The Invisibles by Jesse Holland

Author:Jesse Holland
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781493024193
Publisher: Lyons Press

CHAPTER 8PAUL JENNINGS AND THE BURNING OF THE WHITE HOUSE

AS HE WATCHED THE LIGHT SEEP FROM JAMES MADISON’S EYES, PAUL Jennings probably could feel his privileged life dying right along with the ex-president. For most of his youth, Jennings had the best life a slave in antebellum Virginia could ask for. He was the manservant of one of the most influential men in the new United States, and as such, got to experience and see things few men of his race did at the time. But then, on June 28, 1836, Jennings found himself at Madison’s bedside at his lavish Virginia plantation, watching the life slowly depart from the ex-president’s body with the other slaves.

“That morning Sukey brought him his breakfast, as usual. He could not swallow,” Jennings wrote in his book. “His niece, Mrs. Willis, said, ‘What is the matter, uncle James?’ ‘Nothing more than a change of mind, my dear.’ His head instantly dropped, and he ceased breathing as quietly as the snuff of a candle goes out.”

Despite having been held in bondage by this man his entire life, Jennings had nothing but respect for his former master, calling him “one of the best men that ever lived.” That respect apparently did not transfer to Madison’s wife, Dolley. The faithful slave’s relationship with the woman considered to be the first true first lady apparently was a prickly one after Madison’s death, filled with financial woes, half-truths, and broken promises, that culminated with Jennings’s sale to an insurance agent despite the former president’s promise of his freedom. But even then, Jennings would prove to be faithful to the man who had brought him out of the slave quarters of the South and into the hub of activity for a growing nation.

Jennings worked for the Madisons for almost his entire life, and likely considered himself part of the family. Born on Madison’s Montpelier plantation in 1799 to a slave mother descended from Native Americans and a white English trader named Benjamin Jennings, the ten-year-old Paul was a handsome boy who could read and write at an early age. Those skills, acquired by watching alongside as a white boy at Montpelier was being taught, likely made him a favorite of the Madisons, who promoted him out of the slave quarters and into the main house as the “body servant” of James Madison. Madison needed a quick replacement because he had earlier sold Billey, his former valet. Like Jennings would, Billey had followed the white politician everywhere taking care of his needs, including to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia.

But while there, Billey did more than take care of Madison’s clothes and bring his dinner. Billey listened to the talk of revolution and freedom. And when it came time for Madison to return home to antebellum Virginia, he knew that his slave had learned too much from his time up North to return back to a docile, obedient slave at Montpelier. So Madison sold Billey, explaining his reasons to his father in a September 1783 letter.

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