DOCSLIB.ORG

Household Slave Personal Maid Mother

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Household Slave Personal Maid Mother Life Story Sukey ca. 1795–after 1848 Household Slave The enslaved handled cooking, cleaning, ison’s wardrobe, helped her dress and change Mother ukey was born into slavery on laundry, and other chores, just as George several times a day, fixed her hair, inspected There is no record of what Sukey thought Montpelier, the Madison family’s Washington’s and Thomas Jefferson’s slaves and repaired her clothes after each wearing, or felt . Unlike Paul Jennings, she did Virginia plantation . As children, she had done in their administrations . But carefully washed the most delicate items, and not learn to read and write . There are and Paul Jennings, also enslaved at Sukey does not appear in Dolley’s letters put everything away for the next use . To Dolley no images of her either . The watercolor SMontpelier, became part of James and Dolley until James was no longer president and they Madison, her clothes meant fashion and power . painting included here portrays a different Madison’s household staff in Washington . were all back at Montpelier . Mentioning To Sukey, they meant work . Theirs was an inti- black woman from the same period, a her for the first time in mate relationship between two women whose cook about Sukey’s age . Most of what is a letter in 1818, Dolley condition and status could not have been more known about Sukey comes from the letters wrote that Sukey had different . Sukey would have known details of her owner, Dolley Madison, and from been stealing from every that few others did: that Mrs . Madison had Paul Jennings, who once called her “sister room in the house, and painful rheumatism and trouble with her eyes, Sukey ”. Historians now believe Sukey had that Dolley had sent her that she was sometimes lonely and depressed . at least five children: Rebecca in 1824, away to one of the other followed quickly by Ben, George, and Madison farms: “[I] find William . The youngest, Ellen, was born it terribly inconvenient to in 1833 . They used the surname Stewart, do without her, & suppose Dolley Madison’s Silk Satin and when they were old enough, they I shall take her again . Open Robe . The National became house servants to the Madisons . Museum of American History, I must even let her steal Smithsonian Institution . from me, to keep from Sukey continued to serve Mrs . Madison labor myself—more than for many years, and she attended Mr . my strength will permit ”. Madison in his final illness . After James died, when the widowed Dolley began to spend more time in Washington, Personal Maid Sukey went with her . She was there in Mrs . Madison did take 1844, when news arrived that her son Sukey back, and later William was dying . Her daughter Rebecca called her “my most ef- was sold that year . Ben, and possibly ficient House servant ”. George, had been sold the year before . Every person the Madisons enslaved in the mansion And then, in late 1847, Mrs . Madison was a “house servant,” but tried to sell Sukey’s last child, 15-year-old Sukey had a special role: Ellen, for $400 . She made arrangements she was Dolley’s personal with slave traders to send Ellen to the maid . Her precise tasks are public well, where they could seize her . The Baroness Anne-Marguerite-Henriette Hyde de Neuville, Martha Church, Cook in “Ordinary not known, but she proba- traders bungled the operation, however, Costume,” ca . 1807–1814 . Watercolor, graphite, and brown ink on paper . New-York Historical © Copyright 2017 New-York Historical Society Historical © Copyright 2017 New-York Society, 1953 .276 . bly took care of Mrs . Mad- and Ellen ran away, hiding in a safe house Saving Washington: The New Republic and Early Reformers, 1790–1860 Life Story Sukey ca. 1795–after 1848 continued for the next six months . She may well have began a massive fund-raising effort on had help from Paul Jennings, who was Ellen’s behalf . One newspaper wrote: “Let Discussion Questions then free . On April 15, 1848, Ellen was me ask the good women, mothers and ✮ one of seventy runaways who boarded the sisters, to pity the poor child . Her As an enslaved female domestic, what were schooner Pearl under cover of darkness and mother is overwhelmed with grief ”. By Sukey’s responsibilities in the Madison household? set sail down the Potomac River toward July 1848, enough money had been raised Philadelphia in a massive slave escape that to buy Ellen Stewart from a Baltimore ✮ What punishments did Sukey endure for Jennings helped plan . When Mrs . Madison slave pen for $475 . This figure included displeasing Dolley Madison? What do heard the news the following morning, she the original price paid to Mrs . Madison, these episodes reveal about the lives of flew into a rage and sold Sukey on the spot and $75 for the expenses incurred by the enslaved women? to a local Washington family . With this, pen’s owners . Soon after, Sukey’s daughter ✮ Sukey vanished from the public record . was reported to be in Boston, living free . Why do historians have to rely on third- person accounts to learn about Sukey’s life? The Pearl was captured before it escaped For the story of two other teenage Southern waters . Ellen Stewart was girls aboard the Pearl, see the life ✮ Why is it important to do the work imprisoned with other runaways, and soon story of the Edmonson Sisters . necessary to uncover the lives and sold by Mrs . Madison for $400 . Dolley experiences of women like Sukey? promised to send her son Payne some of the proceeds “to put his clothes in order ”. Abolitionists had long been critical of the Madisons, and Dolley especially, for continuing to own slaves . Two weeks before the attempted Pearl escape, the abolitionist newspaper The Liberatorscoffed at news that Dolley was broke: “What may be thought of the idea that old Mrs . Madison is [so] reduced and destitute, that she must exchange the members of her family for potatoes, beans and pork, to keep life a-going, we do not know . It certainly Sources: Significant details in this life story are based on Elizabeth sounds queer in our ears . It has been a Dowling Taylor’s A Slave in the White House: Paul Jennings and the very general impression that Mr . Madison Madisons (New York: St . Martin’s Press, 2012), and on research by historians at The Dolley Madison Digital Edition, Holly C . left a fair, if not large property . ” . Shulman, ed ., University of Virginia . Additional sources: Catherine Allgor, A Perfect Union: Dolley Madison and the Creation of the American Nation (New York: Henry Holt and company, 2006); Following the story of the Pearl’s Mary Kay Ricks, Escape on the Pearl: The Heroic Bid for Freedom on © Copyright 2017 New-York Historical Society Historical © Copyright 2017 New-York recaptured slaves closely, abolitionists the Underground Railroad (New York: William Morrow, 2007) . Saving Washington: The New Republic and Early Reformers, 1790–1860.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Paul Jennings's Account of the British Attack
    Resource 7: Paul Jennings’s Account of the British Attack Paul Jenning’s Reminiscence He even gave her small amounts of rs . Madison ordered dinner to be ready at 3, as usual; I set the table money when he could, and spoke myself, and brought up the ale, cider, and wine, and placed them in the highly of her . She evidently did not know that he helped plan the failed coolers, as all the Cabinet and several military gentlemen and strangers 1848 slave escape aboard the Pearl . Mwere expected . While waiting, at just about 3, as Sukey, the house-servant, was lolling (See the life stories of Sukey and The out of a chamber window, James Smith, a free colored man who had accompanied Edmonson Sisters .) Mr . Madison to Bladensburg, gallopped up to the house, waving his hat, and cried Paul Jennings had learned to read E . C . Perry Photograph Co ., Paul Jennings, undated . out, ‘Clear out, clear out! General Armstrong has ordered a retreat!’ All then was Photograph . Estate of Sylvia Jennings Alexander . and write . In 1865, he published the confusion . Mrs . Madison ordered her carriage, and passing through the dining- first White House memoir, A Colored n 1799, Paul Jennings was born Man’s Reminiscences of James Madison. room, caught up what silver she could crowd into her old-fashioned reticule, and to slavery on the Madison plan- These passages deal with the alarming then jumped into the chariot with her servant girl Sukey, and Daniel Carroll, who tation, Montpelier . He moved hours just before the British attacked took charge of them; Jo .
    [Show full text]
  • Teaching Standards- Based Creativity in the Arts
    Teaching Standards-based Creativity in the Arts Issued by Office of Academic Standards South Carolina Department of Education Jim Rex State Superintendent of Education 2007 1 Table of Contents CONTRIBUTORS ................................................................................. 3 WHY CREATIVITY? ............................................................................. 5 CULTIVATING CREATIVITY IN ARTS EDUCATION: MYTHS, MISCONCEPTIONS, AND PRACTICAL PROCEDURES………………………..7 DANCE: .......................................................................................... 100 GRADES PREK-K ............................................................................... 101 GRADES 1-2 .................................................................................... 111 GRADES 3-5 .................................................................................... 122 GRADES 6-8 .................................................................................... 139 GRADES 9-12 .................................................................................. 162 GRADES 9-12 ADVANCED .................................................................... 186 DANCE CREATIVITY RESOURCE LIST ........................................................ 208 MUSIC ............................................................................................ 213 MUSIC: GENERAL ............................................................................. 214 GRADES PREK-K ..............................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Shirley Plantation As a Historic House Museum, 1894–2013
    Virginia Commonwealth University VCU Scholars Compass Theses and Dissertations Graduate School 2013 "To Preserve, Protect, and Pass On:" Shirley Plantation as a Historic House Museum, 1894–2013 Kerry Dahm Virginia Commonwealth University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd Part of the History Commons © The Author Downloaded from https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/3282 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at VCU Scholars Compass. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of VCU Scholars Compass. For more information, please contact [email protected]. © Kerry A. Dahm 2013 All Rights Reserved “To Preserve, Protect, and Pass On:” Shirley Plantation as a Historic House Museum, 1894–2013 A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts at Virginia Commonwealth University. by Kerry Anne Dahm Bachelor of Arts, Virginia Commonwealth University, 2009 Director: Dr. John T. Kneebone Associate Professor, Virginia Commonwealth University Department of History Virginia Commonwealth University Richmond, Virginia December 2013 ii Acknowledgements My journey through graduate school and my ability to write and finish this thesis is due to the many people who have supported and encouraged me in the last two years. Each one of them has helped me pursue this once unthinkable goal of getting a graduate degree in History. I would like to thank… • Dr. Norrece T. Jones for helping me to develop critical thinking and historical research skills while I was an undergraduate student at VCU. • The staff at the Library of Virginia, particularly John Deal, Brent Tarter, Mari Julienne, and Gregg Kimball for listening to me talk about my thesis and offering advice as well as encouragement for pursuing my topic.
    [Show full text]
  • RIVERFRONT CIRCULATING MATERIALS (Can Be Checked Out)
    SLAVERY BIBLIOGRAPHY TOPICS ABOLITION AMERICAN REVOLUTION & SLAVERY AUDIO-VISUAL BIOGRAPHIES CANADIAN SLAVERY CIVIL WAR & LINCOLN FREE AFRICAN AMERICANS GENERAL HISTORY HOME LIFE LATIN AMERICAN & CARIBBEAN SLAVERY LAW & SLAVERY LITERATURE/POETRY NORTHERN SLAVERY PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF SLAVERY/POST-SLAVERY RELIGION RESISTANCE SLAVE NARRATIVES SLAVE SHIPS SLAVE TRADE SOUTHERN SLAVERY UNDERGROUND RAILROAD WOMEN ABOLITION Abolition and Antislavery: A historical encyclopedia of the American mosaic Hinks, Peter. Greenwood Pub Group, c2015. 447 p. R 326.8 A (YRI) Abolition! : the struggle to abolish slavery in the British Colonies Reddie, Richard S. Oxford : Lion, c2007. 254 p. 326.09 R (YRI) The abolitionist movement : ending slavery McNeese, Tim. New York : Chelsea House, c2008. 142 p. 973.71 M (YRI) 1 The abolitionist legacy: from Reconstruction to the NAACP McPherson, James M. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, c1975. 438 p. 322.44 M (YRI) All on fire : William Lloyd Garrison and the abolition of slavery Mayer, Henry, 1941- New York : St. Martin's Press, c1998. 707 p. B GARRISON (YWI) Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the heroic campaign to end slavery Metaxas, Eric New York, NY : Harper, c2007. 281p. B WILBERFORCE (YRI, YWI) American to the backbone : the life of James W.C. Pennington, the fugitive slave who became one of the first black abolitionists Webber, Christopher. New York : Pegasus Books, c2011. 493 p. B PENNINGTON (YRI) The Amistad slave revolt and American abolition. Zeinert, Karen. North Haven, CT : Linnet Books, c1997. 101p. 326.09 Z (YRI, YWI) Angelina Grimke : voice of abolition. Todras, Ellen H., 1947- North Haven, Conn. : Linnet Books, c1999. 178p. YA B GRIMKE (YWI) The antislavery movement Rogers, James T.
    [Show full text]
  • Junkins, Desaie Elizabeth Jacobs, William Alvie Jackson, Charles H
    I ESTATE EXECUTOR OR ADMINISTRATOR ^?^^ Arendt. Andrew Beachy, Samuel J. Admr. thru ' 55 1^95 Ash, Luclnda Miller, Mary Admrx. 1V6 Augustine, John Augustine, Catharine Extrx, 160 Arnold, Elizabeth Arnold, F. P. Admr. 178 Arenhalt, Amos U. Arenhalt, Samuel W. Admr. Iftj Alrronhalt, John Karvey, Join W. Extr. 193 I Anderson, William J, Shllllngburg, John W. Admr. 199 Alt, Frederick Spoerleln, Henry Extr. 23^ Anderson, John B« Anderson, Bazll Blocher, George W. Admrs, 273 Ault, George Ault, John Extr. 3^0 1^96 Arnold, Benonl C. Hewitt, Levl Extr. thru Uk5 I 1915 Augustine, lanlel Augustine, Jasper Admr.c.t.a. Uh6 Anderson, Robert I. Anderson, Jane T. Extrx. W97 Albright, Victor E. Albright, Edmund Bishop, William Admrs, 572 Ash, Benjamin Ash., Mary Anmrx. B 619 Augustine, Mahala J. Augustine, Jacob I., Admr. C 767 Anderson, Jacob V. Anderson, Christena E. Kxtrx. C 794 Aronh.ilt, Elisha Aronhalt, Mary A. Kxtrx. C Adams, '.Villiam M. C. Adams, Peter K. Admr. C ^25 Anderson, William H. Anderson, Viola Admrx. c ^47 1916 Ault, Jonhia Hauser, W. A. F-xtr. c 1025 thru 1930 Ault, George F. Ault, Earl H. Admr. c 1074 Arnold, Thomas B. Arnold, John A. Admr. c 1115 Augustine, J. L, Englehart, J. I . Kxtr. c 1171 I Ashby, Stephen G. Ashby, Ralph T. Ashby, Dorsuy T. Extrs. c 1193 Abernathy, Isaac W, Blamble, John A. Kxtr. c 1344 Atkinson, Myra H. Davis, J. Hornor Admr. c 137^ Albright, Eli G. Albright, D. Purr Admr, c 1437 Ashby, J. Frank Ashby, Hrnest Kxtr. c 1442 Arnold, Peter F, Arnold, Eliza Kxtrx.
    [Show full text]
  • Marriage Record Index 1922-1938 Images Can Be Accessed in the Indiana Room
    Marriage Record Index 1922-1938 Images can be accessed in the Indiana Room. Call (812)949-3527 for more information. Groom Bride Marriage Date Image Aaron, Elza Antle, Marion 8/12/1928 026-048 Abbott, Charles Ruby, Hallie June 8/19/1935 030-580 Abbott, Elmer Beach, Hazel 12/9/1922 022-243 Abbott, Leonard H. Robinson, Berta 4/30/1926 024-324 Abel, Oscar C. Ringle, Alice M. 1/11/1930 027-067 Abell, Lawrence A. Childers, Velva 4/28/1930 027-154 Abell, Steve Blakeman, Mary Elizabeth 12/12/1928 026-207 Abernathy, Pete B. Scholl, Lorena 10/15/1926 024-533 Abram, Howard Henry Abram, Elizabeth F. 3/24/1934 029-414 Absher, Roy Elgin Turner, Georgia Lillian 4/17/1926 024-311 Ackerman, Emil Becht, Martha 10/18/1927 025-380 Acton, Dewey Baker, Mary Cathrine 3/17/1923 022-340 Adam, Herman Glen Harpe, Mary Allia 4/11/1936 031-273 Adam, Herman Glenn Hinton, Esther 8/13/1927 025-282 Adams, Adelbert Pope, Thelma 7/14/1927 025-255 Adams, Ancil Logan, Jr. Eiler, Lillian Mae 4/8/1933 028-570 Adams, Cecil A. Johnson, Mary E. 12/21/1923 022-706 Adams, Crozier E. Sparks, Sarah 4/1/1936 031-250 Adams, Earl Snook, Charlotte 1/5/1935 030-250 Adams, Harry Meyer, Lillian M. 10/21/1927 025-376 Adams, Herman Glen Smith, Hazel Irene 2/28/1925 023-502 Adams, James O. Hallet, Louise M. 4/3/1931 027-476 Adams, Lloyd Kirsch, Madge 6/7/1932 028-274 Adams, Robert A.
    [Show full text]
  • 1Town of Outbamtlton
    THE FIFTH VOLUME OF RECORDS OF THE 1town of �outbamtlton COMPRISING ANCIENT LOOSE DOCUMENTS IN THE TOWN CLERK'S OFFICE ALSO ABSTRACTS OF THE RED BOOK OF DEEDS Copied and prepared for publication by WILLIAM J. POST, Town Clerk, and WILLIAM S. PELLETRE AU, and published b V th e Tow n • JOHN H. HUNT, PRINTER, SAG HARBOR, N. Y. 1910 LIBRARY OF THE TOWN OF SOUTHAMPTON Ofice of the Historian This bok may be examined and studied in the Historian's Office or elsewhere in the Town Hall but it must not be taken from the building. HIstorian I The mission of the Historic Division of the Town Clerk's Office IS to preserve and protect the Town of Southampton's historic holdings for generations to come. The few copies that we have of our original editions of the Record Books of the Town of Southampton are now in need of preservation. In addition to preserving our Town's record books, our goal is to provide improved access to those people that are interested in exploring the wonderful history of the Town of Southampton. Technological developments have allowed us to scan the originals in order to reprint each volume and also to post them on our website offering new search capabilities that have not been available in the past. Respectfully yours, Sundy A. Schermeyer, Town Clerk CERTIFICATION State of New York ) ss.: County of Suffolk) Officeof the Town Clerk Southampton, New York This is to certify that I, Sundy A. Schet'meyer, Clerk of the Town of Southampton, in the said County of Suffolk, State of New York, have compared the original Fifth Book of Records of the Town of Southampton, Long Island, N.
    [Show full text]
  • The Historic Interpretation of Slavery at the Homes of Five Founding Fathers
    Pride and Prejudice: The Historic Interpretation of Slavery at the Homes of Five Founding Fathers by Amanda G. Seymour B.A. in Anthropology & Italian Studies, The University of Virginia A Thesis submitted to The Faculty of The Columbian College of Arts and Sciences of The George Washington University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts May 19, 2013 Thesis directed by Jeffrey P. Blomster Associate Professor of Anthropology and International Affairs To Evy ii Acknowledgements I am grateful to my thesis director, Dr. Jeffrey Blomster and my second reader, Max van Balgooy for their patience and guidance throughout this process. I would also like to thank my co-workers in the Office of the Provost at The George Washington University, who have shown an extraordinary level of compassion and understanding for my situation as both a graduate student and university employee. The friendships that I have made in the Anthropology Department are the kind that will last forever, and the support system we have created has been essential to the completion of my master's degree. And thanks goes to my in-town uncle and aunt, Gene and Marie, whose dinner invitations and dog-sitting needs provided some much needed solace. Special thanks go to my immediate family: Mom, Dad, and Tori, who have been a source of comfort (and escape) when I have been in need. iii Table of Contents Dedication............................................................................................................................ ii Acknowledgements............................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • An Archive of Taste: Race and Eating in the Early United States Lauren Klein, Emory University
    An Archive of Taste: Race and Eating in the Early United States Lauren Klein, Emory University Publisher: University of Minnesota Press Publication Place: Minneapolis, MN Publication Date: 2020-05-12 Type of Work: Book | Final Publisher PDF Permanent URL: https://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/vf508 Final published version: https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/an-archive-of-taste Copyright information: 2020 by Lauren F. Klein This is an Open Access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Accessed September 23, 2021 11:11 AM EDT An Archive of Taste This page intentionally left blank ©International Monetary Fund. Not for Redistribution An Archive of Taste Race and Eating in the Early United States Lauren F. Klein University of Minnesota Press Minneapolis London This book is freely available in an open access edition thanks to TOME (Toward an Open Monograph Ecosystem)—a collaboration of the Association of American Universities, the Association of University Presses, and the Association of Research Libraries—and the gen- erous support of Emory University and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Learn more at the TOME website, available at: openmonographs.org. A different version of chapter 1 was published as “Dinner-Table Bargains: Thomas Jeffer- son, James Madison, and the Senses of Taste,” Early American Literature 49, no. 2 (Spring 2014): 403– 33; copyright 2014 by the University of North Carolina Press, reprinted by permission of the publisher, www.uncpress.org. Different versions of portions of chapter 3 were published in “Speculative Aesthetics,” Early American Literature 51, no.
    [Show full text]
  • Report No Available from Descriptors Abstract
    DOCUMENT RESUME ED 373 127 UD 030 023 AUTHOR Ham, Debra Newman, Ed.; And Others TITLE The African-American Mosaic. A Library of Congress Resource Guide for the Study of Black History and Culture. INSTITUTION Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. REPORT NO ISBN-0-8444-0800-X PUB DATE 93 NOTE 319p. AVAILABLE FROM Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC 20402. PUB TYPE Historical Materials (060) Reference Materials Directories/Catalogs (132) EDRS PRICE MF01/PC13 Plus Postage. DESCRIPTORS *Bibliographic Records; Black Culture; *Black History; *Civil Rights; Civil War (United States); Library Guides; *Library materials; *Racial Relations; Slavery; *United States History; User Needs (Information); World War I; World War II IDENTIFIERS *African Americans; Library of Congress ABSTRACT This book presents a broad survey of the Library of Congress's holdings concerning the history and culture of black Americans in the United States. It provides titles of bibliographies, other guides, aids to finding materials, and individual items. This guide, which is arranged chronologically, discusses Library of Congress collections in three main parts: Part 1, "African-Americans in the Antebellum Period," includes materials about: slavery; free blacks; and abolitionists' antislavery movements, and sectional controversy. Part 2, "Emancipation and Beyond," begins with the Civil War, moves into the Reconstruction era, (which includes materials dating to approximately 1880) ,and ends with what is called the Booker T. Washington era, which spans the years from 1880 to approximately 1915. Part 3, "And the Pursuit of Happiness," discusses: World War I and Postwar Society; the Depression, the New Deal, and World War II; and the Civil Rights era.
    [Show full text]
  • Edmonson Sisters River Potomac YOU ARE HERE 95 495 IA HERIT R AG D E N T a R X a E L I
    395 01 The Edmonson Sisters River Potomac YOU ARE HERE 95 495 IA HERIT R AG D E N T A R X A E L I L A Alexandria Heritage Trail City of Alexandria, Virginia CASH FOR NEGROES I wish to purchase immediately, for the South, Fear of being sold was a constant in a slave’s life. A any number of NEGROES from 10 to 30 years changed agriculture economy reduced demand for slave of age, for which I will pay the highest cash price. labor; a thriving interstate business then developed All communications promptly attended to. selling slaves west and south. West End, Alexandria, Va., Oct. 26.—tf. Those bound for auction were transported by ship or rail, or walked over land in “coffles.” JOSEPH BRUIN Alexandria Gazette, October 28, 1846 Paul Jennings Daniel Drayton Courtesy Estate of Sylvia Jennings Alexander Courtesy Library of Congress Paul Jennings, a butler belonging to Senator Daniel Webster and once th owned by President James Madison; freeman Daniel Bell; and Samuel The West End in the 19 century centered on Duke Edmonson, a “hired-out” slave and brother to Mary and Emily, organized Courtesy Library of Congress the Pearl escape. Of the white crew, Daniel Drayton and Captain Edward Street and Diagonal Road. Largely undeveloped, the Sayres, served four years in prison for the escape; most of the captured From the collection of the Madison County Historical Society, Oneida, NY fugitives were sold in New Orleans. area was devoted to stockyards, agricultural shipment, The Business of Slavery The Edmonson sisters (standing on either side of abolitionist Gerrit Smith, center) joined Frederick Douglass (in dark jacket to right of table) and others in Cazenovia, New York, in 1850 to and “a” notorious business: the slave trade.
    [Show full text]
  • Marie Schwartz on a Slave in the White House: Paul Jennings And
    Elizabeth Dowling Taylor. A Slave in the White House: Paul Jennings and the Madisons. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012. xxiii + 304 pp. $28.00, cloth, ISBN 978-0-230-10893-6. Reviewed by Marie J. Schwartz Published on H-DC (July, 2012) Commissioned by Mary Beth Corrigan (independent consultant) James Madison may have been “an exception‐ When Madison retired from office, Jennings re‐ al statesman, a political philosopher without turned with him to Virginia where he established peer,” but when it came to the management of a family despite having little time of his own. Af‐ Montpelier, his plantation in Orange County, Vir‐ ter James Madison died in 1836, his widow moved ginia, he was “but a garden-variety slaveholder,” back to Washington and hired Jennings out to the writes Elizabeth Dowling Taylor, independent Polks, who now occupied the White House. Once scholar and one-time director of education at again, Jennings served a U.S. president. Madison’s historic home (p. 21). Paul Jennings Eventually, Dolley Madison sold Paul Jennings grew up there in a manner typical for a slave, but to Daniel Webster with the understanding that he when Madison became president in 1809, Jen‐ would earn his freedom by repaying Webster for nings’s life took an extraordinary turn. The ten- the cost of his purchase. Jennings paid off the debt year-old accompanied the Madisons to Washing‐ at age 46. Afterward he worked to free his wife ton, DC, where he served as footman in the presi‐ and children who were still in Virginia. His wife dent’s house.
    [Show full text]