politics
Genealogists Identify First Confirmed Living Descendants of Enslaved Worker on 1829 White House Payroll
ABC News and American Ancestors identified Jackie Smith Sullivan and Ashley Swain as living descendants of Calvert Ambush, who helped build the North Portico in 1829. Researchers spent more than two years tracing records across multiple states to establish the link.
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ABC News and American Ancestors have identified the first confirmed living descendants of Calvert Ambush, an enslaved man who helped construct the North Portico of the White House in the summer of 1829. D. and mother of three living in Atlanta, learned of the connection during an interview with "Good Morning America" co-anchor Robin Roberts.
Researchers from the 10 Million Names project examined dozens of records over more than two years before confirming the lineage. A 197-year-old government payroll record lists Ambush among the workers on the White House. The same document shows that the government rented enslaved laborers from their owners.
Between 1792 and 1829, more than 200 enslaved people performed labor on the White House and U.S. Capitol, including splitting stone at quarries, transporting materials, and constructing roofs, walls, and columns. Ambush gained his freedom in 1833 when his uncle, John Freeman, who had been enslaved by Presidents Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, took out a $620 loan to purchase it.
A marriage license records that Ambush wed Patsey Cryde in 1834, and the couple had three children. Swain described the discovery as connecting her directly to the past. "There's a piece of him that's inside of me," she said.
Smith Sullivan and Swain later viewed the original payroll document at the National Archives in Washington, D.C. "Surreal ... the fact that this is the original document, I almost don't wanna touch it," Swain said.
Enslaved workers slept in tents near the National Mall during construction. "It's overwhelming ... just to know that it was tents all down this mall," Smith Sullivan said. " ABC News has partnered with the 10 Million Names project since 2023 to document the history of slavery through genealogy.
