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Slavery, Freedom, and the Struggle to Keep a Family Together
Although President Thomas Jefferson owned hundreds of enslaved men, women, and children in his lifetime, he brought only a handful with him to the White House. In need of additional help, he hired the labor of an enslaved man named John Freeman from Dr. William Baker, the Maryland physician who owned him. The practice of hiring out enslaved workers in
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Pathbreakers: Oscar Stanton DePriest and Jessie L. Williams DePriest
Shelley Stokes-Hammond prepared these biographical sketches as part of a project for a graduate documentation course at Goucher College where she received a Master of Arts in Historic Preservation in 2011.In March 1929, Oscar Stanton DePriest became the first African American to serve in the United States Congress since George H. White of North Carolina left the House in 1901. DePriest was
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Dolley Madison's House
Did you know that after her husband's death, First Lady Dolley Madison was so poor that she had to accept money from a former slave and hand-outs from her neighbors on Lafayette Square? The yellow house on the corner of H Street and Madison Place was Dolley Madison's home from 1837 until her death in 1849. Originally built by her brother-in-law, Richard
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Elizabeth Keckly
Born into slavery in 1818, Elizabeth Hobbs Keckly (also spelled Keckley) learned to sew from her mother and this skill would eventually bring her freedom and success. She developed into an accomplished seamstress and the income from her dressmaking supported the family that enslaved her. In 1855, she purchased her freedom and that of her son with loans from her clients. After
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Ewell House
Though the people who enslaved African Americans on Lafayette Square were rich, powerful, and prominent, their slaves fought back against being held in bondage. One way they did so was by running away. On April 30, 1819 Thomas Ewell, a former naval surgeon and prominent physician who built a house about where 734 and 736 Jackson Place are located today, placed an ad in
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Freedman's Savings & Trust Co.
Three million dollars belonging to 61,000 African Americans. That's how much accumulated wealth vanished when the Freedman's Savings and Trust Company failed in June 1874. Earlier that year, Frederick Douglass had become the bank's President just after it moved its headquarters to a prominent location on the southeast corner of Lafayette Square, where the Treasury Annex now stands. The bank was failing
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Housekeeper Elizabeth Jaffray Makes Some Changes
Historian William Seale identifies a "strange hierarchy" that had developed among the White House domestic staff by the first decade of the 20th century. At mealtime, the "top-ranking men," black and white, were seated together in a pantry, where they dined upon the President's leftover food. Maids ate in the servants' dining room with the footmen. This group was also
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The White House and Lincoln's Assassination
Abraham Lincoln had never been more William Tecumseh Sherman’s thrust through the cheerful and carefree in the White House than on his last day alive. Richmond, the Confederate capital, had recently fallen, and it was only five days since Washingtonians had celebrated the deliriously exciting news of Robert E. Lee’s surrender to the Union victor, Ulysses S. Grant. The
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Benjamin Brown French in the Lincoln Period
Benjamin Brown French first arrived in Washington City in December 1833 and went to work for the House of Representatives. A native of Chester, New Hampshire, he had read law, run a newspaper, served briefly in the state militia where he acquired his familiar title “Major,” and as a Jacksonian Democrat served a term in the lower house of the New Hamp
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The Hoovers' Musical Firsts
The roster of prominent artists who performed for President Herbert Hoover at the end of the 1920s and into the early 1930s includes Grace Moore, Rosa Ponselle, Jascha Heifetz, Vladimir Horowitz, and many others. In 1931, President and Mrs. Hoover were the first to invite an artist to play for a head of state. With the performance of the Hampton and
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President's Park: A History of Protest at the White House
President’s Park is approximately 80 acres of urban landscape surrounding the White House. A fence encloses the house, providing 18 acres of gardens and grounds for the first family’s enjoyment. To the south is the Ellipse, the site of National Christmas Tree events. To the north of the White House is a seven-acre plot called Lafayette Park. Named after revolutionary war