America's First Daughter

Patsy becomes suspicious of one of her father’s business associates, Mr. Charles Williamos. She searches his room and finds a tailor’s bill that Williamos has charged to Jefferson. He’s later exposed as a British spy and sent packing. Patsy concludes, “It would be much better […] if all American women learned to study the manners of people and warned against the bad ones” (86).

Jefferson receives an appointment as minister to France. The family is now given a sumptuous townhouse for their use. Jefferson says that he misses playing the violin. Patsy is determined to learn the harpsichord so that she can accompany him. The family receives a message that Polly refuses to join them in France. She wants them to come to her in America instead.

Patsy is treated to a grand night at the opera with her father. While there, Jefferson introduces Patsy to Maria Cosway, a married woman with whom he’s smitten.

Patsy is disturbed by her father’s infatuation with Maria. She intercepts one of his love letters and wants to burn it: “This letter was such a betrayal of my mother’s memory that I was eager to hurl it into the fire” (100). William, the secretary, convinces her to let the matter alone. Patsy grows disillusioned by the behavior of infatuated men, even her adored father: “What I learned about men in Paris—even American men in Paris—opened my eyes and bruised my heart” (106).

Patsy then learns that Polly is on her way to France. They’ve been separated for five years, and she wonders what her younger sister is like now. With her father in the south of France, Patsy’s rapport with William grows. He observes that America will never be a free country until all the slaves are liberated as well. Patsy shares William’s opinion and writes to her father about it. He never replies.

In June of 1787, Polly arrives in London. Jefferson doesn’t go to meet her because he is afraid of missing a rendezvous with his mistress. Maria treats Jefferson capriciously and pouts if business draws his attention away from her. The affair ends abruptly when Maria drops Jefferson and leaves Paris.

Once Polly finally does arrive in Paris, she doesn’t remember either her sister or father. Instead, she bonds with Sally, the servant who accompanied her from home. Sally is the slave half-sister of Jefferson’s dead wife and bears an eerie resemblance to her.

Eventually, domestic harmony prevails, and Patsy has all her family under one roof. She assigns Sally to be her father’s chambermaid. One morning, Patsy accidentally sees her father kissing Sally: “I could make no sense of the scene unfolding before me. She was a girl my own age. She was my mother’s sister, my own aunt. She was his slave” (122). 

Patsy rushes down the stairs, followed by her father. Neither one is willing to acknowledge the embarrassing scene with Sally in Jefferson’s bedroom. Patsy thinks, “He ought to have been doing a hundred different things. Instead, he was preying upon my dead mother’s enslaved half-sister” (124).

Patsy confides her outrage to William. He tells her matter-of-factly that slaves perform a variety of duties for their masters. Patsy begins to treat William coldly after this, even though she’s secretly in love with him. She wants to retreat to the convent school, taking Polly and Sally with her. She learns that taking Sally might cause another embarrassment for Jefferson. He’s keeping slaves in France where slavery is illegal.

While Jefferson is away touring Europe, William comes to the convent to repair his broken relationship with Patsy. He reveals that he’s stolen a lock of her hair, wordlessly admitting that he has feelings for her. He cryptically hints that he’ll say more on the subject after her father’s return.