Herb--

In answer to your question:  no, I do not use anything by Annette Gordon-Reed in my courses on Virginia History.  In a course that surveys Virginia History over 400 years, I don't view the Sally Hemings affair (in either sense of the word) as sufficiently important to merit class attention.

I have my students read Waldstreicher's edition of Jefferson's Notes on the State of Virginia, in the excellent Bedford/St Martin's "brief history with documents" series, and I usually also assign the Jan Lewis essay on Jefferson's relations with his daughters, which Warren Hofstra and I reprinted in our edited collection Virginia Reconsidered.

Annette Gordon-Reed's books are simply too large and focused to warrant the class time to read and discuss them, given the themes of the course as I currently teach it.  They are also too expensive, given their (relatively speaking) narrow focus.  

When I have my students read biographical material on the Virginia Founders, I usually prefer one of the excellent Washington biographies, rather than something on Jefferson.  Last time I taught the class, I used the excellent Longmore biography on the early years of Washington's life.  I also really like the Tilden and Rasmussen biography published by the VHS.

When I teach miscegenation in Virginia for the period, I use the super essay by Peter Wood, which is both considerably broader in its coverage than anything that focuses exclusively on TJ and SH, and considerably shorter in length than most of the books about the issue.

I hope that clarifies things.

All best,
Kevin
Kevin R. Hardwick, Ph.D.
Department of History
James Madison University

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