Does. You write in your brand new book i decided i would write a second book in 2008 while riding ben senator barack obama the campaign bus we made no we can stop at his home in chicago, illinois. Why did you lead with that . Part of the reason why i got into writing about American History is because the barack obama and his campaign. It brought a lot of interest in african American History with the first African American president s in the white house and i was a solid hold dash assigned to cover that i literally remember pulling up of a couple of blocks away from the town house that what book will lie right to next and literally right in the spotted hit me and i got so excited i immediately called my editor in said this is what i will do next. She could not tamped down that enthusiasm just think about it make sure you have a really good idea but i think it sounds great and it took off at that point. Cspan what was the idea . Direct story of the africanamerican slaves who actually lived inside the white house. We were so excited everybody was talking about how great and american a rate would be for an africanamerican in the white house understand that is repeated not have been the first to live there so that not thought process went on so who are the first . Then at that point we knew there were those of the white house of dollars so we knew there had to be somebody before them so i had to write a book about the africanamerican slaves and that is how the invisibles got its start. Cspan we have an artists rendering of the eric city did you say there were nine slaves working for George Washington inside that building . Explain how that happened. First president didnt actually live at the residence and the eric city and philadelphia when the country for started congress did not provide funds for butlers handmaids or for domestic staff inside the white house of the first president had to come out of their own pocket to pay the staffers or bring the slaves from their plantations and a majority of the first president or those Founding Fathers were all slave owners said they would bring slaves from their plantation he brought slaves to new york city and they served as the first domestic staff he brought them to new york city and to philadelphia and in both of those places today we would consider those to be non slaveholders it was allowed in pennsylvania and new york city so washington took advantage. You tell a story what type of machinations they went through to keep those in the president s house. One of the rules at this point was any slave owner who brought a slave across the alliance and kept them there after six months had passed they automatically became free. George washington and is no dummy he doesnt want to bring people saying six months and have them walk away with no compensation so what washington did was every five months and a couple of weeks he would decide to take the whole household back to mount vernon then they will a turnaround go back to pennsylvania starting the six month clock over and he would do this over and over, just to insure that the slaves from mount vernon would not get free. They were not dummies the nizolek they were she was doing at this point so one of the slaves took this opportunity to escape from George Washington. Have she was Martha Washingtons personal maid and was actually born into slavery ended been with them her entire life as a second term was winding down she was told she ever set foot back on mount vernon she would never escapes a while they were packing to go back to is actually packing her own things and one day is there eating dinner she just walked out the back door but on the wharf and sailed away to a couple of days for washington realized she was packing to escape but she made it to its northeast where she would live out the rest of her life without having to go back to virginia it is and that washington didnt want her back he put advertisements in newspapers and he actually sent a couple of relatives to of the area where he thought she had escaped to see if they could find her and one of the naturally found her however by that point she was enough of that community were the community decided they would let her get away before they catchers showed up said she would live her life as a free woman. How was it just a fourth of that era . It depends on who the slave was. Most were bought as children. You can either by a slave as said child or somewhere in between but it depends on exactly how you want that most deaths would serve as a valet so you could train them in one of George Washingtons slaves there was a young child specifically to serve as a ballet for washington. But today that was 5 but that was very young but a fully grown slave could go from much, much more or a crook a cook like having stanley and jefferson if they were trading in french cuisine, they would be much more but they either inherited their slaves and are they bought their children to work so then they knew what the slave was taught to do because they did it themselves. It depends on what the slaves and the president ial households but they didnt really buy them they basically had grown up on the plantation. But they went out to buy slaves the contract would specifically states this wave is being purchased by the slave owner from a slave owner be. And when we went back to look at the records there were very few president s that bought slaves while at the white house. And jackson did it openly even extra help inside the white house so he brought them here and in washington d. C. But the interesting thought is that greasy insisted to work inside the white house as a free woman. And then to recommend to Andrew Jackson that he by her and then it turns out she is a bit best seamstress anybody has seen in that area so she ends up living out her whole life with the Jackson Family all because her sister wanted her closer to her. They didnt want people to know they were buying slaves. So what tyler would do is you would go out to to hire agents or a middle man and then transfer the slaves and tithers so adamant they he was refusing any of the money they he was paid as president to buy those glaves he did that of his personal fund that had all kinds of ways so they all had their different ways to make sure of their contacts. I want to show you some video of george to view bush at the white house with the unveiling of his portraits and with your research . In 1814 Dolley Madison the lease saved this portrait of the first George Debbie you george w. [laughter] now machel, if anything happens, here is your man. [laughter] i promise i go straight for the first. [laughter] im sure i will get it right to that. [laughter] that is one of the Great Stories that Dolly Madison saves the portrait of George Washington but i dont think that is exactly what happened that one of the great things that i found out Paul Jennings was one of the first slaves in one of the first people period to write that tell of the more about the white house and Dolley Madisons story about a first saving that portrait of George Washington said it isnt exactly what happened. It is a great story but according to ms. Jennings Dolley Madison didnt have anything to do with saving the painting she and a couple of others put it in the wagon but now there are some people today who will argue that given his relationship with the madisons and i agree it wasnt the best because there were several promises a lot of people say here is an account of what has happened with Dolley Madisons account action believe mr. Jennings that is on of the first memoirs written in one of the first written by a slave. Cspan you can read that on line. You can read data anywhere it is a great book i tend to believe that he did have a reason to hold a grudge because James Madison said before he died he would be free and after the he goes to Dolly Madison and at this point she is running out of money and instead of following her husbands wishes she started selling them and at the end was Paul Jennings and he expected her to free them but never did. So they did have a reason to hold a grudge. Luckily for him he is sold to deal webster that eventually freeze him. But there were no fan of Dolly Madison so i could see she got pleasure that she was getting more and more famous. A list of president s that had slaves that any time you said 12 for 18 had slaves monroe, ed jackson, a tyler and then those who own slaved not in the white house harrison, johnson. But who had the most . Guest probably washington and jefferson and maybe taylor. Keep in mind monticello add to mount vernon were huge moneymakers. I would tend to bet it is in the hundreds at some point in their lives. I would bet they would be the largest slaveholders. But it is hard to counted 81point so those numbers would fluctuate up and down so even with that i would expect it would be washington or jefferson. You talk about the body or the servants of those can you remember one in particular . The body servant of George Washington. Everywhere he went it is probably safe to say but you probably did not find it George Washington during the revolutionary war with washington crossed the delaware or when general cornwallis surrendered washington was there together. To make sure washington had weather was a horse or telescope basically there is one story that is in the book were a group of southerners than northerners and day got into an argument that the revolutionary war and that is about to break out and washington grabs the right there behind him even with all the major battles are going on. If something happens to washingtons force and then the best he could but when washington woke up in the morning and went to bed at night it was his job to take off of big and take off his clothes a major washington had the food he needed his bible. Basically he was washingtons number two that everything around him that washington did not have to think about it. Its not like it was easy. We find people of a grandson but he ends up saying that lee was the second best horsemen in the country but when you Start Talking about body servants the men that were entrusted with the daytoday care and keeping of the president got their clothes and bare legs to make sure they got up in the morning most of them lived right in the same room. You were telling a story in front of our cameras back in 2010 that black man built the capital is about one minute 20 seconds. Then the left arlington house to a really cross the potomac and 1 million generals decided he would never want lee to ever return in the way that he assure this would not have been is he would bury the union and confederate soldiers. That is how it got started. Another way they tried to ensure that general lee would never return to some of the free slaves what they did with the land was come up with a town called Freedom Village. It wasnt exactly small. There were churches and schools and their own hospitals. With the people love freedmans village in the national archives. Cspan now that is read the cemetery to a covert . Guest the cemetery is Freedom Village. Cspan what happened to the free blacks . Guest with that story and to it brought in people like sorter nurturers so did her truce but eventually the truth that Freedom Village had from that hill from arlington that people discover there. So that would return with arlington cemetery. So that is part of arlington there is no trace. And since it gave the top one of the churches but one lady came up to me after words to say my church has that bill it moved from the village in to the county. And then moving across the potomac and in these areas. And then to talk about washington history so the centers are still here but there is no trace of the city left. Cspan you also say in the book to have an early draft to your father in this he proclaimed this to be a good book. What did that mean to you when he said that . Guest im originally from a small town are both retired educators with the mississippi area for years and years. And my dad taught science. And then my parents moved back to mississippi so my family is still there. It is expected to go into the Family Business but that would never happen with me. And my a parents would encourage me to follow my a dream but my dads a farmer. I would not call him a voracious reader but if he says it is good it is high grade of the greatest compliments and my life that my father read the early draft and said this is good. Is this a genealogy of my own family . And they always wanted them to know because he lived in washington and most of my family is still in mississippi and to find out and we just go back to the civil war were they bought a acre of land and the great great great grandfather who was also named Jesse Holland who had 1 acre of land and that is still in my family for ago we said we will never sell but that is where we can trace our family that is where we started to keep that acre of land. My parents are from the north mississippi area and my dad is from marshalltown and they met in high school. So i go back as much as i possibly key and possibly can became mao in 1994 when i started at oldest is seated next year because i was editor of the daily mississippi which is the county newspaper for the 93 and 94 year. But then i decided in college and would be as a journalist. In columbia s South Carolina and then went to albany new york. But the horses in the white house but Andrew Jackson american war hero but i feel pretty safe to say he brought the only for franchise to the white house. And then kept them at the white house. And was also a politician that the horses were always run under somebody elses name but they belong to him. At the racetracks around the d. C. Area while still president and was a stable owner where he was the major sporting Franchise Owner in washington d. C. If you wanted to run a horse most likely jacksons horse was in the race. And was known as one of the most powerful odours of that time. And when he became president he brought those forces with them and to keep the horses and we suspect he brought those black jockeys we have been unable to identify but we know his name is jeffrey. But we know that jackson is running a course in his Vice President van buren actually wasnt quite the sport as jacksons so he tries to get one of the of course, is but the jockeyed does it control them the way jackson wants proposal he moves toward the track and van buren is moving towards the track as well as suspect so they finally get the horse under control and jackson backs up. Vm during does not what. Think about it in front of the starting gates of the race Jackson Lewis is the enduring back. Monkey simon was the greatest black jockey of his time. 4 6. Hes a jockey, you have to be small to be on the horses. He was the one jockey, along with the horse, maria, that jackson could not beat. He tried, over and over. He sent different horses after him, and, he never could beat him. And, monkey simmons is one of the first people that we know that publicly got into trash talking with Andrew Jackson and got away with it. Andrew jackson was a man known for his temper. He would dual. He would fight, and he was a rough and ready kind of guy. But, because of his victories over jackson, over and over, monkey simon would publicly tease him. He would talk about how jackson looked, and he wrote ap embarrassing song about jackson that he would sing. But because of his skill, jackson never retaliated. And even going towards the end of his life, one of the things that jackson would say, one of the things that he regretted, he never got beat monkey simon and marie, a which was the horse. He never got to beat them. But we do discover later on, that he and simon become friends. I dont know if he ends up owning we dont know if he owned simon, or he rented him. But we know that they had relations later on and they end up talking once or twice. So, he probably was the only living person who said something bad to jackson, to his face and was able to get away with it. From your book, and another slave, who was involved in horses, he have from a ham complained na he was attacked by a white man. Jackson had how many slaves did he have . Up in the hundreds. Hehe and he liked having slaves. Its one of those weird things, he actually owned, people. But, he had affects for the people that he owned. He was not one of the slave owners who was known for mistreating his slaves. And he would stand up for them when someone else attacked them. Let me read what this man is talking about him. Jackson, went to remember bon non, and beat up grayson and beat him up with a heavy cane and he was laned up, and warned him if he ever touched him or any other servant he would shoot him on sight. He stood up for his people. You knew if you mess we had anybody, that jackson liked, that he would come for you. And that, that includes political alis, and, went to the slaves. Jackson called them ser veants but they were his slaves. If you got anywhere close to mistreating someone that belonged to jackson, you had to deal with jackson himself. One of the another story about that, one of jacksons men, one of his slaves got charged with murder because of a fight at christmas part party. There was some alcohol involved and slaves get into an argument. And someone dies. So, some of jacksons political end namies in tennessee, decided they would charge jacksons slave with murder. Now, most of the time, you would expect Something Like that to happen and the slave owner would try to noafght or try