[5] Gordon-Reed is married to Robert R. Reed, a justice of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, whom she met while at Harvard Law School.

[6] Gordon-Reed spent her early career as an associate at Cahill Gordon & Reindel, and as counsel to the New York City Board of Corrections.

[7] In 2010, she joined Harvard University with joint appointments in history and law, and as Carol K. Pforzheimer Professor at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study.

Biographer James Parton adopted this alternative account to rumors about Jefferson's paternity, as did succeeding historians for more than 100 years.

In 1974, Fawn M. Brodie wrote the first biography of Jefferson to seriously examine the evidence related to Sally Hemings; she thought the Hemings-Jefferson liaison was likely.

She similarly cross-checked oral traditions among Hemings' descendants against such primary sources as Jefferson's papers and agricultural records.

Gordon-Reed "drew on her legal training to apply context and reasonable interpretation to the sparse documentation" and analyzed the historiography as well.

Critics such as John Works and Robert F. Turner of the Thomas Jefferson Heritage Society have pointed out several transcription errors in Gordon-Reed's first book.

[12] Researchers noted that, when added to the body of historical evidence, this strongly suggested Thomas Jefferson was the father of the children.

[13][better source needed] This memoir of Vernon Jordan, the civil rights activist, written with him, portrayed his life from childhood through the 1980s.

Although he was long considered a hero, his reputation became tainted after 1900, as white historians researched his actions or lack thereof regarding integration of African Americans.

Without land, African Americans in the Deep South generally earned livings as sharecroppers, primarily (if not totally) under white land-owners.

She likens their situation to that of immigrant workers in the New York garment industry (sweat shops) in the 1890s, and coal miners, who were captives of mining company stores until the UMWA was founded in 1890.

She discussed the intimate relationship between Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, as well as issues that American black women face today.