Minnesota discovers that slave built White House and Capitol

Grants | Legacy Digitization |
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A University of Minnesota graduate has discovered that many of the people who built the United States Capitol and the White House were black slaves. Edward Hotaling is a journalist and historian in Washington DC. While doing research on the 200th anniversary of the construction of those buildings, he discovered Department of Treasury pay slips which indicated that slave labor was used.

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Digitization made possible by the State of Minnesota Legacy Amendment’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, approved by voters in 2008.

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