James Madison's Montpelier We the People Fall 2014 | Page 8
We The People
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of Paul Jennings. Born into slavery at Montpelier, Paul
Jennings served the Madisons throughout their lives,
including as James Madison’s personal attendant during
his retirement years. Jennings accompanied the Madisons
to the White House and likely aided in the famous rescue
of the portrait of George Washington before the British
burned Washington during the War of 1812. Years later,
he was at Madison’s side when he died and left behind
the only first-person account of Madison’s death.
A lesser-known period in Jennings’ life is how he
obtained freedom through the assistance of Senator
Daniel Webster. Webster had a tradition of purchasing
slaves and allowing them to earn their freedom. After
repaying his “debt” to Webster, Jennings went on to
become a prominent member of Washington's African
American community, acquiring several downtown
properties and assisting slaves on their path to freedom.
Family oral histories tell us that Jennings, a literate man,
forged freedom papers for runaway slaves. Other accounts
indicate that Jennings helped organize an attempted
slave escape involving the Pearl—a ship anchored in the
Potomac River, which more than a hundred slaves boarded
with the hope of obtaining freedom in the North.
“Seeing the places where Paul and his family lived
has brought an unbelievable emotional and intellectual
context to my sense of family and who I am. I often think
about what our forebears might make of our family’s
journey over the past 200 years,” says Ms. Jordan. “I
like to imagine they are looking down and saying, ‘Oh my
goodness, look at this.’”
Jennings died in 1874. Thus, he lived through the Civil
War, in which his three sons, also born into slavery, fought
for the Union. He and George Gilmore both witnessed
the passage of the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to
the Constitution, which guaranteed that the “blessings
of liberty” would be extended to all American citizens,
including former slaves and their descendants. Though the
battle for civil rights would not be materially advanced for
another century, never again would a person be considered
property under the law in the United States of America.
While we revere James Madison and uphold the U.S.
Constitution, commitment to truth dictates that we
recognize Madison was human and, therefore, imperfect—
Margaret
Jordan and
her daughter,
Fawn Jordan,
stand in front
of the Gilbert
Stuart portrait
of George
Washington
in the White
House—the
portrait their
ancestor, Paul
Jennings,
helped save.
just as the Constitution he created is an imperfect
document. Madison and the other founders
recognized these flaws and created an amendment
process by which the Constitution could be
changed. After all, it was written “to form a more
perfect union.” While the Constitution has been
amended and improved over the past 227 years,
Americans still seek further perfection today.
The Constitution binds us together as
Americans—not where we are from, the color of
our skin, or our religion. That is why this story is an
American story. It is not your history or my history,
but our history.
History is a portal to our past that guides our
future. Expanding the African American story at
Montpelier, making what has been largely invisible
visible, and telling an inclusive story creates
stronger communities and a stronger nation.
ARCHAEOLOGY SCHOLARSHIPS
Thanks to a generous grant from James Madison University, African American high school and college students from
surrounding counties are eligible for expedition scholarships. For more information, please contact Matthew Reeves,
Ph.D., Director of Archaeology and Landscape Restoration, at [email protected].