Was the White House built by slaves?

Yes, the White House was indeed built with the labor of enslaved African Americans.

During the construction of the White House, which began in 1792, the commissioners overseeing the project initially attempted to recruit laborers from Europe but faced significant recruitment challenges. As a result, they turned to both enslaved and free African Americans to provide the bulk of the labor needed for the construction of the White House, the United States Capitol, and other early government buildings in Washington, D.C.25.

Enslaved laborers were involved in every stage of the construction process, including quarrying and cutting stone, hauling building materials, and performing skilled labor such as carpentry, stonecutting, and bricklaying. They worked alongside local white laborers, free African-American wage laborers, and immigrants from Ireland, Scotland, and other European nations135.

The government did not own the slaves but hired them from their owners, with the wages paid directly to the slave owners25.

This historical fact underscores the significant and often overlooked contribution of enslaved African Americans to the construction of some of the most iconic buildings in the United States.