PDA

View Full Version : A Heartwarming Story About the Father of the Constitution




Galileo Galilei
02-14-2008, 07:58 PM
A Heartwarming Story About the Father of the Constitution


A Colored Man's Reminiscences of James Madison


Source:White House History: A journal published occasionally by the White House Historical Association (740 Jackson Place N.W., Washington, D.C. 20506), Volume 1, Number 1, 1983, pp. 46-51


A Colored Man's Reminiscences of James Madison


by Paul Jennings


[Editor's note: This is a reprint in its entirety of the 1865 memoir of Paul Jennings, a former slave, and the preface that originally accompanied it. A commentary follows.]


Preface. Among the laborers at the Department of the Interior is an intelligent colored man, Paul Jennings, who was born a slave on President Madison's estate, in Montpelier, Va., in 1799. His reputed father was Benj. Jennings, an English trader there; his mother, a slave of Mr. Madison, and the granddaughter of an Indian. Paul was a "body servant" of Mr. Madison, till his death, and afterwards of Daniel Webster, having purchased his freedom of Mrs. Madison. His character for sobriety, truth, and fidelity, is unquestioned; and as he was a daily witness of interesting events, I have thought some of his recollections were worth writing down in almost his own language.


PLEASE READ THE STORY


http://www.historicaltextarchive.com/sections.php?op=viewarticle&artid=48#