Genre: Non-fiction
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2017 (reprint)
Pages: 240
Rating: Do Not Recommend
Synopsis: Slavery Inside The White House and How It Helped Shape America is the first book to tell the story of the executive mansion’s most unexpected residents, the African American slaves who lived with the U.S. presidents who owned them. Interest in African Americans and the White House are at an all-time high due to the historic presidency of Barack Obama, and the soon-to-be-opened Smithsonian National Museum of African American Culture and History.
The Invisibles chronicles the African American presence inside the White House from its beginnings in 1782 until 1862, when President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation that granted slaves their freedom. During these years, slaves were the only African Americans to whom the most powerful men in the United States were exposed on a daily, and familiar, basis.
By reading about these relationships, readers will better understand some of the views that various presidents held about class and race in American society, and how these slaves contributed not only to the life and comforts of the presidents they served, but to America as a whole.
Review: This was not so much about the slaves building or living in The White House, but rather, which Presidents owned slaves, and their attitudes and feelings about slavery in general. It wasn't a bad read and there were chapters that were informative and interesting, but it wasn't what I was expecting.
I gave this a Do Not Recommend rating because the synopsis is misleading, and The Residence was better reading.
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