author
Sarah N. (Sarah Nicholas) Randolph
1839–1892
A Virginia educator and writer with close family ties to Thomas Jefferson, she turned letters, memories, and research into lively portraits of famous figures from American history. Her best-known books opened a window onto Jefferson’s private world and helped shape how later readers imagined it.
1 Audiobook
The Domestic Life of Thomas Jefferson Compiled From Family Letters and Reminiscences
by Sarah N. (Sarah Nicholas) Randolph
About the author
Born at Edgehill in Albemarle County, Virginia, Sarah Nicholas Randolph was the great-granddaughter of Thomas Jefferson. She was educated at home and later at the Patapsco Female Institute in Maryland, and she went on to work as a teacher and school principal.
Randolph is remembered mainly for her historical and biographical writing. Her best-known book, The Domestic Life of Thomas Jefferson (1871), drew on family papers and recollections to present a more personal picture of Jefferson than many readers had seen before. She also wrote The Life of General Thomas J. Jackson and compiled bibliographic work related to Jefferson manuscripts.
Her writing grew out of both scholarship and family memory, which gives it a special place in nineteenth-century American historical literature. Even when modern readers approach her work with questions about perspective and distance, it remains an important source for understanding how Jefferson and other major figures were remembered in her time.