Slave or Enslaved?—A Note On Language You may be wondering about the terms used in the Slavery in the President’s Neighborhood initiative because they may be different from what you have previously heard. Although there is debate among historians about the best way to discuss those forced to participate in the institution of slavery, today most are choosing to u

For Teachers Classroom Resource Packet: Slavery, Freedom, and the White HouseJames Madison's Montpelier: Fate in the BalanceThe Enslaved Household of Thomas JeffersonElizabeth Keckly: From Slavery to the White HouseWHTTI Session with the Decatur House Advisory CouncilThe Burning of the White House (Makematic)White House Valets (Makematic)Student Plays

Below you will find a list of all known enslaved people who were associated with the White House. This list is not complete because some individuals were not recorded, and any documentation of their lives is either missing or lost. Research into the unidentified enslaved individuals that built, lived, and worked in the White House is ongoing. If you have

After Washington, D.C. was established as the nation’s capital, Black people found themselves in a precarious position. While some individuals entered the city as enslaved labor for the white elite, there was also a rapidly growing free Black population. This community continued to expand as many enslaved people were manumitted by their enslavers and other free Black people mi

Born in 1784, Zachary Taylor grew up on a plantation in Virginia. His father, Richard Taylor, was an officer in the Continental Army and a southern planter. About six years later, Colonel Taylor purchased Springfield plantation and moved his family to Louisville, Kentucky, and by 1800, Taylor had expanded his slaveholdings to twenty-six enslaved people.1 Zachary Taylor lived at his father’s pl

Frederick Douglass was born into slavery in 1818 along the Eastern Shore of Maryland. During his childhood, the wife of one of his owners taught Douglass the alphabet. Later, she was forbidden to continue because slave literacy was illegal in Maryland. Undeterred, young Douglass taught himself, recognizing that education could be “the pathway from slavery to freedom.”1 Experiencing the cruelty and mora

In 1836, a striving, twenty-four-year-old New England shoemaker took an excursion southward to recuperate from a bout with ill health. By May, Henry Wilson found himself in Washington, D.C., on a transformative journey that permanently altered the trajectory of his life. What the naïve, wide-eyed Wilson saw in the nation’s capital made a profound impression upon him. While the

While many tend to think that slavery was strictly a “southern” issue, this system of racial captivity and exploitation existed across the British colonies in a variety of forms during the eighteenth century. It thrived across North America, survived the American Revolution, and persisted through the creation of the Constitution. That said, individual states began adopting policies of gradual emancipation as e

For nearly four decades until 1836, John Gadsby was the premier hotelier of Alexandria, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C. He leased and operated the City Hotel and Tavern in Alexandria, as well as, the Indian Queen in Baltimore, and ended his career in Washington, D.C. with the Franklin House and the highly esteemed National Hotel. His hotels were considered state

These powerful words open the preamble to the Declaration of Independence, the document by which the Second Continental Congress announced its intention to separate the American colonies from Great Britain in 1776. The primary author of this famous document was none other than Thomas Jefferson. Although these words have been quoted and repeated countless times throughout history to underscore American values

In April 1774, one of Martha Washington’s enslaved housemaids, Betty, gave birth at Mount Vernon to a daughter named Ona Judge.1 Ona’s father was Andrew Judge, a white indentured servant who was employed on the estate. Ona probably lived with Betty in a small cabin near the mansion house, completing simple chores, helping her mother with easy tasks in thei

On May 14, 1975, President Gerald R. Ford announced that construction of a new outdoor swimming pool on the White House South Lawn was underway, just south of the West Wing.1 During construction, National Park Service Curator Robert S. Marshall conducted archaeological analysis of the fill removed from the hole dug for the pool. In the fill, Marshall discovered: “seventeen chips, flakes, an