Uploaded May 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
The Pulitzer Prize–winning historian examines Thomas Jefferson’s complicated and often contradictory views on race and slavery. For event details and more, visit nypl.org/events/programs/2026/05/26/annette-gordon-reed
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No Founding Father was more personally or controversially tied to race and slavery than Thomas Jefferson. In the new book Jefferson on Race, preeminent American historian Annette Gordon-Reed collects the founding father’s most revealing writings on African Americans, slavery, and Indigenous peoples, drawing from public and private papers, letters, and plantation records—as well as accounts by contemporaries, including those he enslaved. At a moment when the Library marks 250 years of the United States, these documents offer a direct view into Jefferson’s thinking, tracing how he reconciled his stated opposition to slavery with his lifelong participation in it.
Gordon-Reed discusses with Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Brent Staples how Jefferson’s legacy continues to shape our understanding of American history.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Annette Gordon-Reed is a New York Times–bestselling historian and the Carl M. Loeb University Professor at Harvard University. Her books include The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family, which won the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award, Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy, and (with Peter S. Onuf) Most Blessed of the Patriarchs: Thomas Jefferson and the Empire of the Imagination.
Brent Staples was awarded the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for writing about the legacies of slavery with "extraordinary moral clarity." He holds a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Chicago and is author of the memoir Parallel Time, which was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award. His essays are included in college readers throughout the English-speaking world. His credo: "History is the only education; everything else is just training."
The New York Public Library welcomes your comments and invites you to participate in conversations on NYPL social media platforms.
To make the experience better for all of our social media followers, we ask that you keep your comments relevant to the original post. Off-topic comments may be removed to ensure that the conversation remains productive.
The Pulitzer Prize–winning historian examines Thomas Jefferson’s complicated and often contradictory views on race and slavery. For event details and more, visit nypl.org/events/programs/2026/05/26/annette-gordon-reed
READ THE BOOK
NYPL Catalog: borrow.nypl.org/search/card?id=ce969b73-e4fc-5e72-af7e-880e310cc6a2&entityType=FormatGroup
The Library Shop — proceeds benefit The New York Public Library: shop.nypl.org/collections/events-books/products/jefferson-on-race
LIVE FROM NYPL
Upcoming Events: nypl.org/live
Sign up for our newsletters: nypl.org/updates
No Founding Father was more personally or controversially tied to race and slavery than Thomas Jefferson. In the new book Jefferson on Race, preeminent American historian Annette Gordon-Reed collects the founding father’s most revealing writings on African Americans, slavery, and Indigenous peoples, drawing from public and private papers, letters, and plantation records—as well as accounts by contemporaries, including those he enslaved. At a moment when the Library marks 250 years of the United States, these documents offer a direct view into Jefferson’s thinking, tracing how he reconciled his stated opposition to slavery with his lifelong participation in it.
Gordon-Reed discusses with Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Brent Staples how Jefferson’s legacy continues to shape our understanding of American history.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Annette Gordon-Reed is a New York Times–bestselling historian and the Carl M. Loeb University Professor at Harvard University. Her books include The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family, which won the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award, Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy, and (with Peter S. Onuf) Most Blessed of the Patriarchs: Thomas Jefferson and the Empire of the Imagination.
Brent Staples was awarded the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for writing about the legacies of slavery with "extraordinary moral clarity." He holds a Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Chicago and is author of the memoir Parallel Time, which was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and winner of the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award. His essays are included in college readers throughout the English-speaking world. His credo: "History is the only education; everything else is just training."
The New York Public Library welcomes your comments and invites you to participate in conversations on NYPL social media platforms.
To make the experience better for all of our social media followers, we ask that you keep your comments relevant to the original post. Off-topic comments may be removed to ensure that the conversation remains productive.
