In the Shadow of Liberty: Chapter 6

A large part of his men were tall, strapping negroes, mixed with white sailors and marines.

Confident that his wife was safe, President Madison had set off for Bladensburg to see the American defenses for himself and to raise morale among the troops.

“Since sunrise I have been turning my spy glass in every direction,” she wrote to her sister in a long letter begun the night before, “watching with unwearied anxiety, hoping to discern the approach of my dear husband and his friends; but, alas, I can descry only groups of military wandering in all directions, as if there was a lack of arms, or of spirit to fight for their own firesides!”

“Since sunrise I have been turning my spy glass in every direction,” she wrote to her sister in a long letter begun the night before, “watching with unwearied anxiety, hoping to discern the approach of my dear husband and his friends; but, alas, I can descry only groups of military wandering in all directions, as if there was a lack of arms, or of spirit to fight for their own firesides!”

As Sukey, the house-servant, was lolling out of a chamber window, James Smith, a free colored man who had accompanied Mr. Madison to Bladensburg, gallopped up to the house, waving his hat, and cried out, ‘Clear out, clear out! General Armstrong has ordered a retreat!’

As the crisis unfolded, Commodore Joshua Barney commanded a group of small American gunboats—called a flotilla—to fend off the British warships.

Following the rout at Bladensburg, the British halted their march, pausing to recover in the late August heat.

While the British rested, a group of Washington locals, later described by Paul Jennings as “rabble,” took the opportunity to ransack the White House.

Art experts determined many years later that the ornate frame of the painting was actually broken to get the canvas.

“Plate holders stood by the fireplace, filled with dishes and plates; knives, forks and spoons were arranged for immediate use; in short, everything was ready for the entertainment of a ceremonious party.”

Enjoying this presidential feast, the British officers were in a giddy mood.

A powerful thunderstorm finally broke the summer night, and the torrential rains doused the flames.

A powerful thunderstorm finally broke the summer night, and the torrential rains doused the flames.

A few days after the British left the city, James Madison and his wife returned to the smoldering, ruined capital with Paul Jennings and the other servants.

While some of the servants may have had a bit too much to drink that day, Jennings said that the president did not join them. James Madison was very “temperate in his habits.”

When he had hard drinkers at his table, who had put away his choice Madeira pretty freely, in response to their numerous toasts, he would just touch the glass to his lips, or dilute it with water, as they pushed about the decanters.

The reconstruction of the White House took more than three years; Madison would never live there again. It was only finished in time for his successor, James Monroe, the fifth president.

When Madison learned about slaves plotting to assist British troops, it frightened him. “It is prudent such attempts should be concealed as well as suppressed,” he confided to a friend in a letter.

When Madison learned about slaves plotting to assist British troops, it frightened him. “It is prudent such attempts should be concealed as well as suppressed,” he confided to a friend in a letter.

To Madison, the only viable plan was gradual, compensated emancipation. This meant that slowly over time, the government would pay owners for their slaves, who would be freed and sent to a colony either in the American West or in Africa.

Moral issues aside, the practical problem remained. Even wealthy, powerful men like Madison, Washington, and Jefferson who were considering emancipation couldn’t do so without losing their fortunes. It was a simple question of dollars and cents.

Madison’s niece, Nelly Willis, asked her uncle, “What is the matter?”
Jennings recorded Madison’s subsequent last words as “Nothing more than a change of mind, my dear.”

Whenever any slaves were reported to him as stealing or ‘cutting up’ badly, he would send for them and admonish them privately, and never mortify them by doing it before others.

Whenever any slaves were reported to him as stealing or ‘cutting up’ badly, he would send for them and admonish them privately, and never mortify them by doing it before others.

Returning to the White House as an enslaved servant must have been soul crushing. But when he later recounted his return to the White House, Jennings voiced no bitterness over the deferred promise of freedom.

I have paid $120 for the freedom of Paul Jennings—He agrees to work out the sum, at 8 dollars a month, to be furnished with board, clothes & washing.

While I was a servant to Mr. Webster, he often sent me to her with a market-basket full of provisions, and told me whenever I saw anything in the house that I thought she was in need of, to take it to her.

On April 15, 1848, seventy-seven enslaved people attempted to escape Washington by sailing on a schooner called The Pearl.

A proslavery mob attacked an abolitionist newspaper and other known antislavery activists. These events prompted a slavery debate in Congress—and may have influenced one piece of the Compromise of 1850, which ended the slave trade in the District of Columbia.

But a family of people who were later freed said, “None did more valiant service, both by advice and actual soliciting for funds than their true friend and sympathizer, Paul Jennings.”

But a family of people who were later freed said, “None did more valiant service, both by advice and actual soliciting for funds than their true friend and sympathizer, Paul Jennings.”

In 1863, an article entitled “A Colored Man’s Reminiscences of James Madison” appeared in a historical magazine.

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.

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.

Franklin Jennings was with the Fifth Massachusetts Colored Volunteer Cavalry, which was given the honor of entering Richmond, the fallen Confederate capital, on April 3, 1865.

A few weeks later, Paul Jennings most likely would have joined the thousands of African Americans who turned out in the streets for the funeral procession of Abraham Lincoln, who died on April 15, assassinated by John Wilkes Booth.

David Walker, a free black man born in Wilmington, North Carolina, publishes Appeal to the Coloured Citizens of the World, an angry denunciation of slavery that calls on enslaved people to rise up and cast off their chains.

1831
Abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison begins publication of his militant antislavery journal, The Liberator.

Following this revolt by slaves, abolitionist writings are censored and harsher slave codes are passed.

1833
Great Britain outlaws slavery in all its colonies, freeing 700,000 people from enslavement. Their owners are compensated.