Slave Labor in the Capital: Building Washington's Iconic Federal Landmarks

The little-known history of how enslaved African Americans contributed to the building of the White House and other landmarks-includes illustrations.

In 1791, President George Washington appointed a commission to build the future capital of the nation. Workers flocked to the city-but the commission found that paying masters of faraway Maryland plantations sixty dollars a year for their slaves made it easier to keep their payroll low.

In 1798, half of the two hundred workers building th...