White House
The troops turned northwest up Pennsylvania Avenue toward the White House. After the US government officials fled, the First Lady Dolley Madison remained behind to organize the slaves and staff to save valuables from the British. Her role increased her popularity, even as it was embellished by newspapers.
James Madison's personal servant, the slave Paul Jennings, was an eyewitness at the age of 15. After purchasing his freedom later from the widow Dolley Madison, he published his memoir in 1865, considered the first from the White House:
It has often been stated in print, that when Mrs. Madison escaped from the White House, she cut out from the frame the large portrait of Washington (now in one of the parlors there), and carried it off. She had no time for doing it. It would have required a ladder to get it down. All she carried off was the silver in her reticule, as the British were thought to be but a few squares off, and were expected any moment.Jennings said that the people who saved the painting and removed the objects were:
John Susé (a Frenchman, then door-keeper, and still living) and Magraw, the President's gardener, took it down and sent it off on a wagon, with some large silver urns and such other valuables as could be hastily got hold of. When the British did arrive, they ate up the very dinner, and drank the wines, &c., that I had prepared for the President's party.The soldiers burned the president's house, and fuel was added to the fires that night to ensure they would continue burning into the next day. The smoke was reportedly visible as far away as Baltimore and the Patuxent River.
In 2009 President Barack Obama held a ceremony at the White House to honor Jennings as a representative of slaves' contributions to saving the Gilbert Stuart painting and other valuables. "A dozen descendants of Jennings came to Washington, to visit the White House. For a few precious minutes, they were able to look at the painting their relative helped save". In an interview given to NPR, Jennings' great-great-grandson Hugh Alexander said, "We were able to take a family portrait in front of the painting, which was for me one of the high points." He confirmed that Jennings purchased his freedom later from the widow Dolley Madison.
Read more about this topic: Burning Of Washington
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