Rubenstein Center Scholarship
Additional Resources for Slavery in the President's Neighborhood
This article is part of the Slavery in the President’s Neighborhood initiative. Explore the Timeline
For Teachers
- Classroom Resource Packet: Slavery, Freedom, and the White House
- James Madison's Montpelier: Fate in the Balance
- The Enslaved Household of Thomas Jefferson
- Elizabeth Keckly: From Slavery to the White House
- WHTTI Session with the Decatur House Advisory Council
- The Burning of the White House (Makematic)
- White House Valets (Makematic)
- Student Plays
Audio and Video Resources
- White House History with David Rubenstein - Slavery in the President's Neighborhood program
- White House History Live: Five Untold Stories of Slavery at the White House
- The 1600 Sessions: Researching Slavery in the President's Neighborhood
- The 1600 Sessions: White House History with David Rubenstein—Slavery in the President's Neighborhood
- White House History Live: Reclamation with Gayle Jessup White
- White House History Live: A House Built By Slaves with Jonathan White
- White House History Live: Interpreting African-American History in the President’s Neighborhood
- White House History Live: At the Threshold of Liberty with Tamika Nunley
- White House History Live: Chocolate City- A History of Race and Democracy in the Nation’s Capital with G. Derek Musgrove and Chris Myers Asch
- White House History Live: Slavery in the President’s Neighborhood- Stories of Resistance and Perseverance with Mia Owens and Tianna Mobley
Additional Reading
- Arnebeck, Bob. Slave Labor in the Capital: Building Washington’s Iconic Federal Landmarks. Charleston, South Carolina: The History Press, 2014.
- Asch, Chris Myers and George Derek Musgrove. Chocolate City: A History of Race and Democracy in the Nation’s Capital. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2017.
- Blight, David. Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2018.
- Cheathem, Mark. Andrew Jackson, Southerner. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2013.
- Conroy, James B. Jefferson’s White House: Monticello on the Potomac. New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2019.
- Conroy, James B. Lincoln's White House: The People's House in Wartime. New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2017.
- Dunbar, Erica Armstrong. Never Caught: The Washingtons' Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2017.
- Dunsiberre, William. Slavemaster President: The Double Career of James Polk. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 2003.
- Fleischner, Jennifer. Mrs. Lincoln and Mrs. Keckly: The Remarkable Story of the Friendship Between a First Lady and a Former Slave. New York: Broadway Books, 2003.
- Gordon-Reed, Annette. The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2008.
- Holland, Jesse. The Invisibles: The Untold Story of African American Slaves in the White House. Guilford, Connecticut: First Lyons Press, 2016.
- Lusane, Clarence. Black History of the White House. San Francisco: City Lights Books, 2011.
- Nunley, Tamika Y. At the Threshold of Liberty: Women, Slavery, & Shifting Identities in Washington, D.C. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2021.
- Rogers, Stephanie Jones. They Were Her Property: White Women as Slave Owners in the American South. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2019.
- Stanton, Lucia C. “Those who labor for my happiness”: Slavery at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2012.
- Taylor, Elizabeth Dowling. A Slave in the White House: Paul Jennings and the Madisons. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 2012.
- Thompson, Mary V. “The Only Unavoidable Subject of Regret”: George Washington, Slavery, and the Enslaved Community at Mount Vernon. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2019.
Slavery in the President's Neighborhood: Primary Resources Gallery
Gallery
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This advertisement, posted by Frederick Kitt in the Philadelphia Gazette on May 23, 1796, offered a reward for the return of Ona Judge, an enslaved woman who escaped from President George Washington and First Lady Martha Washington’s Philadelphia residence. Judge succeeded in her escape, evading would-be captors and settling in New Hampshire where she died as a free woman on February 25, 1848.
Philadelphia Gazette -
This 1792 facsimile engraving depicts Andrew Ellicott’s rendition of Pierre (Peter) Charles L’Enfant’s plan for the City of Washington in the Territory of Columbia. As a result of the 1790 Residence Act, the new capital city was strategically placed between the slave states of Maryland and Virginia, ensuring that slavery became essential to its construction and operation. The pool of enslaved laborers contributing to federal construction projects, such as the White House and the Capitol Building, primarily came from plantations in Southern Maryland and Northern Virginia. Their owners hired them out and collected the wages for their labor from the commissioners overseeing construction.
Library of Congress -
This payroll from May 1795 lists five enslaved people: Tom, Peter, Ben, Harry, and Daniel. Peter, Ben, Harry, and Daniel were owned by White House architect James Hoban. Tom was owned by Hoban’s assistant, Pierce Purcell. In many of the payrolls for federal construction projects, the enslaved person is listed either only by their first name, with their owner’s last name, or with a mark such as an “N” to indicate their enslaved status. Their owner typically signed for their wages on the opposite side of the ledger, allowing researchers and historians to learn more about the relationship between the enslaved and the enslaver. White wage laborers typically signed for themselves or made an X if they were illiterate.
The National Archives and Records Administration -
This document details President Thomas Jefferson’s account with Dr. Edward Gantt in March 1802. The first line of the account lists services provided “To Ursula” on March 22, 1802 and “To her child from April 2nd to April 13th.” These entries were for the care provided to an enslaved woman named Ursula Granger Hughes. Jefferson brought her from Monticello in the fall of 1801 to train with Jefferson’s French chef at the White House. She gave birth to the first child born in the White House in March 1802. Unfortunately, the child, likely named Asnet, did not survive and Ursula returned to Monticello later that summer.
Library of Congress -
This letter was written by an enslaved man named John Freeman to President Thomas Jefferson on March 2, 1809. In the letter, Freeman apologizes to Jefferson for refusing to return to Monticello at the end of Jefferson’s presidency. Freeman did so in order to stay in Washington, D.C. with his free wife, Melinda Colbert. According to an 1806 Virginia law, freed slaves could only remain in the state for one year after manumission. He writes, “Rather than disples you i will go and do the best I can…I shall oblige to leave [Melinda] and the children.” Jefferson eventually relented and sold Freeman’s existing contract to incoming President James Madison so that Freeman could remain with his family. He worked for the remainder of his contract, gaining his freedom in 1815. This letter is a rare example of a letter written by an enslaved person negotiating with their owner.
Library of Congress -
In this drawing from around 1815, a group of enslaved people pass the United States Capitol wearing shackles and chains. Scenes like this one were common in Washington, D.C. throughout the first half of the nineteenth century. The city remained a slave trading hub until it was outlawed by the District in 1850. The new law did little to deter slave traders, who simply crossed the Potomac River and continued the trade in nearby Alexandria, Virginia.
Library of Congress -
This payroll records the names of the laborers who worked on the President’s Square during June 1818. The payroll records two enslaved men—“Bennett Jarbos Isaac” and “Rich S. Briscoe Chars.” In 1818, Congress allocated money for improvements on the White House Grounds and over the next few years, enslaved laborers were hired out from local slave owners for these projects. Their owners collected the wages while they contributed the labor. These enslaved individuals worked alongside white wage laborers and free African Americans to grade the President’s Square, copper the White House roof, and repair walls and gates on the White House Grounds.
National Archives and Records Administration -
This 1820 census record details the household of President James Monroe. According to this record, there were six enslaved people, two free African Americans, and three “foreigners not naturalized” at the President’s House. It provides some insight into the size and varying social statuses of individuals who worked in the Monroe White House.
National Archives and Records Administration -
President John Quincy Adams’ diary entry for February 23, 1828, notes the death of Holzey, “the black boy belonging to Johnson Hellen.” Although Adams fought for abolition during his later career in Congress, he was unable to escape slavery within his own family. His wife, Louisa Adams, came from a slave-owning family and following the death of her sister, the Adams family took in her sister’s children, Mary Catherine Hellen and Johnson Hellen. Both brought their enslaved servants into the Adams’ home, including the White House. This diary entry records the name and death of Johnson Hellen’s slave, Holzey. The other enslaved person in the household belonging to Mary Catherine Hellen, Rachel Clark, was manumitted the following day, after John Quincy Adams’ son, John Adams II married his cousin Mary Catherine.
Collection of the Massachusetts Historical Society -
This excerpt from President Andrew Jackson’s account book for March 23, 1832, shows a check of $400 “to son for Negro Girl Grace.” The Grace in question was Gracy Bradley, an enslaved woman purchased by Jackson as a wedding present for his adopted son Andrew Jackson, Jr. and his daughter-in-law Sarah Yorke Jackson. In 1834, Sarah Yorke Jackson went to live at the White House after a fire damaged The Hermitage, bringing staff along with her. While at the White House, Gracy handled much of the daily domestic business of the household. She was also a skilled seamstress. Gracy went to The Hermitage after Jackson’s presidency and married a man named Alfred Jackson.
Library of Congress, Manuscript Division -
This broadside pamphlet was issued during the 1835-1836 petition campaign to abolish slavery in the nation’s capital. The text argues for abolition and details atrocities of the slavery system. At the top are two contrasting scenes: a view of the reading of the Declaration of Independence, captioned “The Land of the Free,” paired with a scene of enslaved people being led past the Capitol by an overseer, titled “The Home of the Oppressed.” Between them is a plan of Washington with insets of a suppliant and a fleeing enslaved person with the legend “$200 Reward” and implements of slavery. On the next line are views of the jail in Alexandria, the jail in Washington, and an interior of the Washington jail with imprisoned enslaved mother Fanny Jackson and her children. On the bottom level, enslaved people in chains emerge from the slave house of J.W. Neal & Co. (left), a view of the Alexandria waterfront with a ship loading enslaved people (center), and a view of the slave establishment of Franklin & Armfield in Alexandria.
Library of Congress -
These pages from the 1840 census shows that five free and four enslaved African Americans were at the White House toward the end of Martin Van Buren’s presidency. There is no documentary evidence that the president owned these four enslaved people, leaving two possible explanations. These four individuals were either hired out or they were brought to the White House by Angelica Van Buren, the president’s daughter-in-law.
National Archives and Record Administration, Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group 29 -
This Daily National Intelligencer article from February 28, 1844, reported a robbery at John Tyler’s White House where “a colored woman named Mary Murphy” was “charged with stealing silver table and teaspoons, the property of the United States.” It also mentioned that “a colored servant belonging to the President is also implicated in this theft.” While court records indicate that the theft occurred, it is unclear what happened to the implicated enslaved servant.
NewsBank/American Antiquarian Society -
This Alexandria Gazette newspaper clipping from August 1, 1849, details the death of Charles, President Zachary Taylor’s enslaved body servant.
Library of Congress -
This drawing by F. Dielman depicts a large crowd of African Americans celebrating the abolition of slavery in Washington, D.C. on May 12, 1866. Slavery was abolished in the nation’s capital on April 16, 1862, when President Abraham Lincoln signed “An Act for the Release of Certain Persons Held to Service or Labor in the District of Columbia.” After the Civil War, African Americans began commemorating the occasion with large celebrations and parades like the one pictured here.
Library of Congress -
President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, declaring “that all persons held as slaves…shall be then, thenceforward and forever free.” Although this proclamation did not eliminate slavery in all parts of the United States, it fundamentally altered the character of the Civil War, transforming it from a sectional conflict to a war for freedom and abolition.
National Archives and Records Administration
Slavery in the President's Neighborhood: The People
Gallery
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This is the front cover of Benjamin Bannaker’s Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia Almanac, for the Year of our Lord 1795. Banneker, pictured on the cover of his almanac, was a free African-American mathematician, astronomer, inventor, and writer. Although often overlooked, Banneker worked with surveyor Andrew Ellicott to survey and mark out the location of the new United States capital following the passage of the Residence Act. While Banneker was intellectually gifted, he often faced opposition and criticism from his contemporaries, including Thomas Jefferson, who did not believe Banneker was capable of complex thought due to his skin color.
Courtesy of the Maryland Historical Society -
This mid-nineteenth-century photograph depicts Paul Jennings, the first White House memoirist. Born into slavery in 1799 at James Madison’s Montpelier plantation, Jennings trained as a footman and later became Madison’s valet, establishing himself as a vital member of the household. When James Madison became president, Paul Jennings worked in the White House. Many years later, after gaining his freedom, Jennings penned the first White House memoir, detailing his time working as an enslaved servant in Madison’s household.
The Estate of Sylvia Jennings Alexander -
This photograph depicts 2nd Lieutenant John Freeman Shorter (1842-1865). His grandfather, John Freeman, had once been an enslaved servant in President Thomas Jefferson and President John Madison’s White House. After Freeman obtained his freedom in 1815, Freeman and his wife Melinda Colbert became active in the antislavery work of Washington’s free black community, eventually settling on K Street NW, several blocks from the White House where Freeman had once been enslaved. Freeman passed away in 1839 and although he did not live to see the end of slavery, his grandson, pictured here, enlisted in the 55th Massachusetts’ Volunteer Infantry, one of the first black regiments in the Union Army.
Burt Green Wilder Papers, #14-26-95. Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library -
William Costin was prominent member of Washington D.C.’s free black community. In 1820, the D.C. City Council passed a law requiring all free people of color to file a permit to continue living within the city’s limits. It also required people of color to provide evidence of freedom, a statement of their occupation, and certificates from three “respectable” white citizens who could vouch for them. Costin intentionally refused to appear with these documents. When Costin was fined, he sued on grounds that the law violated the city’s charter and the U.S. Constitution. The case made its way to the Circuit Court of the District of Columbia where although the court ruled that the city did have the authority to regulate these issues, they did not have the authority to retroactively demand this documentation, reversing Costin’s punishment.
Library of Congress -
This black and white photograph depicts Alfred Jackson. Jackson was the husband of Gracy Bradley, an enslaved woman who worked in President Andrew Jackson’s White House.
Andrew Jackson’s Hermitage, Nashville, TN -
This black and white photograph depicts William Still, abolitionist and author of The Underground Rail Road: A Record of Facts, Authentic Narratives, Letters & c., Narrating the Hardships, Hairbreadth Escapes and Death Struggles of the Slaves in their Efforts for Freedom. Still’s book profiled James Hambleton Christian, a man enslaved in the household of President John Tyler that served in the White House before making his daring escape to freedom.
Wikimedia Commons -
This image of Elias Polk from the Daily Americannewspaper, was published in Nashville, Tennessee, on December 31, 1886. Polk was an enslaved man that served in President James K. Polk’s White House. Following his time in the White House, Elias returned to the Polk’s Tennessee home. After gaining his freedom following the Civil War, Elias established himself as a political leader in Tennessee. Surprisingly, for a man freed from slavery, Elias politically aligned himself with white southern elites and the Democratic Party.
Courtesy of the President James K. Polk Home & Museum, Columbia, Tennessee -
In this photograph, Steven E. Hammond holds a tintype photograph of his second great grandmother Margaret Syphax. Margaret was born to Nancy Syphax in 1818, a woman enslaved by Washington hotelier John Gadsby at Decatur House, the only existing slave quarters within sight of the White House. Sadly, Margaret was separated from her mother and sold between 1830 and 1838. Eventually, she ended up in New Orleans where she likely remained enslaved until the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863.
Stephen E. Hammond -
This photograph depicts Elizabeth Keckley, a free African-American woman who worked as Mary Todd Lincoln’s dressmaker. The pair became close friends during Mrs. Lincoln’s time in the White House. Elizabeth had been born into slavery in Virginia in 1818 and purchased her freedom in 1855. In 1868, she published her autobiography, Behind the Scenes, Or, Thirty Years a Slave and Four Years in the White House. Sadly, Mrs. Lincoln felt betrayed by the revealing memoir and the two women never spoke again. Mrs. Keckley died in 1907.
Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University -
This photograph depicts William Slade, White House usher for President Abraham Lincoln and later steward for President Andrew Johnson. William was a free African-American man who became close with Lincoln during his time in the White House. Lincoln often tested out his speeches on Slade, asking “William, how does that sound?” Slade knew every word of the Emancipation Proclamation before it was published.
Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum -
Frederick Douglass, pictured here in 1876, was one of the most photographed figures in nineteenth-century America. He met with President Abraham Lincoln at the White House twice during the Civil War, urging the president to improve the treatment of African-American soldiers fighting to save the nation. Douglass attempted to see Lincoln one final time following the president’s second inauguration. When he arrived at the White House, white doorkeepers initially barred his entrance. After he gained entry and made his way to the East Room, he was greeted warmly by Lincoln: “I am glad to see you. I saw you in the crowd to-day, listening to my inaugural address…Douglass; there is no man in the country whose opinion I value more than yours. I want to know what you think of it.” After Lincoln’s assassination, First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln sent Douglass her husband’s “favorite walking staff” in recognition of the relationship between the two men. He later met with President Andrew Johnson at the White House during Reconstruction.
Library of Congress -
William Johnson, former enslaved servant of President Andrew Johnson, is pictured in front of the Capitol Building in 1937. He is holding a cane gifted to him by President Franklin Roosevelt. When Johnson assumed the presidency in 1865, he brought William and other staff who had been enslaved until they gained their freedom in 1863. At the White House, William worked as the president’s valet. In 1937, he gained national recognition as the last surviving individual to be formerly enslaved by an American president and was invited to visit with President Roosevelt at the White House.
Library of Congress
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CollectionThe Decatur House Slave Quarters
In 1821-1822, Susan Decatur requested the construction of a service wing. The first floor featured a large kitchen, dining room, and laundry; while the second floor contained four rooms designated as living quarters. By 1827, the service wing was being used as an urban slave quarters. Henry Clay brought enslaved individuals to Decatur House, starting a trend that was solidified by