6. Harriet's life as a free white woman begins in Philadelphia. Why is that city significant to her personal and familial history? How does it connect to America's national history?

7. Living in the north as a free white woman, Harriet has many experiences regarding race that are different from yet somewhat similar to her experiences as a slave girl in the south. What does she think about racism in Philadelphia, the City of Brotherly Love?

8. Does Harriet feel free in the north? Why or why not?

9. Throughout the novel, Harriet and other African American characters will use the phrase “white people.” What does this phrase mean to them? How do you feel about their use of this phrase?

10.
As a beautiful slave girl who looks white, Harriet understands the perils of her position. Why does Sally Hemings give her daughter a stiletto knife? How is Harriet treated differently as a free white woman in Philadelphia and during her travels to Europe?

11. When she passes for white, Harriet must give up every connection to her past. How does Harriet feel about passing? Does she think it is worth the risk, the loss, and the lies? Why? How do you feel about passing?

12. Harriet's friendship with Charlotte transcends the bounds of heterosexuality. What do you think about Harriet's bisexuality? Is this another way for her to be duplicitous? How did James's and Petit's implied homosexuality/bisexuality influence the ways in which Harriet defines this aspect of her secret life? What do you think about this theme in the novel?

13. Playing the piano is one of the few hobbies that transfers smoothly from Harriet's slave life to her free one. What significance does it have for her once she is free?

14. Once Thance Wellington teaches Harriet about fingerprints and identity, she seems to be obsessed with them. Why does she focus on them? What does it mean when she loses her own fingertips in an accident?

15. While she is in Paris, Harriet hears the voices of her guardian, her parents, and her uncle James. What do you think of Chase-Riboud's use of passages from
Sally Hemings
to capture the essence of the relationship between Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings?

16. Even though she never met him, Harriet's uncle James has a powerful influence on her life. Why? What does she learn from Petit about his life? What connections does she make between her life and her uncle's experiences as someone who struggled against slavery?

17. Why does Harriet visit Maria Cosway in Lodi? What did she hope to learn? What did she actually learn? Why is Cosway's story so important to Harriet's understanding of herself and her father?

18. Unlike many characters that pass for white, Harriet returns home to visit her family. What does Harriet learn about herself, her family, and slavery when she returns to Monticello?

19.
Why does Harriet choose to save Thenia at the slave auction? Do you think she makes the right choice? Why or why not?

20. How does Harriet react to her father's death? Does the deathbed scene surprise you? Do you think she is right to treat him this way?

21. Each chapter begins with an epigraph from Thomas Jefferson's works. What is the significance of Chase-Riboud using these quotations to frame the story of his illegitimate daughter's life?

22. Many characters who cross the color line end up transgressing other culturally constructed boundaries related to class and sexuality. Which boundaries does Harriet cross and recross? Why? What is Chase-Riboud saying about identity and society in this novel?

23. As a staunch abolitionist, Harriet finds a way to fight slavery on her own terms. What do you think about her contributions to the abolitionist movement? How do you feel about the risks she takes helping escaped slaves on the Underground Railroad? What do you think about the famous men and women she meets in the movement? Does her participation in the abolitionist movement affect your opinion of her as a black character that passes for white?

24. How does Harriet learn about her mother's death? How does she react? Are you surprised by her response? What does her response reveal to you about the passing dynamic?

25. Harriet marries Thance and then Thor Wellington. Why does she choose to marry both of them? What does that say about her duplicitous nature?

26. It is clear that Wellington Pharmaceuticals profits greatly from Thor's research experiments. What does Harriet think about her rich, white family's connections to South Africa? Do you think it is ironic that Harriet, a black woman who passes for white, benefits from their work there?

27. Harriet names her children after several members of the Jefferson-Hemings family at Monticello. Why do you think she does this, especially since she is supposed to be erasing her slave past? Why do you think her brothers choose to do the same thing? What does that say about the influence of Monticello on their psyches?

28.
What is the significance of Harriet's reading
Clotel; or The President's Daughter}
What do you think is the significance of the figure of the president's daughter? How is Harriet's life similar to or different from that of her fictional counterpart, Clotel?

29. How does the Civil War affect Harriet's family? What do you think about her involvement as a nurse? How do you feel about her sons' deaths and her husband's involvement?

30. Throughout
The President's Daughter,
Barbara Chase-Riboud interweaves passages from important documents by historical figures. How does Harriet react to these texts? What did you learn about slavery, abolitionism, and the Civil War through reading these passages?

31. How does the Civil War affect both the black and white sides of the Jefferson-Hemings family? What kind of commentary is Chase-Riboud making about the relationship between Jefferson's children and the nation?

32. After Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation, Harriet considers herself to be “Jefferson's bastard and Lincoln's child.” What does she mean by this? Do you think she is right?

33. The Civil War is a crucial yet difficult moment in Harriet Wellington's life. Why does she feel so much conflict during the war, especially during and after the Battle of Gettysburg?

34. Why does every character that learns of Harriet's secret die? What does that say about the nature of her social transgressions?

35. Toward the end of the novel, we hear from Harriet's brothers, Madison and Eston. How are their lives similar to or different from their sister's life? Have they forgiven her for passing? Do you think they should?

36. Harriet thinks the story of her passing has been revealed by a contemporary equivalent to James T. Callendar, the journalist who broke the story of her parents' affair. Does Harriet overreact when Madison outs himself to the American public as Jefferson's illegitimate child with Sally Hemings, thus revealing her own story?

37.
On her 75th birthday, Harriet's black niece, Sarah, visits her at her home in Philadelphia. Why does Harriet treat her the way she does? Do you think she is right or wrong?