Descendant Of White House Slave Shares Legacy

[Galileo]

Descendant Of White House Slave Shares Legacy

August 24, 2009

In 1814, Paul Jennings, a slave in President James Madison's White House, helped rescue George Washington's portrait from the White House before it was burned down by the British. Hugh Alexander, his great-great grandson, calls the legacy "awe-inspiring."

Listen to the Story
All Things Considered
[4 min 18 sec]

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...97&ft=1&f=1022

This is a very touching story, it brought tears to my eyes.

Paul Jennings:

"Mr. Madison, I think, was one of the best men that ever lived.

I never saw him in a passion, and never knew him to strike a slave, although he had over one hundred; neither would he allow an overseer to do it. Whenever any slaves were reported to him as stealing or "cutting up" badly, he would send for them and admonish them privately, and never mortify them by doing it before others. They generally served him very faithfully."

A COLORED MAN'S REMINISCENCES OF JAMES MADISON
BY PAUL JENNINGS.
1865

http://docsouth.unc.edu/neh/jennings/jennings.html

[clambake]

ah, the good ole days!