Point of View

The point of view of the novel is first person as seen through the journal entries of the fictional Harriet Hemings. The entire novel is told through these journal entries, sometimes giving the reader multiple insights into one particular day and sometimes skipping many weeks and sometimes months in the course of the novel.

The idea behind the novel is to show the complete isolation that the real Harriet Hemings must have felt during the course of her final years at Monticello. This is accomplished quite expertly through the intimacy of the journal entries. By writing the novel this way, the author makes the reader feel as though he or she has stumbled upon the only written proof of Jefferson's other family. Not only this, but it also opens up the emotional world of a very confused young lady and allows the reader see the growth...