Rövid leírás:
The true story of Paul Jennings, a slave in the household of America’s fourth president James Madison, and an extraordinary man in his own right – he taught himself to write and read and purchased his freedom. This accessible and original narative history was a bestseller in the US.
Hosszú leírás:
A New York Times bestseller, A Slave in the White House received glowing reviewsthatpraised its narrative and original research. It is the story of Paul Jennings, who was born into slavery on the plantation of James and Dolley Madison in Virginia and moved with the Madison household staff to the White House. Jennings was a self-taught and self-made man who purchased his own freedom and penned the first ever White House memoir. Nearly two centuries later, Montpelier scholar Elizabeth Dowling Taylor uncovered the memoir. In this amazing narrative she reconstructs his lifeand hisunusual portraits of James and Dolley Madison andSenator Daniel Websterin early nineteenth century Washington, as well as the 1812 assault on British troops and Jennings’ heroic saving of George Washington’s portrait. Fascinating and original, this is an important contribution to American history.
Tartalomjegyzék:
Preface; A.Gordon-Reed
Introduction
Raised and Nurtured
Presidential Household
Enamoured with Freedom
Not Even Paul
Change of Mind
His Own Free Hands
First Families of Color
The Right to Rise
Appendix: A Colored Man’s Reminiscences of James Madison
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index
