08 Oct / The Other Madisons: The Lost History of a President’s Black Family by Bettye Kearse [in Library Journal]
Retired pediatrician Bettye Kearse, her family’s eighth griot (storyteller/historian/genealogist), traces her lineage over two centuries: “Always remember – you’re a Madison. You come from African slaves and a president,” her predecessors instilled.
The fourth U.S. president, James Madison, never had biological children with wife Dolley. He did, however, according to Kearse’s griot ancestors, father a son with his enslaved half-sister, Coreen. Enhancing the meticulous, often disturbing, history she tenaciously uncovers, Kearse also writes in the imagined first-person voice of Coreen’s mother, Mandy, the family’s African progenitor, kidnapped, transported, owned, and raped by Madison.
Karen Chilton reads Kearse’s peripatetic explorations (through Ghana, Portugal, Lagos, and, of course, Madison’s own famed Montpelier) with solemnity and gravitas; her convincing presentation never falters. To satisfy readers seeking historical enlightenment, libraries should provide easy access in multiple formats.
Review: “Audio,” Library Journal, September 1, 2020
Readers: Adult
Published: 2020