On Juneteenth

Annette Gordon-Reed (b. 1958) is an American historian, law professor, and writer who specializes in American legal history. She received her BA from Dartmouth College in 1981, and her JD from Harvard Law School in 1984. She is most noted for her scholarship on the relationship between Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, particularly in her first book Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy, where she presents a historical analysis and investigation of the long-standing controversy among historians about the veracity of the relationship and Jefferson’s paternity to Hemings’s children. On Juneteenth is her most recent book, where the combination of personal memoir and her experience as a historian of the Early American Republic offers a unique analysis of Texas’s past and present and the significance of Juneteenth to that understanding. 

Gordon-Reed was born in Conroe, Texas, and she grew up in Livingston, Texas. She also has a personal connection to Galveston, Texas by way of her great-grandfather, who traveled to Galveston seasonally to work on the wharves (121). As she explains in the preface, her Texas roots date back to the 1820s (14). Thus, Gordon-Reed supplements her historical interpretation with sections of personal memoir and reflection that illuminate the value of perspectives and experiences of people of color to Texas history.