Descendants of enslaved person who helped build White House speak to ABC News
Summary
ABC News and American Ancestors identified the first confirmed living descendants of Calvert Ambush, an enslaved person who helped build the White House in 1829. This discovery connects the past to the present through genealogy research that traced Ambush’s family line to his great-great-great-granddaughter Ashley Swain.Key Facts
- Calvert Ambush was an enslaved person who worked on building the North Portico of the White House in 1829.
- ABC News partnered with American Ancestors, a genealogy group, to find descendants of enslaved workers at the White House.
- Researchers spent over two years checking old records like property papers, church births, and bills of sale to build family trees.
- Ashley Swain, a neuroscience Ph.D. and mother of three from Atlanta, is Ambush’s confirmed descendant.
- A 197-year-old government payroll document shows Ambush’s name, proving he worked on the White House.
- Slaves were rented from white owners by the government for labor on the White House and U.S. Capitol projects.
- Swain and her mother visited the National Archives to see original historic records related to Ambush.
- This is the first known case of linking a living person directly to an enslaved individual associated with building the White House.
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