Painting a more complete history

Paul Jennings was much more than just a slave of President James Madison.
An opportunist and lover of learning, the Orange County native gives old-fashioned meaning to making the best of one's circumstances. Jennings exhibited remarkable initiative in bondage and in freedom, and his story continues to gain nationwide attention today.
Beth Taylor, research associate at Madison's Montpelier, has studied the life of Jennings for the past two years. She is writing his soon-to-be-released biography, tentatively titled "Enamoured With Freedom," based on a written quote by First Lady Dolley Madison's niece.
"She said, 'Paul sighed for freedom, was enamoured with freedom,' which is a true enough feeling for any person," said Taylor, of Barboursville, former head guide at Thomas Jefferson's Monticello. "But what Paul had the power to do, because of his association, he could absorb the philosophy and arguments that would support that feeling in him and recognize freedom as it is: a right of man or a gift of nature."
Born a slave 1799 at Montpelier, Jennings, at age 10, went with James and Dolley to Washington in 1809 when Madison was sworn in as fourth president.
He remained there as a footman through the president's two terms before returning home to Montpelier, where Jennings closely served Madison's personal needs as manservant.
Remarkably, Jennings would tell his story of presidential connections years later in "A Colored Man's Reminiscences of James Madison," published 1865.
Here, Jennings recounts his arrival in the big city.
"When Mr. Madison was chosen President, we came on and moved into the White House; the east room was not finished, and Pennsylvania Avenue was not paved, but was always in awful condition from either mud or dust. The city was a dreary place."
His was the very first White House memoir and "the rarest of documents from the period," according to The Montpelier Foundation. That's because few records exist about the black men and women who worked at the Executive Mansion.
In addition, slave owners generally paid little attention to their stories and prohibited slaves from learning to read and write, says White House curator William Allman.
But not Jennings. He could read and write from an early age.
How is that? Montpelier researcher Taylor got the answer from 94-year-old Sylvia Jennings Alexander of Albemarle County, his great-granddaughter.
"The family tradition is that Paul Jennings learned to read and write because he listened to 'the white boy' as he was being taught," Taylor said. "The white boy, unidentified, was participating, but Paul was standing."
This piece of family lore "meshes perfectly" with all else she has been learning about Jennings, she said.
"Because, though a slave, someone with no advantages, he nevertheless took advantage of the opportunities that came his way, and this is a prime example of why later he was chosen to be James Madison's manservant," Taylor said. "That would have put him squarely in the middle of circles of power, and he absorbed it."
Jennings remained at Montpelier as Madison's health began to fail, and the ex-president often leaned on his servant's arm for support.
"I was always with Mr. Madison till he died, and shaved him every day for 16 years."
One of the highlights of Jennings' time at the White House is when he reportedly helped Dolley Madison rescue a famed portrait of George Washington during the British burning of the White House in 1814.
Last Monday, 195 years later, Jennings' descendants gathered at the White House for a private tour of the East Room, where the Washington portrait by Gilbert Stuart Landsdowne now hangs.
This year is also significant to the story of Madison and Jennings because it was 200 years ago that the Father of the Constitution took his oath of office, arriving in Washington with slaves.
"Two hundred years later, a black man who is a constitutional scholar took the oath of office as the 44th president of the United States," Taylor said.
President Barack Obama and his family were on vacation during the recent Jennings reunion at the White House, but the gathering gained national attention nonetheless with reports by CBS Evening News, the New York Times, Washington Post and National Public Radio.
In an interview with CBS, Hugh Allen, a great-great-great grandson of Jennings, remarked on the significance of the day and his ancestor's achievements.
"It ... creates a place in history for how slaves were part of the history of the U.S. Not an index, not a footnote that's at the back of a book," he said.
Jennings finally gained his freedom in 1846, and at age 47 he had a whole lot of living to do.
"He became a prominent citizen in the newly established nation's capital, and an abolitionist who helped attempt to free slaves by boat in the doomed Pearl incident," the Montpelier Foundation describes.
In 1851, Jennings landed a job at the Pension Office in the Department of the Interior, working as a paid government employee for about 15 years. He died at home in 1874, leaving his house and property in northwest D.C. to his sons.
With such rich and varied history tied to Montpelier, the Montpelier Foundation is committed to discovering and presenting the entire story, said Michael Quinn, foundation president - thus the focus on Jennings.
"In Madison's time, there were only a handful of white people, but more than 100 black people living on the plantation at any one time," he said. "We want to find that lost history and share it with the American people."
It's not African-American history, Quinn added, but, simply, American history.
Black history at Montpelier spans a broad range. Besides Jennings' story, the cabin of freedman George Gilmore, an emancipated slave of Madison's, still stands on the grounds.
There is also a slave cemetery and evidence of slave quarters not far from the mansion.
In addition, the recently restored and reopened Montpelier post office/train station still contains separate waiting rooms for white and "colored," a painful reminder of the not-too-distant Jim Crow era. Special African American exhibits in the post office are in the works, according to Peggy Seiter Vaughn, communications director at Montpelier.
Montpelier also offers an "Enslaved Community Tour" every Saturday from 1 to 2 p.m.