Slavery at the White House: Building the White House
Gallery
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1800 Map of L'Enfant Plan for Washington, D.C., 1795
William Rollinson
Engraving
The 1795 map of the District of Columbia seen here is based upon Pierre (Peter) Charles L’Enfant’s plan for the city of Washington. The selection of this site for the nation’s capital was directly tied to slavery. While northerner Alexander Hamilton hoped to permanently place the capital in Philadelphia or New York, southerners Thomas Jefferson and James Madison wanted a capital on the Potomac River, where they could maintain plantation-based slavery and as a result, their economic power. George Washington also favored this location, which was close in proximity to his Mount Vernon plantation in Northern Virginia.
In the end, Hamilton, Jefferson, and Madison agreed to the Compromise of 1790: the capital would permanently move to the banks of the Potomac in exchange for the federal assumption of individual states’ war debts from the Revolutionary War. The placement of the capital between the two slave states of Maryland and Virginia meant that slavery was ingrained into the District of Columbia for the next seventy years.
White House Collection/White House Historical Association
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James Hoban, ca. 1800
Attributed to John Christian Rauschner (1760-?)
Wax bas-relief on glass
This wax bas-relief on glass portrait depicts James Hoban, Irish-born architect of the White House. Hoban was himself a slave owner; in May 1795, four men enslaved by James Hoban—Peter, Ben, Harry, and Daniel—are listed as working on the President’s House. Hoban continued to own and sell enslaved people for the rest of his life.
White House Collection/White House Historical Association
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About this Gallery
Explore the stories of enslaved workers at the White House through closer examination of several objects in the collection.
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