Subscribers to this discussion board will be interested in a new book by
historian Joanne L. Yeck. *Peter Field Jefferson: Dark Prince of
Scottsville and Lost Jeffersons* follows the rise and fall of Randolph
Jefferson’s most successful son. Nephew to President Thomas Jefferson, his
life parallels the changing cultural landscape of the James River’s
Horseshoe Bend across seven decades. Jefferson’s success as a self-made man
is tainted with great personal loss, making his story a distinctively
American tragedy. *Lost Jeffersons* is a collection of essays which follows
descendants of Randolph Jefferson and their kinfolk. A microcosm of
Virginia’s gentry, multiple generations of cousin intermarriage resulted in
a concentration of undesirable traits—including alcoholism, idiocy, and
insanity—compromising individuals who might otherwise have led productive
and useful lives.

The book is available now at most Internet bookstores. Signed copies are
for sale at the Library of Virginia's The Virginia Shop.

More information can be found at https://slateriverramblings.com/.

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