America's First Daughter

Patsy and Tom return to Monticello without Nancy. The rumors of her seduction by Richard and the subsequent murder of their baby spread like wildfire. Tom and Patsy argue about the best way to contain the scandal. Tom wants to defend the family honor. Patsy takes a cynical view of his stance: “I’d heard my fill of supposedly high-minded ideals that rocked nations, put unhappy women in their graves, and somehow ended with people I loved being chased or captured to await execution” (290).

During a heated quarrel on the subject, Tom strikes Patsy. He’s immediately sorry afterward. The episode causes him to back down from confronting his cousin Richard. Despite the family’s attempt to bury the incident, Richard is accused of murder, and Nancy might also be charged with infanticide. Patsy will be summoned to testify. All these events unfold while Jefferson is being discredited in the press and pressured to step down as secretary of state.

Patsy takes the stand during Richard’s trial. She lies and claims to have given Nancy a substance called gum guaiacum. While it is a known abortifacient, Patsy says it’s also used as a remedy for colic. She had no reason to suspect Nancy was pregnant at the time. Richard and Nancy are both acquitted though public opinion remains firmly convinced of their guilt.

During a period of relative calm at Monticello, Tom receives the news that his father is dying. He races to be at his bedside but arrives too late. Patsy bundles up the family and brings everyone to Tuckahoe to attend the funeral. They all assume Tom will inherit the plantation. When the will is read, Tom is shocked to learn that his father cut him out entirely because he arrived too late: “He gave Gabriella’s son everything. My name, my father, my ancestral home. As if in my twenty-five years on this earth, I was nothing to him” (310).

Tom is still reeling from the shock of his disinheritance. His father, as a final act of spite, gives his son the responsibility of discharging Colonel Randolph’s debts. Patsy tries to repair Tom’s damaged self-esteem, but he remains despondent. Jefferson resigns from office and returns to Monticello to be a simple farmer once more. He encourages Tom to run for justice of the peace. The position would give him prestige, and he could continue to manage Monticello for Jefferson.

Jefferson and Sally resume their relationship discreetly. Sally’s brother, Bob, petitions for his freedom. Jefferson protests that Bob is already free in all but name. Patsy observes, “I was a little vexed that my father, who had penned so many lines about liberty, might be surprised a man might not be content with freedom in all but name” (319). Now that the family is together under one roof, Patsy is determined to keep everyone happy, contented, and at home.

Patsy’s plan for permanent domestic happiness only lasts two years before Jefferson returns to public life. He runs for president but ends up serving as vice president under John Adams.

Tom and Patsy move to Varina, Tom’s only inheritance, and strive to make the plantation profitable. Tom broods and grows morose, “As if he could see his father’s malevolent ghost hovering over the childhood home at which we’d never again be welcome” (321). Tom also decides to run for a seat in the legislature. Because he has no talent for campaigning, he loses and becomes ever more despondent.

Polly’s wedding offers a much-needed distraction. However, once she marries, Patsy rarely sees her younger sister. Her own time is occupied by producing a string of offspring in quick succession.

Displeased with the authoritarian turn the government is taking, Jefferson decides to run for president again: “Papa’s powerful, implacable, political outrage reminded me that underneath his gentility, he would always be a revolutionary. He wouldn’t retire” (330).

The winter of 1799 carries heavy losses for the nation and for Patsy’s family. The Varina plantation crop fails, and Jefferson must loan Tom money to save the property. Tom experiences fits of rage over his financial failure. Polly delivers a baby that dies shortly afterward. When Patsy visits her sister, she’s shocked at her wasted condition and tries to get Polly proper care.

Back at Monticello, Patsy learns that three of the family’s slaves have died. Sally’s newest baby dies. General Washington, too, passes away. Even Jefferson is rumored to be dead, but this is only one of the many outrageous lies spread by the press during his presidential campaign.

A slave revolt in Virginia causes widespread concern among the planters. Jefferson ponders the best way to balance justice with public safety. Patsy recalls words her father once wrote about the need to refresh the tree of liberty with the blood of patriots and tyrants: “I couldn’t help but wonder who was who” (344).