jennings, paul

A biography of Paul Jennings, slave of President James Madison and African American abolitionists, discussing his life as slave in the White House and on Madison's plantation, what life was like for African American's in early Washington D.C., and his work as a abolitionist.

Tells the story of how President James Madison's young slave Paul Jennings stayed behind when Washington, D.C., was threatened by the British during the War of 1812, and helped the president's wife Dolley save official papers and other valuable items from the White House before it was burned by the advancing British Army.