African Slaves Built The Presidential White House In The USA? Everything You Need To Know

Up until a few decades ago, most of the world was unaware that the great Washington DC Presidential Whitehouse was built mainly by the African slaves. In fact, most of the massive governmental structures in the U.S today were mounted by the hands of the African slaves who were brutally dehumanized in America during the era of slave trade.

Many generations after these slaves who were sold from Africa and forced to work for the white race and on whose backs the U.S capital was built on, the Congress put together a task force in 2005 to inquire about the validity of this truth. After months of research, the commission announced that while it would never be able to tell the full story of the slaves who built these buildings, there was no doubt that they played a major role in the work. It was discovered that when the construction began in 1792 the Commissioners charged with overseeing the work intended to import European workers which became futile so they turned to the African freemen and slaves to provide the bulk of the labour. Stonemason Collen Williamson trained the enslaved people on the spot at the government’s quarry at Aquia, Virginia, who 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 the workforce that included local white laborers and artisans from Maryland and Virginia, as well as immigrants from Ireland, Scotland, and other European nations.

The former first lady Mitchelle Obama asserted the discovery in her speech at a Democratic National Convention in 2016 stating “I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves..”, which met many criticisms and deepened the search for the truth which eventually confirmed the role the African slaves played in erecting the Whitehouse.

It is also known that seven past U.S presidents namely; Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, John Tyler, James Polk, and Zachary Taylor all owned slaves who lived in the basement in the Whitehouse during their presidency. George Washington whom the nation’s capital was named after completed his tenure before the completion of the Whitehouse, owned about 250 to 300 slaves. There is no way that such a large amount of slaves will be present in the Whitehouse and not be mainly involved in building it. When the Whitehouse was destroyed by the British during the Civil War in 1812, slave labour was relied on to rebuild it between 1814 and 1818.

It is not an unknown fact that yes some of the white race also assisted in constructing the Whitehouse and many would ask why much significance is being given to the African slaves who participated in building it. The reason why the African slaves are given so much deserving significance for their role is the fact of free will. They were never given a choice like the white people, they were never asked, they were never paid, they were brutalized, forced, dehumanized and many lost their lives in servitude. So yes, the African slaves who fought for their freedom after years of being treated like animals deserve some accolades for the part they played in making America the world’s most powerful nation it is today.