designed desig designed to for enslaved and free african-americans greatly impacted them. while free african-americans had some protections. these were not strongly enforced. if they didn't have their free passes on them, they could be labeled as runaways. even if someone did not come to claim them, they could be sold to cover the jail fees. they were charged a daily fee to be held in the jail. these conditions helped make the slave trade in d.c. lucrative with d.c. teetering between anti-slavery and pro slavery sensibilities. washington, d.c. functioned as large slave depot for nearly 50 years where enslaved people from maryland and alexandria were often held before being sold down south to georgia, the carolinas or new orleans. numerous advertisements called for 20 to 40, 50 to 80 or as many as 200 people at a time.

small scale trading was rife among owners, particularly in taverns and hotels. most sales involved say five to 20 people at a time. even more common were brokers helping owners to sell off a few people to raise a little money as scholar mary beth corrigan notes. during the years circa 1822 to 1836, john gadsby advertised 81 to 93 people. his 1830 census record indicates he owned 39 people. again, john gadsby could take advantage of the flourishing slave trade. the national hotel was relatively close to other hotels in the city involved in the slave trade and a reasonable distance from slave jails and pens. one infamous hotel, the st. charles, advertised that you could come for the auction and house the people you bought in their basements. it was very convenient.

one infamous hotel, the st. charles -- oh, sorry. during the first decades or so of the 19th century, slave trading appeared to be concentrated in georgetown, and later moves to what is now downtown washington near the national mall and the capitol. there were several notorious pens in the area. for instance, william h. penn which we'll talk about later operated the yellow house. in the late 1830s he advertised his jail was near the national hotel. it was located between 7th and 9th streets near independence avenue approximately where the federal aviation building is today. rather than a jail, however, john gadsby used his hotel as a facade and as a conduit for his dealings. carla jones argues slave traders or the national hotel functioned as urban plantations. she cites historian herman bernard who states these places were intended not as places of agricultural production but

as a method of social organization. there are spaced demark indicated for enslaved people who are still in close products commitment to their owners or confined to the owners' property. charles dickens during his tour of america in 1842 described the yard or area demarcated for enslaved people at a hotel many historians believe is the national. the hotel in which we live is a long row of houses fronting on the street, opening at the back upon a common yard in which hangs a gray triangle. whenever a servant is wanted, someone beats on this triangle from one stroke up to seven according to the number of the house in which his presence in required. as all the servants are always being wanted and none of them ever come, this enlivening engine is in full performance the whole day through. clothes are drying in the same yard. female slaves with cotton handkerchiefs twisted around their heads are running to and

fro in hotel business. black waiters cross and recross with dishes in their hands. this hotel seems to function as a large version of annish plantation. the enterprise coupled with the boom in slave trading turning people into commodities to be bought and sold and traded across state lines. most if not all people working in john gadsby's holes creating a strong association between servitude and african-americans. it is possible gadsby increased the value of a slave person through work at the hotel because they are trained with so many guests and to do a variety of tasks. designed as armies, masses, or given characteristics such as lazy or being incompetent which demonstrates the process of conscious or unconscious dehumanization worked. a traveler describes a spectacle

militaryistic atmosphere of the national hotel. gadsby conducted his hotel in a sort of military style. this was observed at his long dinner table. the guests all being seated and an army of colored servants standing behind the chairs. standing at the head of the table, the guests silent with expectation. the word was given. remove covers. all the servants moved each at the same moment placing his hand upon the handle of, lifting it, stepping back in line and facing the head of the table. and at the sign of mr. gadsby, all marching and keeping regular step. edward abdy, an englishman who stayed at the national hotel, and in his conversations with an enslaved man who was hired out to work for john gadsby learns that there are approximately 70 to 80 people working there who barely knew each other. furthermore, the enslaved man was worried his wife was going to be sold to raise money, bringing us back to john gadsby,

but using charles wood as an example, we see gadsby may have purchased him from advertisements he ran for four servants, male and female from february 26th to april 15th, 1834. since john gadsby bought charles april 1st, 1834, it's likely, again, that he purchased him as a result of these advertisements. in addition he tried to sell charles in may during the early part of the buying and selling season during the slave trade like most other enterprises, slave trading was a seasonal thing. he may have also sold charles to offset the cost of buying his retirement home, decatur house. in addition, we see in the census of 1840, that he, as katherine mentioned that there were only 11 people, which is a drastic drop from '49. and he did free some people, but more than likely a lot of the

people he ended up selling again, like he did in baltimore. the advertisements, legal records and census records tell part of the people about john gadsby. william gadsby's actions help fill in the gaps. like his father, william gadsby clearly engaged in small-time slave trading. for instance, in 1836, an advertisement ran in which william lamar asked for house servants to take to georgia with him, and perspective sellers should call to william gadsby and edward dyer at the national hotel. the most notable evidence, again, is from the previously mentioned arlen titled "manhunters." william is actually publicly named as a trader in this article and he is considered part of a third class who engaged in speculation by jockeying for horses, stating they will watch their chance to buy at a bargain and when opportunity occurs to sell it in advance, it is easy to find fault with the slave to justify their consciousness in their pocket. a prime illustration of this is

the kennedy williams case which took place march 23rd, 1838. william gadsby along with newton, john gadsby's son-in-law who co-owned the national hotel, william h. williams, the notorious slave trader and the jailer i mentioned earlier, and jay pendleton were brought to court to testify. william kennedy believed he was going to be wrongfully sold down south. pendleton hired him out to work at the national, and william gadsby accused him of thievery and had him thrown in william h. william's jail. unfortunately we don't know the case's resolution and the ultimate fate of kennedy williams. another piece of the puzzle can be found in the antislavery tract, the fifth annual report of the new york community of vigilance for the year 1842. a young man, emanuel r. recounts his tale of work agent the national hotel as carriage driver. he does not state which gadsby sold him, but it was most likely william.

i emanual r. and his family were sold to work this the cotton fields. fortunately he was able to escape and find help in the district where he was very well known. he fled into new york on horseback and was able to speak to an antislavery group there who published this account of his harrowing account. finally we come to the fantastic and lurid story of daniel webster's alleged illegitimate son benjamin webster. according to an 1878 atlanta paper called the commercial daily, language webster claimed that daniel webster was his father, and his mother was charlotte gooding, one of john gadsby's servants. he was raised to work in the hotel and later given to john gadsby to be a body slave. he was sold to help settle a card game in which john gadsby lost $1,000 worth of gold. this demonstrates william gadsby's unscrupulousness and

his willingness to sell people to pay debts, similar to what his father did. william's actions as a result help explain john gadsby's involvement in the slave trade prior to his arrival at decatur house. the million dollar question remains did the wails and cries of poor souls destined to be sold down south echo from the courtyard of decatur house. evidence lends itself to john gadsby and william gadsby selling slaves quietly out of their hotels, using them as a genteel facade as an ugly enterprise. evidence has not been found to suggest he was selling out of decatur house. whether his neighbors owned enslaved people or not, and many did. that would have been publicly aghast at the horrors of the slave trade. given the trade's high visibility, a public sale would have had john gadsby held accountable by a strong and vocal anti-slavery and

abolitionist contingent. gadsby would not risk his public reputation and spoil the neighborhood by setting up shop in the celebrated decatur house. gadsby prided himself on the image of a self-made man who enjoyed the fruits of his labor in his luxurious new home. of course there is more to the story about the enslaved people who made john gadsby's lifestyle possible. another question is why the reputations of john and william differed so greatly. nonetheless it is clear that john gadsby's role in the slave trade is a complex one. it challenges our ideas of who slave traders were, how they operated and how insidious the commerce was in antebellum society. thank you all so much. [ applause ] >> thank you, alexandria.

now we move across the square from decatur house to the white house. beth taylor has done a wonderful job of piecing together a story that starts in the president's house. but just as important to our theme today, moves well into the 19th century as well into the nearby neighborhoods. her work on paul jennings no doubt was spurred by her time at madison's montpelier home where she was director of education. the topic in general by her prior work at monticello as director of interpretation. her new book "a slave in the white house, paul jennings and the madisons" is receiving really great cover. huffington post, "new york times," "washington post" among others have taken notice. most impressively beth has stared down jon stewart on "the daily show" with an irony-free performance. please join me in welcoming elizabeth dowling taylor. [ applause ]

>> paul jennings knew lafayette square like the back of his hand. he lived in the white house when it was the only structure facing the square, then known as president's square. born on james madison's virginia plantation, he served as a footman during the madison administration. during the war of 1812 helps dolley madison rescue the iconic portrait of george washington from british torches. after 20 years back on the plantation where he was body servant to the ex-president, jennings returned to the square with the widow dolley madison. she had a house on the square's northeast corner where she would

live out her widowhood like a queen dowager, presiding over a secondary court to the white house. jennings, her butler and coachman would have a second white house experience beginning in 1845 when his mistress hired him out to president james polk. when dolley madison died in 1849, jennings had spent just the last two of his 50 years as a freeman, little thanks to her. she had offered him for sale for $200. jennings knew people in high places and he had gotten daniel webster, formerly a neighbor on the square to advance him his purchase price. he was working for webster paying off his debt when his former mistress died. she was given the grand estate funeral to date regarded as she was as one of the last relics of the founding generation. it took place right here at st.

john's church. but now i have gotten ahead of myself, so let me back up. in my book released last month, "a slave in the white house: paul jennings and the madisons," i tell the story of jennings's one-of-a-kind journey from slavery to freedom which played out in the highest circles of ideas and power, the white house, james madison's study. in freedom, jennings worked with northern abolitionists in an underground railroad operation known as the pearl incident, the largest scale attempted slave escape in american history and he authored the first white house memoir as decreed by the white house historical association. the full text is an appendix in the book. it was in 1865 that jennings' memoir was published. so again, i have gotten ahead of myself.

let me rewind to 1837. in the book, i start each chapter with what we might call a vignette or scene. the one i would like to read for you opens chapter 5 and finds jennings back in washington after two decades in virginia. it is february 1837 and he is preparing the widow dolley madis madison's city house for her return to president's square. in the third week of february, judith reeves, the madison's virginia neighbor in washington because of her husband's senate career wrote a letter to dolley madison at montpelier. i took the liberty of going to your house a few weeks ago and walking all about it. on asking a little girl who came to the door if there was anyone there, she said there was a gentleman. then she told me it was only a colored gentleman. good uncle paul stepped forth

and quite justified her appellation by inviting me in and escorting me about in the most gentlemen-like manner. paul jenng returned to president's square for the first time in 20 years. the previous summer james madison had died and change had been the watch word ever since. mistress dolley decided she would make use of her city house on president square and sent jennings ahead to ready the dwelling. the town noise was humming in anticipation of the new martin van buren administration. the atmosphere must have reminded jennings of james madison's inauguration 28 years earlier. as president andrew jackson prepared to close shop at the white house up the street, jennings took stock of a president's square much altered, starting with the name. the marquis de lafayette's return to america as the nation's guest in 1824 had

occasioned the name shift in his honor, though the lafayette square designation took only slowly. dolley, for example, continued to use president's square on her letters. the comment itself was no longer an abandoned apple orchard but had been landscaped in advance of lafayette's visit. the restored white house sported porticos at both the north and south fronts. half the bill's charred and weakened exterior walls had been rebuilt. in the course of which workmen dug out in the course of preservation the dinner display the day the british torched the mansion in august 1814. the george washington portrait had long ago been retrieved from the maryland farmhouse where it rested in safety for several weeks after the fire and returned to dolley madison, who made sure that it was hung in the monroe white house. not until the last years of the madison administration had the square begun to buzz with construction.

even as the white house was being repaired, the cornerstone was laid for st. john's church on the opposite edge of the common. the first episcopal service was celebrated there six months before the madison household returned to virginia. on jennings' return to washington, he counted about half a dozen homes facing the square. the one to which he attended was a colonial-style dwelling, two-stories plus attic high with cellar below. sitting on the square's northeast angle catty-corner to the church, the house was originally built for dolley's sister's family in 1820. dolley never had the opportunity to visit over the 20 years she was back in virginia, as much as she would have liked to, musing how happy i should be if montpelier joined washington. now she would alternate her living arrangements by season. winters in the city house, and summers at montpelier.

as for jennings himself, his young manhood was behind him and he was still a slave. nevertheless, he applied his intelligence, experience and motivation over the intervening years, taking advantage of opportunities to pursue that most american of promises, the right to rise. the contrast with dolly's son is striking. pain todd now 45 was hopelessly alcohol uk and with neither occupation nor spouse seemed to lack purpose altogether. of course, one could say pain took advantage of his situation, too. he certainly had taken advantage of his mother and stepfather time and again, slowly draining their finances and good will. the little girl in judith reeves letter had identified jennings as only a colored gentleman. jennings' rise would always require unremitting resistance against legal, social and psychological impediments.

by the early 1840s, the social and political elite of the capital were being wined and dined on lafayette square at dolley madison's house, at john gadsby's house, and at daniel webster's house and benjamin taylor's house. webster was secretary of state at this time and owned the house just a few doors west of here, the site of the chamber of commerce building today. the talows lived on the same lane as dolly and july they -- julie would occasionally forward notes to dolly asking if he might borrow paul for her dinner parties. the soirees at all of these fine homes could not have been grander thanks to household staff like paul jennings, nancy syphax and at webster's cook monica mccarty. all three of these individuals were about the same age. jennings and syphax each had a

connection to a president and his virginia plantation. nancy syphax, like her mother before her, having been born at mt. vernon. monica mccarty had been offered for sale years before to daniel webster. she was a very talented cook. but webster replied that he could never own a slave, but he would pay mccarty's purchase price and have her work it off as his employee. one imagines the friendship, the alternate culture going on among jennings, syphax, mccarty and other african-americans in the neighborhood. when dolly madison sold her virginia plantation for good in 1844, that meant jennings was altogether separated from his wife and children who belonged to a different owner back in virginia.

this same year his wife died. so now those children were motherless. in 1845 dolly madison and president polk allowed jennings to visit his children in virginia. but when he stayed longer than allowed, dolly wrote her son payne that paul will lose the best place, and his mistress's convenient resources. jennings determined to buy his freedom, dolly set the price at $200, a sum that was beyond him. that is when knowing monica mccarty's story, jennings went to daniel webster for help. and webster arranged for the advance of jennings's purchase price. it was during his first full year of freedom in 1848 that

jennings acted as an operative in the pearl escape attempt. one of the 77 slaves who boarded the schooner that night and hid themselves below decks was dolly madison's slave ellen stewart. she was the 15-year-old daughter of paul's great friend suki, dolly's ladies maid. it may well have been ellen's desperate need for escape that precipitated jennings' involvement in the pearl affair. you see, six months earlier, dolly determined that she was going to sell ellen to the georgians as the african-americans of the time referred to the traders whereby slaves would be resold to the deep south. the trader was at dolly madison's house across the way and had called ellen in, nominally for bringing in a glass of water.

but really so she could show her to the trader. ellen was excused, and there was a deal between dolly and the trader that, at a prearranged time, dolly would send ellen to fetch water at the public square right here on the lafayette square common. but that really this would be the opportunity for the slave trader to pounce on her. but in the end, ellen got wind of the maneuver and she dashed across lafayette square into the bustle of the city and i think to the protection of paul jennings. of course, as most of you probably know, in the end the pearl schooner did not make it as planned to freedom in the north. winds too light on the potomac followed by winds too rough to enter the chesapeake bay. plus there was an informant back in washington who put the white owners on the trail of the 77

slaves sooner instead of later. the pearl was hauled back in to washington and those slaves on board faced the fate they most dreaded, sale to the deep south and permanent separation from home and family. in our consideration today of prominent african-americans associated with this area, i would like to include the freeman family especially since i believe we have descendants present. john freeman, once he obtained his freedom, worked as a waiter at gadsby's hotel. earlier freeman had been a slave belonging to thomas jefferson who sold him to james madison. he worked in the madison white house with jennings as did his wife, melinda colbert freeman. she a free person, formerly enslaved by thomas jefferson, melinda was a member of the well known hemings family of monticello. the freemans were founders of

the neighborhood where jennings purchased the house in 1854, just a 15 to 20-minute walk northwest of lafayette square. the freemans and jennings were eventually joined by other families of ex-slaves of presidents in this neighborhood including three syphax brothers, charles ii, william and colbert, sons of maria carter custis and charles s. syphax senior and nephews of nancy syphax who worked with jennings earlier on lafayette square. now in the 1850s, jennings and charles syphax, ii worked together in the pension office under the department of the interior. charles's brother, william syphax was also employed in the interior department rising from messenger to clerk and he was a leader in public education for african-americans in washington. back to lafayette square proper,

i want to tell you the story of jennings interactions with dolly madison in her old age. she was suffering financially all through her widowhood and things got worse and worse until in her last few years she wanted for the very necessities of life. webster would send jennings over to her house with basketfuls of provisions. jennings, as he writes in his memoir would pull small sums of money out of his own pocket to give to dolly madison. this is an ironic reversal of fortune, but it also indicates the great generosity of spirit that paul jennings displayed. now, i have a few illustrations

to share with you in closing. i will be hanging in during the lunch break to sign books which will be sold in the church parish house. there are over 20 illustrations, maps and graphics in this book. those that could not be included are posted on my website. now this jennings degariotype, this according to experts is from the late 1840s. so this would have been soon after he attained his freedom. he must have marched himself down to the photographer's studio to sit for his likeness. and you notice that he is holding his prop of choice, a book. and this might mean, this must mean he is proud of his literacy, and we know that he learned to read and write as a slave because there are letters of his. i learned how he came to be able to read and write through the jennings family oral tradition. most notably through the family