Main Content
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 CongressAbout this Gallery
While there are few written accounts of the enslaved and free African Americans who built, lived, and worked at the White House, their voices can be found in letters, newspapers, memoirs, census records, architecture, and oral history. In this collection, learn about some of the enslaved individuals that built, lived, and worked at the White House and in the President’s Neighborhood.
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
