“And I watch my daughters – two lovely intelligent black young women – play on the White House lawn”, she said.
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O’Reilly filled in his audience on the conditions the slaves who built the White House faced.
Slaves were used in clearing the land, quarrying the clay bricks, digging the foundation and laying the bricks for the White House, with commissioners advertising in local newspapers for additional help.
It’s undeniable fact that slaves built the White House.
This video includes clips from the White House Historical Association and images from Getty Images.
Washington learned that slaves were listed by first name only and earned lower wages than white workers, according to old Treasury records housed at the National Archives.
During that speech she mentioned slavery in the context that she lived in the house slaves built. Hoban’s personal slaves joined Irish carpenters who worked inside the White House.
But the First Lady of perpetual disgust was not done speaking to the convention audience. In fact, as O’Reilly pointed out, the federal government made almost 400 payments to slave masters for the construction of the executive mansion. The slaves joined a workforce that also included “local white laborers and artisans from Maryland and Virginia”, as well as immigrants from Europe. Bought and sold and forced into labor?
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“As it turns out, slaves became extremely skilled because they did the work around the plantations, around the farms”. “Pretty certain the slaves that built it didn’t like it either”, she wrote. The history behind her remark is fascinating.
