Description
Paul Jennings was born as property on James Madison's Virginia plantation in 1799 and died bequeathing valuable property in Northwest Washington, D. C. to two sons in 1874, and is the author of "A Colored Man's Reminiscences of James Madison," considered by the White House Historical Association the first memoir of life inside the White House. Having uncovered the circumstances behind the original publication of the "Reminiscences," the location of a wide variety of original documents in archives, courthouses, libraries, and private collections that piece together Jennings' own biography, and having made contact with living descendants of three of his children who have shared their family histories has led to "Paul Jennings and the Right to Rise." It consitst of an interpretive biography of Paul Jennings, as well as historical and contextual content on Jennings' memoir.
