--- title: Michelle Obama DNC Speech—History of a House Built by Slaves description: In her speech at the DNC, the First Lady spoke of waking up in a house "built by slaves"—an oft-forgotten chapter of White House history canonical: https://time.com/4423691/michelle-obama-dnc-speech-history/ author: Olivia B. Waxman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-07-26T15:50:11.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:55:19.237Z article:section: History og:title: Michelle Obama DNC Speech—History of a House Built by Slaves og:description: In her speech at the DNC, the First Lady spoke of waking up in a house "built by slaves" og:url: https://time.com/4423691/michelle-obama-dnc-speech-history/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc94433387c25b4e8/69889f43f887dc0defe96ca9/flotus.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: The 2016 Democratic National Convention og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Michelle Obama DNC Speech—History of a House Built by Slaves twitter:description: In her speech at the DNC, the First Lady spoke of waking up in a house "built by slaves" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc94433387c25b4e8/69889f43f887dc0defe96ca9/flotus.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Michelle Obama Reminded Us That Slaves Built the White House. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: Watch Michelle Obama’s Emotional Speech at the Democratic Convention [Watch (HLS stream): Watch Michelle Obama’s Emotional Speech at the Democratic Convention](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/FK5NXdd9.m3u8) (2:06)  _Published 2016-07-26. First Lady Michelle Obama gave an emotional speech at the Democratic national convention Monday night, arguing for the importance of black and female role models in the White House._  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Jul 26, 2016 3:50 PM UTC  U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama speaks during the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Philadelphia on July 25, 2016. U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama speaks during the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Philadelphia on July 25, 2016. Daniel Acker—Bloomberg / Getty Images  by [Olivia B. Waxman](https://time.com/author/olivia-b-waxman/)  ## Olivia B. Waxman Staff Writer Jul 26, 2016 3:50 PM UTC When First Lady Michelle Obama took the stage on Monday night at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia, her [well-received](http://time.com/4423176/democratic-convention-michelle-obama-star/) [speech](http://motto.time.com/4423727/michelle-obama-dnc-convention-speech-quotes/) came in stark contrast to some of the more crisis-oriented language that came out of last week’s Republican convention. Speaking of how barriers can be broken and disparaging the idea that “somehow we need to make \[America\] great again,” she [gave one particularly striking example](http://time.com/4421538/democratic-convention-michelle-obama-transcript/): --- > “” --- When construction on the White House began in 1792, the site’s location between slave states Virginia and Maryland meant the labor force was made up of enslaved people and free blacks, in addition to white laborers from the area and immigrants from Ireland and Scotland, [according to ](https://web.archive.org/web/20160721153157/https://www.whitehousehistory.org/questions/did-slaves-build-the-white-house)the White House Historical Association. As the Association points out, the federal government as an entity did not actually own the slaves, but rather hired them out from their masters—but, as Ethel Lewis [noted](https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.$b727631;view=1up;seq=52) in her 1937 history of the building, during the work some of them lived in “mean huts” on the grounds of what would later become the White House gardens. Jesse Holland writes in his book [_Black Men Built the Capitol: Discovering African-American History_ ](https://books.google.com/books?id=eest66wNX2UC&printsec=frontcover&dq=holland+white+house&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiUmpaln5HOAhXIXh4KHU5nBhIQ6AEIJTAA#v=onepage&q=slaves%20hand%20shovels&f=false)that slaves helped to dig the building’s foundation. Slaves were also used at Virginia quarries to chop stone out of the ground for the walls of the building, and elsewhere to dig clay for bricks and saw timber for as little as 13 cents a day—wages that were most likely pocketed by their masters. [_Get your history fix in one place: sign up for the weekly TIME History newsletter_](http://time.com/newsletter) And slaves worked inside the early White House, too, Holland [writes](https://books.google.com/books?id=eest66wNX2UC&printsec=frontcover&dq=holland+white+house&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiUmpaln5HOAhXIXh4KHU5nBhIQ6AEIJTAA#v=onepage&q=slaves%20&f=false): --- > “” --- But who exactly were the slaves who built the White House? As Holland notes in another book, [_The Invisibles: The Untold Story of African American Slaves in the White House_](https://www.amazon.com/Invisibles-Untold-African-American-Slaves/dp/1493008463/?tag=timecom-20), it is no longer possible to provide a complete answer to that question. “There were thousands upon thousands in the Washington area at that time, with the largest single slave population in the United States being in Virginia at 292,627, according to the 1790 census,” he writes. “But the city commission, made up of President Washington’s allies, never bothered to record the names of this first crew or which plantations they came from.” But, though their names have been lost to time, their memory—as Michelle Obama made clear—has not been forgotten. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4423691/michelle-obama-dnc-speech-history/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4423691/michelle-obama-dnc-speech-history/"},"headline":"Michelle Obama Reminded Us That Slaves Built the White House. 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