Four generations of Charles Marshall. Photo courtesy of Raleigh Marshall.

In 1809, when 10-year-old Paul Jennings moved to the White House—the shining symbol of a young and free republic—he went as a slave of the president.

Jennings had been born in 1799 at Montpelier, the plantation belonging to James Madison. According to the Montpelier Foundation, Jennings is believed to have been the son of one of Madison’s female slaves and Benjamin Jennings, a British trader.

He is credited with helping to save Gilbert Stuart’s portrait of George Washington in the hours before the British set fire to the White House in 1814. After serving through Madison’s two terms of office, Jennings returned with Madison to Montpelier, becoming his personal manservant. He was with Madison when he died in 1836, and his written recollections of his service constitute the first White House memoir: “A Colored Man’s Reminiscences of James Madison.”

Jennings expected Dolley Madison to grant him his freedom after the president’s death. Instead, in 1845, she leased him to President James Polk. Jennings was 46 years old. The next year he was sold by the former first lady, and then quickly sold again—this time for $120 to Senator Daniel Webster, who allowed Jennings to purchase his freedom at 8 dollars a month.

This former slave eventually became an employee of the federal government, as well as an ardent abolitionist whose sons fought in the Civil War. Through it all he remained close with Dolley Madison, whom he described as “a remarkably fine woman.” When she became destitute in later years, Paul Jennings reached into his own pocket to help care for her.

Book of Odds recently spoke with Raleigh Marshall of Washington, D.C., a direct descendant of Paul Jennings.

Were you aware growing up that you had an ancestor who had played an important role in America history?

No, I wasn’t. My family had always maintained close contact with the Marshall side of my family, but I was not aware of the Jennings side. The relationship to Paul Jennings is through my great-grandmother on my father’s side, Pauline Jennings. She was the granddaughter of Paul Jennings. My own father died in May of 2007, and towards the end of that year the Montpelier Foundation got in touch with me.

As luck would have it, Marshall was in the early stages of a renovation project on the family home, located on P Street in the Georgetown section of Washington, D.C. It had been in the family for over a century.

I had brought in crews to clean things up, but you couldn’t progress two feet without finding old documents. We were finding things like letters from former presidents, and a baseball card signed by Frankie Robinson. There was also a pair of old carriage lamps which turned out to be of extreme interest to the Montpelier Foundation. The story I’ve heard is that they were given to Paul Jennings by either James Madison or his wife, Dolley. I have since read that one of the things which contributed heavily to James Madison’s death was a coach accident—and one of the lamps I found in the house has significant damage on it. Montpelier is examining them to see if their style and quality is in line with what a presidential coach would have had at the time.

Marshall was able to hand the Montpelier Foundation a treasure trove of family artifacts.

I took literally 7 of those 42 gallon trunks that you buy at Target—I took 7 of those filled with family photographs, letters, documents, paintings, etc., and loaned them to the foundation for analysis. That was almost a year ago and they have still not finished going through it all.

In February, 2009, Raleigh and members of his extended family were invited to a reunion of Paul Jennings’ descendents, held at Montpelier. In August they were given a private tour of the White House which included a viewing of the famous portrait of George Washington, the only object on display which dates from the time the White House first opened in 1800.

The different descendants have reacted differently to this whole experience. To me, for lack of a better word, it was eerie—thinking that this was not only an artifact that was important to great-great-great granddad, but also of great importance to the nation. Some of the descendants who had grown up knowing about Paul Jennings were very emotional because it seemed for a long time this was a story no one cared about. Sylvia Alexander, who passed a few months ago, actually had the only known photograph of Paul Jennings in her house.

During the same year you learnedof your connection to Paul Jennings, the New York Times revealed that Michelle Obama’s great-great-great grandmother was also a slave. What did it feel like to be an honored guest in the White House, during the tenure of the first black president?

The very fact of the election shows how much progress we as a nation have made since slavery.

In terms of human history, it is a very short window in terms of how fast things have changed. My dad grew up in a time when racial barriers still needed to be broken. He was one of a handful of black students to be admitted to the Yale Class of 1965. And to put things in even further perspective, my own birth certificate identifies my race as “Negro,” and I was born in 1983.

Your family already had a long history of community service. Your great-grandfather, Charles Marshall, Sr. was one of the first black physicians allowed to practice medicine in the US. How has knowing you are a descendent of Paul Jennings shaped your view of your family’s legacy?

It seems a common characteristic, all up and down the line, that we have a very deep seated interest in helping people in the community. I personally feel an obligation to help push these research efforts because I have been given so much. Not to be corny, but my dad in his will said as much. I am 26 years old, with a computer science degree, and I’m still trying to find my own way. I believe the more I come to understand my ancestors and develop an appreciation for all the things they’ve done to help out in the world, it will inspire me and give me ideas for things I can do.

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