Did you know that the White House was built by slaves? A guy just said that on Hardball.

[Happyhippychick]

Wow, that's unbelievable. What a moment in history.

[ellie]

1. Yes

During the John Adams miniseries, there are scenes of the White House being built by slaves when President and Mrs. Adams come to live there.

[TTUBatfan2008]

2. Indeed...

Think about it. Just 44 years after African Americans were given basic rights under the federal law of the land, we have our first African American President. And that is after 400 years of persecution in colonial America and the United States of America.

[Happyhippychick]

4. Our 44th president! Weird how that number keeps coming up...

[TTUBatfan2008]

7. Wow, I hadn't thought about that...

Very interesting coincidence!

[Trajan]

10. Train is #44 ... right ?

Oh ... I mean 'Ole Number 44' .... in train talk ....

[Happyhippychick]

12. I had assumed that they did that on purpose because he's the 44th but maybe I'm wrong.

[Trajan]

16. Oh heck ... I dont know if they did that ....

They probably did, and I am just WAY out of the news loop ....

But, kewl beans in any case ...

It's a great day, and a great start to a great week, and, hopefully, a wonderful four years ahead ....

[Happyhippychick]

24. Yes, you too. A wonderful eight years (two fours LOL)

[xxqqqzme]

18. And it's been 89 years since

women got the vote. And in some states women couldn't own property or have her own bank account. A teacher who married, lost her job as did a pregnancy. The pregnancy penalty lasted into the 60s. By your reasoning, women are long overdue for the presidency.

[TTUBatfan2008]

19. Actually...

Yes, women are long overdue. But I don't think ANYONE thought an African American could win the Presidency so soon after the Civil Rights legislation of the 1960's. For all we know, there won't be another one for 40 years. Which kind of shows that Obama is special. If he hadn't come along, the country might have had to wait 80+ years for this. I do think we will see a woman President soon but it is long overdue.

[xxqqqzme]

25. Oh I believe Obama is the right person

for this time. I hope I get to see a woman leading this country in my lifetime.

[glowing]

3. Yes, a lot of D.C. was built on the backs of slaves. Wasn't the slave

quarters very close to the White HOuse.

[Jamastiene]

5. It also burned down at one point and had to be rebuilt.

I can't remember all the details, but I definitely heard that.

[John Q. Citizen]

8. Wasn't it shelled by the Brits?

[Waiting For Everyman]

9. Only the outer walls are original.

[OnceUponTimeOnTheNet]

11. I read somewhere that when it was burning, Dolly Madison

grabbed the portrait of George Washington and ran out.

[John Q. Citizen]

14. Here it is. The British burned the whole town, including the White House

http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/washingtonsack.htm

[gblady]

6. yes....

White House history link...
http://www.whitehousehistory.org/06/subs/06_a04.html

[roseBudd]

13. They showed that in John Adams on HBO, they were still clearing the land as the Adam's arrived...

and the White House wasn't wasn't finished either.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

15. Washington was built in the South as a political compromise

so of course it was built with slave labor. And slavery and slave trade was legal there--a sore point with abolitionists. I think it significant that our first African American president will be inaugurated in the bicentennial year of Lincoln's birth.

But, as has been said, only the outer walls of the White House are original. The interior was gutted and rebuilt starting in 1951.

[TankLV]

21. Yep - right after a piano fell thru the rotted floor in the East Room...

Truman spent the first few years of his Presidency in Blair House...

That's when they built the "Truman Balcony" on the round porticoe...

[matcom]

17. you REALLY didn't know that?

:crazy:

[TankLV]

20. Yes - as were almost ALL buildings in DC at the time...

After all, DC was located on the border of the North/South "divide" and slavery was very much legal...

[asdjrocky]

22. Yes.

I said once, in response to a video on youtube, that it will be nice to see someone living in the wihite house that's the same color as the people that built it and I had like a hundred freepers jump on me to tell me how wrong I was.

Simple minded people.

[mucifer]

23. Lots of people are being educated about things the press doesn't normally

talk about.

[Occam Bandage]

26. And Obama's going to live in that slaveowner's mansion. What a huge snub to the black community.