Slavery in the President's Neighborhood: The Complicated Past and the Paradoxical Relationship Between Slavery and Freedom in the Nation's Capital

Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum
Online

Launched by the White House Historical Association in February 2020, the Slavery in the President's Neighborhood research initiative seeks to identify enslaved and free African Americans who built, lived, and worked at the White House. Association Senior Historian Dr. Matthew Costello and Historian Lina Mann will discuss the initiative and its online features, as well as some of their discoveries thus far as they seek to return these individuals to the historical forefront.

Matthew Costello joined the Association in November 2016 after completing his Ph.D. and M.A. in American history at Marquette University. His book, The Property of the Nation: George Washington’s Tomb, Mount Vernon, and the Memory of the First President was published by University Press of Kansas in fall 2019 and was a finalist for the George Washington Book Prize.

Lina Mann first joined the White House Historical Association in 2017 as American University’s Public History fellow and came onboard as a historian in March 2020. She is interested in many different aspects of White House history.