This woodcut image appears on the
1837 broadside publication of John Greenleaf
Whittier’s antislavery poem, “Our
Countrymen in Chains.” The design was
originally adopted as the seal of the Society
for the Abolition of Slavery in England. Library
of Congress.
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The Small Staff of
the Adams White House Includes No Slaves
By
the time John and Abigail Adams became
the first residents of the White
House in November 1800, they had employed
a steward, John Briesler, for nearly two
decades. As the 1790s gave way to the 1800s,
Briesler and his wife, Esther, formed the
core staff of the White House.
Including
the Brieslers, there were only four servants.
Mrs. Adams calculated that she could have
easily used thirty to run the "castle," but
the government did not pay for the president's
domestic help: John Adams was responsible
for the workers' wages. And compared to
George Washington's uniformed servants
at the Presidential residence in Philadelphia,
the Adams staff appeared neither adequate
nor elegant.1
Washington had brought
slaves to Philadelphia from Mount Vernon,
his Virginia home.2 President
Adams and Mrs. Adams were opposed to slavery.
John Adams wrote in 1801, "[M]y
opinion against it has always been
known... [N]ever in my life did I own a slave."3 A
letter from Abigail Adams to her
husband, written in 1776, gives her views: "I
have sometimes been ready to think that the
passion for Liberty cannot be Eaquelly Strong
in the Breasts of those who have been accustomed
to deprive their fellow Creatures of theirs."4
1 William Seale, The President's
House (Washington: The White House
Historical Association, 1986), 86.
2 Ibid., 5.
3 Letter from John Adams to
George Churchman and Jacob Lindley, January
24, 1801, in The
Works of John Adams, Second President of
the United States (Boston: Little,
Brown, and Company, 1854), vol. IX, 92-93.
4 Letter
from Abigail Adams to John Adams, 31 March
- 5 April 1776 [electronic edition]. Adams
Family Papers: An Electronic Archive. Massachusetts
Historical Society.
Read more:
Dennis J. Pogue, "George Washington
and the Politics of Slavery,” Historic
Alexandria Quarterly (Spring/Summer
2003): 1–10. |
