“I watch my daughters, two handsome and intelligent black young women, playing with their dogs on the White House lawn”, Obama said.
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When construction on the White House began in 1792, the site’s location between slave states Virginia and Maryland meant the labor force was made up of enslaved people and free blacks, in addition to white laborers from the area and immigrants from Ireland and Scotland, according to the White House Historical Association.
“I want a president who will teach our children that everyone in this country matters”, she said.
White House architect James Hoban also put slaves to work on the building’s interior. So, in some sense, Michelle’s speech is accurate, though like any good politician her rhetoric does not tell the whole story.
When First Lady Michelle Obama took the stage on Monday night at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, her well-received speech came in stark contrast to some of the more crisis-oriented language that came out of last week’s Republican convention. The land D.C.is built on once belonged to then-slave states Virginia and Maryland, but was ceded by them during the Civil War. Hoban’s personal slaves joined Irish carpenters who worked inside the White House.
And I am here tonight because in this election there is only one person who I trust with that responsibility, only one person who I believe is truly qualified to be president of the United States, and that is our friend Hillary Clinton.
“So don’t let anyone ever tell you this country isn’t great, that somehow we need to make it great again because this right now is the greatest country on earth”, she continued, reversing the adversary Donald Trump’s campaign slogan.
So, what objective did Michelle’s speech serve?
Enslaved African Americans did not build what was called the President’s home alone. Perhaps it was for pure shock value, or to remind everyone that we’ve got further to go?
That is what Barack and I think about every day as we try to guide and protect our girls through the challenges of this unusual life in the spotlight, how we urge them to ignore those who question their father’s citizenship or faith.
As many are reflecting on this week, we’re wrapping up eight years in which a black family has occupied the White House.
Some conservatives have also claimed that there is no truth to Michelle’s speech or that it is at least not telling the entire truth.
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Starting with Jefferson’s administration, the majority of the White House staff from 1800 through the Civil War consisted of slaves.
