during his time in alexandria, legal records indicate he sold at least six people from 1797 to 1801. in 1800 he owned 11 enslaved people age 16 or above. john gadsby also advertised for ten people to purchase or hire along with four runaways. interestingly, most of the runaways and the people he wanted to purchase for men for specific jobs. for instance, he requests blacksmiths and men accustomed to plantation work. when selling one of his farms, he notes he has valuable field hands for sale. it was common practice to buy and sell enslaved people in taverns and hotels. in an advertisement he states he's looking for families of enslaved people for a farm not to be sold or bartered for, but to be removed to a good situation. it is unlikely known how many enslaved people were bought or sold based on the advertisement, given it asks for a number of prime negroes and welcomes whole

families, it was probably quite a substantial number. another indication he might have allowed dealing in his tavern is he held an enslaved man named moses for a mr. marshall who possibly duped moses into coming with him to alexandria. after his master died, moses was sold to a man from new orleans. mr. marshall managed to persuade him from the man and then traveled to new york and get his freedom, and then left him in the care of john gadsby. any records in the involvement in slave trading in 1808 -- end around 1880 when he leaves for baltimore. in baltimore, john gadsby continued to use enslaved labor at his indian queen hotel. however, for african-americans, the climate and slavery -- sorry, the climate of slavery and their conditions were somewhat better. the post-war depression inspired a switch to the less labor intensive wheat and corn as cash crops, limiting the need for enslaved people. while many owners sold the people they enslaved, many more

manumitted people, so many that laws were passed to curb it. however, there were more missions leading to term slavery. another option was self-purchase in which enslaved people gradually earned the money it bay their tree dm or the freedom of their family members. however, owning enslaved people still remained a status symbol in baltimore. free african-americans during this time were limited by their economic opportunities and further pinned in by racist attitudes. john gadsby himself didn't hire free african-americans at the indian queen which was regarded as one of the plushest hotels in baltimore. the club-like hotel had a reading room as well as baths for customers. it was unusual for the large number of enslaved people. however, given the sumptuous dinners and lavish setting he offered his clientele, he needed a large domestic force. the census records list him as having 45 enslaved people in 1810.

the advertisements tell the story again of any involvement of the slave trade. during the years 1810 to 1818 he asked for 32 to 36 people to work in his hotel. he notes he prefers to purchase rather than hire enslaved people. some of the advertisements specifically request people from the country as opposed to urban slaves which he considered spoiled and prone to running away. however, it could have been due to the fact that an enslaved person from the country may have had fewer connections and would have been easier to sell. the runaway ads also demonstrate gadsby bought and sold people. for instance, we know from a jail ad, basically an ad that would say come get this person, they've run away. he sold a 20 or 21-year-old man named william to a slave trader from new orleans in 1812. he had previously placed a runaway ad for william when he

left when he was 18 in 1810. i guess he managed to get him back. another runaway advertisement for a benchman journey who was purchase from the countryside by john gadsby, which disrupts this theory that mostly urban slaves were prone to run away. there were nine runaways in total, mostly young men likely to be sold as field hands. this was due to a particularly lucrative market in new orleans spurred by the growth of louisiana sugar plantations. the only woman john gadsby took out advertisements for was a mary, a young woman who ran away with her recently vaccinated 12-month-old son. in mary's case, it appears he recently purchased her in 1809 from a woman living four miles outside of baltimore. additionally he mentioned a man named joe downs who helped her escape and offered a substantial reward for his capture. in the same vein john gadsby took out a runaway advertisement for john howe and his mother. john howe is about 25 years old.

his free mother, sarah howe, was about 40 to 50. john gadsby offered reward for both of their captures. again, the evidence slows to a crawl in about 1818 just before gadsby sells his indian queen hotel. in 1819 he announced his retirement from the public life and sells his lands, livestock, coaches from his passenger and mail line and states 20 or 30 enslaved people were to be hired out. it is highly likely he sold many of the people he had in 1810 and may have purchased while he had the hotel in baltimore. the census record for 1820 states he only had 15 people, about a third of the people he had in 1810. there are no records that he freed anyone. and even accounting for deaths and runaways it is very likely he sold at least 30 since he wouldn't have even had a place to house them. john gadsby stated he was retiring from the public life. it's clear that upon arriving in

d.c. he did anything but. he purchased franklin house in 1823 and later in 1827 opened the national hotel, arguably the tour de force of his long career. the national hotel located on pennsylvania and third in what is now downtown washington bore a reputation for splendid accommodations and parties. the hotel had largely pro-southern sympathies, making it a popular place for prominent persons and politicians from the region. it was nope for its comforts and familiarity of slave domestic servants. again, it was impossible for him to run the hotel without the labor of african-americans. they are mostly enslaved people he owned or hired out from residents in the area. however, he did hire some free african-americans as well as whites to work at his hotel. many enslaved people were hired

out or allowed to hire themselves out which permitted again for self-purchase. in many cases women worked typically as domestics or laundresses, and men on the other hand did manual labor or worked as personal valets, coachmen or waiters. free and enslaved african-americans were closely bonded together. they intermarried, worshipped together and free people tout enslaved people to read and write. in spite of the close-knit community, african-americans experience admer curial existence. living conditions varied greatly. access to the people depended on the people who owned or hired them. and extensive black codes designed to limit free and enslaved african-americans greatly impacted their living conditions. also en -- both enslaved and free african-americans had fears of being sold at any time. 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 al 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 5 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. uninfamous hotel, the st. charles, advertised that it had slave pens in the basement so basically 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 did, 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 own houses in the district or in this case 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 spaces demar kated for enslaved people who are still in close proximity to their owners or confined to their 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-scale version of an urban plantation. for instance, it seems that john gadsby had his own personal household and the rest of the staff at his hotel could be bought and sold at will. the plantation 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 the people, working in john gadsby's hotels were enslaved 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 to work with so many guests and do a variety of tasks. designed as armies, masses, or given characteristics such as lazy or being incompetent which demonstrates perhaps the process of can, or unconscious dehumization worked. a traveler describes a spectacle militaristic 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. mr. gadsby, a short, stout gentleman, stand being at the

head of the table, the guests silent with expectation. the word was given. remove covers. all the servants moved like otomata, each at the same moment placing his hand upon the handle of the silver, lifting it and 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. again, not to belabor the point, 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 more than likely he sold some of those people. 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 story about john gadsby. william gadsby's actions help fill in the rest of 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 article entitled "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 augustine naughton, john gads bey'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. unfortunately we don't know tja. unfortunately we don't know tvj. unfortunately we don't know tej. unfortunately we don't know t j. unfortunately we don't know t, e 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. emanuel r. and his family were sold to work in the cottonfields. 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 anti-slavery group there who published this account of

his harrowing escape. finally we come to the fantastic and lurid story of daniel webster's alleged illegitimate son benjamin webster. according to an 1878 report in an atlanta paper called "the commercial daily," daniel 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 john gadsby 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 as 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 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 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 jennings, nearly 38, had 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 and with neither occupation nor spouse seemed to lack purpose altogether. 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 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 madison's house, gadsby's house, 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 they lowe's lived on the same lane as dolly and july they low 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 syfax, 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