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The Slave Quarters Frequently Asked Questions
Several urban legends have surfaced regarding the President's House and the nine enslaved Africans who worked in George Washington's presidential household. This page attempts to separate the truth from the fiction. Please read other sections of this website for greater details on all of these issues.
Are there enslaved Africans buried at the President's House?
No, this is an urban legend. In 2000, human remains from an abandoned cemetery were found two blocks north of the President's House during the construction of the National Constitution Center, but these had nothing to do with the eight enslaved blacks that Washington brought to Philadelphia in 1790 or Joe (Richardson), who came in 1795.
Washington returned to Mount Vernon in March 1797 at the end of his presidency. Four of the nine enslaved blacks had been returned to Mount Vernon in 1791; two had escaped to freedom from Philadelphia; one had died in Maryland; and two returned to Mount Vernon with Washington.
The table below shows the fate of those nine, none of whom are known to be buried in Philadelphia.
| Name | What became of them? |
| Moll | Returned to Mount Vernon 1797; working at Mount Vernon 1799.* |
| Austin | Died December 20, 1794 in Harford, Maryland. Presumed to be buried at Mount Vernon. |
| Hercules | Escaped to freedom from Philadelphia, March 1797. Nothing further known of his whereabouts. |
| Richmond | Returned to Mount Vernon 1791; working at Mount Vernon 1799.* Presumed escape attempt in November 1796. |
| Giles | Returned to Mount Vernon 1791, never returning to Philadelphia. Not listed in 1799 Mount Vernon Slave Census. |
| Paris | Returned to Mount Vernon 1791; died at Mount Vernon, late September or October 1794. |
| Christopher Sheels | Returned to Mount Vernon 1791; working at Mount Vernon 1799.* Presumed escape attempt in September 1799. |
| Oney Judge | Escaped to freedom from Philadelphia, late May or June 1796. Died in Greenland, New Hampshire, February 25, 1848. |
| Joe (Richardson) | Working at Mount Vernon 1799.* |
Were there Slave Quarters right at the entrance to the new Liberty Bell Center?
- Yes, according to the preponderence of the evidence. A 1785 map of the President's House property shows the smokehouse and an attached covered shed. In 1790, Washington's secretary wrote to him, "The Smoke-House will be extended to the end of the Stable, and two good rooms made in it for the accomodation [sic] of the Stable people." The stable people consisted of one white coachman and three enslaved black stableworkers.
According to Washington's correspondence, the Slave Quarters, marked in blue, housed Giles, Paris, and probably Austin, as well as the white coachman Arthur Dunn; Oney and Moll slept over the kitchen; Hercules, Richmond, and Christopher slept in the attic of the main house; none of the 8 slept in the Servants Hall. (Detail of a 2002 National Park Service map, with additions by Ed Lawler.)
IHA intern Jonathan Parker poses outside the main entrance to the Liberty Bell Center. An artist has superimposed walls and a roof on the taped outline to suggest the 2-room structure of the Slave Quarters. Photo from the northwest.
On October 9, 2003, the Liberty Bell Center is opened to the public, as people, entirely unaware, are walking on the Slave Quarters.
 | The bricks indicate the southwest corner of the Slave Quarters. The main entrance to the Liberty Bell Center is less than five feet away. See Slave Quarters Photo Album for more pictures. |
Weren't the "slave quarters" within the house itself, as reported in the newspapers?
- No. Independence National Historical Park stated in the newspapers that slaves were housed in the Servants Hall. The Servants Hall was primarily a dining hall for the household's 24 servants, with two small lodging rooms for white servants at its south end. There is no evidence of any of the slaves being housed here.
Why was no archeology done at the Liberty Bell Center?
- Extensive archeology was done within the footprint of the Liberty Bell Center itself. However, the Slave Quarters fall just outside of the new building's footprint and therefore archeology was not done there.
Should archeology be done on the site of the Slave Quarters now?
- Probably not. The documentary record indicates that nothing of the Slave Quarters remains. There is no doubt that the 19th and 20th century buildings (with fully-excavated basements) built on the site destroyed all traces of the Slave Quarters.
Doesn't the Park Service's proposed design for the President's House include the Slave Quarters?
- It didn't for years. It does now. The New York Times and The Christian Science Monitor both erroneously reported that the outline of the President's House — including the Slave Quarters — would be marked in the paving of the Liberty Bell Center entrance plaza. The Park Service's proposed outline of the house stopped at the Wash House (see map above), thus essentially erasing the Slave Quarters from historical memory. Due to a public outcry, the Park Service has now agreed to commemorate and interpret the slave quarters.
Why is there so much emphasis on the Slave Quarters?
- Because in this place we can commemorate the lives, dignity, fears, and struggles of the enslaved Africans, in the context of power and unpower, of freedom and unfreedom. Legislation that was signed in the President's office, within 50 feet, affected the lives of every black person in the country.
Did the Myrtilla, a ship that is known to have transported slaves, bring the Liberty Bell to America?
- No, the Bell arrived on the Hibernia, captained by William Child. As the Liberty Bell Center is five feet from the Slave Quarters, many articles about the Slave Quarters make a reference to the ship that brought the Liberty Bell to America. Isaac Norris, the man who oversaw the installation of the bell in the State House, wrote on Sept. 1, 1752, that the bell had recently arrived. The only ship from England that docked in Philadelphia during the month of August that year was the Hibernia, a ship of modest size, transporting dry goods and passengers regularly between England, the colonies and Ireland. No known records identify the Hibernia's owner either before or at the time it transported the bell. According to newspaper accounts of port activity, the Myrtilla docked in Philadelphia at the end of September 1752.
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