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Daniel Webster's House
Paul Jennings' 1847 work agreement with Daniel Webster.
Credit: Moorland-Spingarn Research Center, Howard University
[CLICK IMAGE TO ENLARGE]
If we could go back in time to the 1840s, the corner of H Street and Connecticut Avenue would look very different than it does today. Instead of the Chamber of Commerce Building, a simple three-and-a-half story brick home would stand there. The home’s original owner was Daniel Webster, a Congressman from both New Hampshire and Massachusetts who also served as Secretary of State for three Presidents.
In March of 1847, Webster purchased an enslaved man named Paul Jennings, who had previously been owned by fellow Lafayette Square resident Dolley Madison. Webster paid $120 for Jennings and allowed him to buy his freedom in $8 monthly installments. While Jennings was in Webster's household, he reportedly took part in a daring plot to free more than 70 enslaved African Americans in the capital.
According to a book published in 1930 called Fugitives of the Pearl, sometime in 1847—perhaps while traveling with Daniel Webster—Paul Jennings met a sea captain named Daniel Drayton, who was sympathetic to the plight of the enslaved. Jennings and Drayton began planning for a group of slaves to flee Washington aboard a boat and Jennings helped spread the word about the escape in the city's African-American community. On the night of April 15, 1848, after leaving a letter for Webster, Jennings went to the 7th Street Wharf where Drayton had docked a borrowed schooner named the Pearl. However, for reasons unknown to us today, Jennings decided not to escape on the Pearl. He returned to Webster's house that night and retrieved his un-read letter.
More than 70 men, women, and children did attempt to escape on the Pearl, but the ship only made it 144 miles away from Washington when it encountered poor weather and had to drop anchor near Point Lookout in Maryland. There it was overtaken by a group of slaveowners who had learned of the escape route. Though some of those aboard the Pearl were legally free, all were jailed and many were sold. Paul Jennings went on to work in the Department of the Interior and his role in the escape plot was not publicly known until the publication of Fugitives of the Pearl in 1930.
| Enslaved People |
| Title | Description |
|---|
| Andrew Jackson Statue, Lafayette Square | A slave helps craft this statue and the Capitol's statue of freedom... |
| The White House | From slavery to sit-ins.... |
| Dolley Madison's House | A former slave shows charity toward an impoverished First Lady. |
| St John's Church | Free and enslaved African Americans are married and baptized at the President's parish... |
| Weddings at St. John's Church | Selected entries from the St. John's Church marriage register. |
| Decatur House | Where Charlotte Dupuy takes a brave stand against slavery. |
| Ewell House | Buying, selling, and resisting. |
| Charlotte Dupuy | Charlotte Dupuy, an enslaved woman who sued her owner Henry Clay for her freedom. |
| Lafayette Square | An enslaved woman buys her freedom and changes the nation's history.... |
| Elizabeth Keckly (1818-1907) | Elizabeth Keckly was born into slavery in 1818. She went on to purchase her own freedom and establish a successful dressmaking business. |
| Frederick Douglass | Revered African American leader. |
| Members of Gadsby's Enslaved Household | A list of their names and ages. |
| Paul Jennings | Paul Jennings |
| Tayloe House | Compensated emancipation, only in DC... |
| Decatur House Slave Quarters | Men, women, and children from two families living together in 900 square feet... |
| Emancipation in the President's Neighborhood, 1850 | Emancipation in the President's Neighborhood, 1850 |
| "Negro Life at the South" | A 1859 painting by Eastman Johnson depicting urban slavery. |
| "Mrs. Madison's Slaves Again" | 1848 Newspaper article about the Madison's slaves. |
| "The Negro Celebration in Washington" | 1866 article and engraving about Emancipation Celebration in Washington, DC and President Johnson's address. |
| President's House Carpenters' Roll from May 1795 | Payment record for carpenters,including five enslaved men, who constructed the President's House. |
| Emancipation Day in Washington, D.C. | Emancipation Day in Washington, D.C. |
| Bill of Sale for Charlotte Dupuy to Henry Clay | Bill of Sale for Charlotte Dupuy from James Condon to Henry Clay. |
| Bill of Sale for Paul Jennings from Dolley Madison to Pollard Webb | Document recording Dolley Madison's 1847 sale of Paul Jennings to Pollard Webb. |
| Charlotte Dupuy's Petition | Letter written by Robert Beale on behalf of Charlotte Dupuy petitioning the Judges to summon Henry Clay to court. |
| Decatur House Slave Quarters Floor Plans | Floorplans and architectural drawings of the Decatur House slave quarters. |
| Thomas Greene Bethune [Wiggins], 1849 -1908 | Photograph of blind piano prodigy Thomas Greene Bethune, the first African American artist to perform at the White House. |
| Emancipation in the District of Columbia - List of the Petitions Filed | Government document showing claims paid for emancipated slaves to the former owners. |
| First page of a letter from Henry Clay to his agent in Washington, Philip Fendall, regarding Charlotte Dupuy's petition for freedom | Letter written written by Henry Clay to his agent in Washington, Philip Fendall, regarding Charlotte Dupuy's bid for freedom. |
| Gadsby Slave Quarters at Decatur House ca.1937 | Photograph taken by Volkmar Wentzel in 1937 showing the H Street side of the slave quarters at Decatur House. |