The Black History of the White House (57 page)

  66.
 Beeman,
Plain, Honest Men
, p. 330.

  67.
 Stanley W. Campbell,
The Slave Catchers: Enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Law, 1850–1860
(Univ. of North Carolina Press, 1970), p. 236.

Chapter 2

    1.
 Edward Lawler Jr., “Hercules.”
www.ushistory.org/presidentshouse/slaves/hercules.htm
.

    2.
 Ibid.

    3.
 Ibid.

    4.
 Ibid.

    5.
 Donald Egerton,
Death or Liberty: African Americans and Revolutionary America
(New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 2009), p. 4.

    6.
 Fritz Hirschfeld,
George Washington and Slavery: A Documentary Portrayal
(Univ. of Missouri Press, 1997), P. 98.

    7.
 Egerton,
Death or Liberty
, p. 10.

    8.
 “The Papers of George Washington” website:
http://gwpapers.virginia.edu/documents/​will/index.html
.

    9.
 See William Loren Katz,
Black Pioneers: An Untold Story
(Taylor & Francis US, 1999); and John W. Ravage,
Black Pioneers: Images of the Black Experience on the North American Frontier
(Univ. of Utah Press, 1997).

  10.
See Mary Louise Clifford,
From Slavery to Freetown: Black Loyalists After the American Revolution
(Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1999); and John W. Pulis, ed.,
Moving On: Black Loyalists in the Afro-Atlantic World
(New York: Garland Publishing, 1999). See also Nova Scotia Museum website:
Remembering Black Loyalists; Black Loyalists in Nova Scotia,
http://museum.gov.ns.ca/​blackloyalists/who.htm
.

  11.
 See A. P. Kup,
Sierra Leone: A Concise History
(New York: St. Martin's Press, 1975); J. Peter Pham,
The Sierra Leonean Tragedy: History and Global Dimensions
(New York: Nova Science Publishers, 2006); and John Peterson,
Province of Freedom: A History of Sierra Leone, 1787-1870
(Evanston, IL: Northwestern Univ. Press, 1969).

  12.
 Jill Lepore, “Goodbye, Columbus: When America Won Its Independence, What Became of the Slaves Who Fled for Theirs?,”
The New Yorker
, May 8, 2006.
www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/05/08/060508crat_atlarge
.

  13.
 Egerton,
Death or Liberty
, p. 4.

  14.
 Jack D. Warren Jr., “Uncle George's Cabin,”
Free Lance-Star
, Fredericksburg, VA, February 22, 2003.

  15.
 Ibid.

  16.
 Hirschfeld,
George Washington and Slavery
, p. 70.

  17.
 Sharron E. Wilkins, “The President's Kitchen,”
American Visions
, Feb.-March, 1995.

  18.
 For the most detailed and objective accounting of the relationship between Hemings and Jefferson, see Annette Gordon-Reed,
Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy
(Charlottesville, VA: Univ. Press of Virginia, 1997). For a defense of Jefferson regarding the relationship, see William G. Hyland Jr.,
In Defense of Thomas Jefferson: The Sally Hemings Sex Scandal
(New York: Thomas Dunne Books, 2009).

  19.
 Ibid., Wills, p. 210.

  20.
 Wilkins. “The President's Kitchen.”

  21.
 Hirschfeld,
George Washington and Slavery
, p. 70.

  22.
 Ibid.

  23.
 Ibid.

  24.
 According to Edward Lawler Jr.: “Hercules had been married to a dower slave named Lame Alice, a seamstress at Mount Vernon, and they had three children, Richmond (born 1777), Evey (born 1782), and Delia (born 1785). Alice died in 1787, leaving Hercules to raise the children. When he learned that he was to be transferred to Philadelphia, he asked Washington's permission to bring his son with him to the President's House. It is likely that Hercules, Richmond and Christopher shared a divided room on the fourth floor of the main house.” See
www.ushistory.org/presidentshouse/slaves/hercules.htm

  25.
 Louis Philippe,
Diary of My Travels in America
(New York: Delacorte Press, 1976), p. 32.

  26.
 Edward Lawler Jr., “The President's House in Philadelphia: The Rediscovery of a Lost Landmark,”
The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography
, January 2002. The President's House in Philadelphia website:
www.ushistory.org/presidentshouse/plans/pmhb/index.htm
.

  27.
 The Residence Act of 1790. Library of Congress website:
http://memory.loc.gov/​cgibin/ampage?collId=llsl&​fileName=001/llsl001.db&recNum=253
.

  28.
 Ibid, Wills, 205.

  29.
 U.S. Census 1790. The other three were Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Vermont.

  30.
 Edward Lawler Jr., “A Brief History of the President's House in Philadelphia.” See U.S. History website:
www.ushistory.org/presidentshouse/history/briefhistory.htm
.

  31.
 Thomas Edward Drake,
Quakers and Slavery in America
(New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1950), p. 11.

  32.
 Maurice Jackson,
Let This Voice Be Heard: Anthony Benezet, Father of Atlantic Abolitionism
(Philadelphia: Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 2009), pp. 33–34.

  33.
 “Washington's Letter to Robert Morris,” Public Broadcasting System:
www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part2/2h66t.html
. Also, see Gary B. Nash and Jean R. Soderlund,
Freedom by Degrees: Emancipation in Pennsylvania and Its Aftermath
(New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1991).

  34.
 For more on Benezet, see Jackson,
Let This Voice Be Heard.

  35.
 Richard Newman, “The Pennsylvania Abolition Society: Restoring a Group to Glory,”
Pennsylvania LEGACIES
, November 2005, p. 7.

  36.
 Ibid., p. 9.

  37.
 Sidney Kaplan,
The Black Presence in the Era of the American Revolution 1770–1800
(Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1975), pp. 84–85.

  38.
 Exploring Pennsylvanian History website:
http://explorepahistory.com/hmarker.php?markerId=280
.

  39.
 Lerone Bennett,
Before the Mayflower: A History of Black America
(Chicago, IL: Johnson Publishing, 1987), p. 82.

  40.
 Hirschfeld,
George Washington and Slavery
, pp. 199–204.

  41.
 Jackson,
Let This Voice Be Heard
, p. 252.

  42.
 Blondell Reynolds Brown, “Full Story Must Be Told at New Bell Site,”
Philadelphia Inquirer
, October 25, 2002.

  43.
 President Adams did not have any slaves in Philadelphia or in Washington, D.C., where he relocated in the last months of his term in 1800. It was later discovered that Washington had at least nine slaves over time who were at the house during his two terms in office.

  44.
 Charles Blockson,
The Liberty Bell Era: the African American Story
(Harrisburg, PA: RB Books, 2003), p. 56.

  45.
 Linn Washington Jr., “Park Service Compromises Black Rights,”
Philadelphia Inquirer
, May 7, 2002.

  46.
 Edward Lawler Jr., “The President's House in Philadelphia: The Rediscovery of a Lost Landmark,”
The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography
, January 2002. The President's House in Philadelphia website:
www.ushistory.org/presidentshouse/plans/pmhb/index.htm
.

  47.
 The Liberty Bell website:
www.ushistory.org/libertybell/
.

  48.
 Lawler, “The President's House in Philadelphia.”

  49.
 Linn Washington Jr., “Park Service Compromises Black Rights,”

  50.
 Acel Moore, “As Liberty Bell Flap Continues, a Slave Memorial Is Suggested,”
Philadelphia Inquirer
, June 2, 2002.

  51.
 Ibid.

  52.
 Ad-Hoc Historians, “Summary of Ad-Hoc Historians group position,” press release, September 2003.
www.ushistory.org/presidentshouse/adhoc/position.htm
.

  53.
 Stephan Salisbury, “Panel Calls for Slave Commemoration,”
Philadelphia Inquirer
, July 10, 2002.

  54.
 Ibid.

  55.
 Stephan Salisbury, “Committee is Put in Place to Guide Slavery Memorial,”
Philadelphia Inquirer
, September 23, 2005.

  56.
 Ibid. And Joseph A. Slobodzian, “Independence Mall slavery memorial gets federal funding,”
Philadelphia Inquirer
, September 6, 2005.

  57.
 Ibid.

  58.
 Avenging The Ancestors Coalition website:
http://avengingtheancestors.com/index.htm
.

  59.
 Edward Lawler, “Letter: Historic Accuracy Should Not Be Ignored,”
Philadelphia Inquirer
, August 25, 2009; and Stephan Salisbury, “Despite Criticism, President's House Project Advances,”
Philadelphia Inquirer
, October 10, 2009.

  60.
 Michael Coard, “President's House Must Be Practical, Too,”
Philadelphia Inquirer
, August 31, 2009.

  61.
 Ibid.

Chapter 3

    1.
 Phillis Wheatley, Julian Dewey Mason, ed.,
The Poems of Phillis Wheatley
(Chapel Hill: Univ. of North Carolina Press, 1989), p. 53. Phillis Wheatley was abducted in Africa when she was seven years old and eventually sold to a wealthy Boston family. Unlike most enslaved, she was taught to read and demonstrated a propensity for letters and literature. She was first published at twelve years of age, and a book of her poems was published six years later. She was the first African American to publish a book of poems.
See
also Henry Louis Gates,
The Trials of Phillis Wheatley: America's First Black Poet and Her Encounters With the Founding Fathers
(New York: Basic Civitas Books, 2003).

    2.
 Bob Arnebeck, “The Use of Slaves to Build and [
sic
] Capitol and White House 1791-1801.”
See
Bob Arnebeck website:
http://bobarnebeck.com/slaves.html
. Much of the information and data included here, if not otherwise noted, comes from Arnebeck's extensive research.

    3.
 William C. Allen,
History of Slave Laborers in the Construction of the U.S. Capitol
(Washington, D.C.: U.S. House of Representatives, Office of the Architect of the Capitol, June 1, 2005), p. 6.

    4.
 Walter C. Clephane, “The Local Aspect of Slavery in the District of Columbia,”
Records of the Columbia Historical Society
, Washington, D.C., Vol. 3,1900, p. 235.

    5.
 G. Franklin Edwards and Michael R. Winston, “Commentary: The Washington of Paul Jennings—White House Slave, Free Man, and Conspirator for Freedom,” White House Historical Association,
http://www.whitehousehistory.org/​whha_publications/​publications_documents/​whitehousehistory_01-jennings.pdf
; Citing Letitia Woods Brown,
Free Negroes in the District of Columbia, 1790–1846
. New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1972.

    6.
 Ibid, p. 239.

    7.
 Ibid, Arnebeck, “The Use of Slaves.”

    8.
 Bob Arnebeck,
Through A Fiery Trial: Building Washington 1790-1800
(Lanham, MD: Madison Books, 1991), p. 456.

    9.
 Charles A. Cerami,
Benjamin Benneker: Surveyor, Astronomer, Publisher, Patriot
(Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons, 2002), p. 122.

  10.
 The “triangular slave trade” is a reference to the trade link between Europe, Africa, and the Americas during the slave era. Ships would leave Europe and sail to Africa, where they would trade manufactured goods such as rum for captured Africans. Those ships would then carry the newly enslaved people to the Americas and sell or trade them for raw goods or cash crops. Finally, the ships would return to Europe with cotton, sugar, tobacco, and other products produced from slave labor and sell them at great profit.

  11.
 Roger Wilkins,
Jefferson's Pillow: The Founding Fathers and the Dilemma of Black Patriotism
(Boston: Beacon Press, 2001), p. 11.

  12.
 Allen,
History of Slave Laborers
, p. 4; and Arnebeck, “The Use of Slaves.”

  13.
 All three were slave owners. They were replaced in 1794 by Gustavus Scott, William Thornton, and Alexander White. Scott and Thornton were slave owners as well.

  14.
 See Cerami, op. cit.; and Silvio A. Bedini,
The Life of Benjamin Banneker: the First African-American Man of Science
(Baltimore, MD: Maryland Historical Society, 1999).

  15.
 Ibid, Arnebeck, “The Use of Slaves.”

  16.
 Ibid.

  17.
 Ibid., Allen,
History of Slave Laborers
, p. 10.

  18.
 Ibid., p. 8.

  19.
 Arnebeck, “The Use of Slaves.”

  20.
 Ibid.

  21.
 Ibid.

  22.
 Ibid.

  23.
 Ibid.

  24.
 Ibid.

  25.
 Ibid.

  26.
 Ibid., p. 205; and Jesse J. Holland,
Black Men Built the Capitol: Discovering African-American History In and Around Washington
(Guilford, CT: Globe Pequot, 2007), p. 4.

  27.
 Arnebeck, “The Use of Slaves.”

  28.
 Ibid.

  29.
 Ibid. Research on the census records of the time was inconclusive in determining LeClair's race.