A sort of joint biography of Jefferson, Kósciuszko, and Agrippa "Grippy" Hull, a free black man who served Kósciuszko during the Revolution and went on to lead a successful life in Stockbridge, Massachusetts after the war. Nash and Hodges focus on the connections between the three men, though Hull by necessity gets short shrift given the dearth of surviving documentation of his life (and the authors do the thing that annoys me most when writing about someone in this situation: "supposing" that Hull "must have read" such and such, or presuming that he felt or acted in ways that we simply cannot know).

The bulk of the book is concerned with Jefferson's handling of Kósciuszko's will, which was designed to allow Jefferson to use the proceeds from Kósciuszko's American estates to fund the education and manumission of Jefferson's slaves and others. Jefferson decided he didn't want to abide by these terms, and spent several years trying to figure out how to extricate himself from the wishes of his longtime friend. The legal maneuvering was complex, and Nash and Hodges ably reconstruct the narrative of this period.

Imperfect, but very interesting nonetheless, and for its account of the Jefferson-Kósciuszko estate wranglings, quite worth a read. ( )

I overall enjoyed this book and appreciated the stories of Agrippa "Grippy" Hull and Thaddeus Kosciuszko. Mr. Nash neatly melds the two mens' stories together. Unfortunately Mr. Hull's "paper trail" isn't enough to do an in depth modern day biography but is given a vehicle by his association with Kosciuszko.

I am too far past viewing the Founding Fathers with rose-colored glasses, so reading about Thomas Jefferson's reneging on his solemn vow to the Polish abolitionist was difficult to read but not unbelievable. However, Mr. Nash seemed to mention at every chance Jefferson's "indiscretion" with his slave Sally Hemmings. Numerous sources have come out, dispelling the myth and casting doubt upon these liaisons, yet Nash writes as if these are proven beyond a shadow of a doubt. My point is continual inclusion of this myth as fact detracts from the book. ( )