Did Negro slaves build the White House as Michelle Obama says?

I believe on this subject we have to get this one right….
no generalizations or dummy answers.

Slavery was legal in Washington DC until 1862. The White House was built in the 1790s. DC sits between the slave states Maryland and Virginia. So this isn’t surprising.

The White House Historical Association has an image of payroll records labeled “Presidents House Carpentry Roll” that shows White House architect James Hoban signing for the wages of his slaves named Ben, Daniel, and Peter.

The site also says:
“The D.C. commissioners, charged by Congress with building the new city under the direction of the president, initially planned to import workers from Europe to meet their labor needs. However, response to recruitment was dismal and soon they turned to African American—enslaved and free—to provide the bulk of labor that built the White House, the United States Capitol, and other early government buildings.”

“Stonemason Collen Williamson trained enslaved people on the spot at the government’s quarry at Aquia, Virginia. Enslaved people quarried and cut the rough stone that was later dressed and laid by Scottish masons to erect the walls of the President’s House. The slaves joined a work force that included local white laborers and artisans from Maryland and Virginia, as well as immigrants from Ireland, Scotland, and other European nations.”

Link

Correction: Hoban collected his rental fees for slaves, they did not get wages.

The ugly truth about the White House and its history of slavery

I knew that slave labor was involved in building the original White House.
It’s a safe bet that slave labor was involved (to some degree) in nearly enterprise undertaken in the United States until slavery was abolished.

Why do Americans believe that slavery is synonymous with African-American? Or believe that slavery doesn’t exist in the modern world? Honestly, I expected the Obamas to openly address modern slavery. America could have healed some of it’s own historical wounds by leading the modern world in addressing slavery today.

Here is what Abigail Adams had to say at the time:

The effects of Slavery are visible every where; and I have amused myself from day to day in looking at the labour of 12 negroes from my window, who are employd with four small Horse Carts to remove some dirt in front of the house. the four carts are all loaded at the same time, and whilst four carry this rubish about half a mile, the remaining eight rest upon their Shovels, Two of our hardy N England men would do as much work in a day as the whole 12, but it is true Republicanism that drive the Slaves half fed, and destitute of clothing…whilst the owner waches about Idle, tho his one Slave is all the property he can boast, Such is the case of many of the inhabitants of this place.

—Abigail Smith Adams to Cotton Tufts, 28 November 1800 (Source: National Archives)

“Mrs. Adams found slavery morally distasteful and woefully inefficient. Although her husband, John Adams, had never enslaved any people, Abigail Smith Adams had grown up in a slaveholding household. She later became an outspoken opponent of slavery.

After the White House burned in 1815, it was rebuilt, again using enslaved labor. Read more about the history of slavery and the early presidency in the forthcoming In the Shadow of Liberty: The Hidden History of Slavery, Four Presidents, and Five Black Lives (September 20, 2016).”

@marinelife Bill O’Reilly would disagree with Mrs Adams. After all, he is a history teacher!

He said the slaves were well fed and well housed and had it pretty good.

Slavery is OK if you treat them well? I don’t think so.