Audiobook8 hours
The Invisibles: The Untold Story of African American Slaves in the White House
Written by Jesse Holland
Narrated by J.D. Jackson
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
3.5/5
()
About this audiobook
Jesse J. Holland's The Invisibles is the first book to tell the story of the executive mansion's most unexpected residents, the African American slaves who lived with the U.S. presidents who owned them. Interest in African Americans and the White House are at an all-time high due to the historic presidency of Barack Obama and the soon-to-be-opened Smithsonian National Museum of African American Culture and History.
The Invisibles chronicles the African American presence inside the White House from its beginnings in 1782 until 1862, when president Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation that granted slaves their freedom. During these years, slaves were the only African Americans to whom the most powerful men in the United States were exposed on a daily, and familiar, basis. By hearing about these often-intimate relationships, listeners will better understand some of the views that various presidents held about class and race in American society, and how these slaves contributed not only to the life and comforts of the presidents they served but to America as a whole.
The Invisibles chronicles the African American presence inside the White House from its beginnings in 1782 until 1862, when president Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation that granted slaves their freedom. During these years, slaves were the only African Americans to whom the most powerful men in the United States were exposed on a daily, and familiar, basis. By hearing about these often-intimate relationships, listeners will better understand some of the views that various presidents held about class and race in American society, and how these slaves contributed not only to the life and comforts of the presidents they served but to America as a whole.
Related to The Invisibles
Related audiobooks
White Lies: The Double Life of Walter F. White and America's Darkest Secret Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Buried in the Bitter Waters Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Accident of Color: A Story of Race in Reconstruction Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Southern Horrors: Lynch Law In All Its Phases Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Bound for Canaan: The Epic Story of the Underground Railroad, America's First Civil Rights Movement Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Burning: The Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Redemption: The Last Battle of the Civil War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Breaking the Chains: African American Slave Resistance Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBlack Hands, White House: Slave Labor and the Making of America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Patriotic Treason: John Brown and the Soul of America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Good American Family: The Red Scare and My Father Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The American Slave Coast: A History of the Slave-Breeding Industry Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Last Negroes at Harvard: The Class of 1963 and the 18 Young Men Who Changed Harvard Forever Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Slave in the White House: Paul Jennings and the Madisons Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Original Black Elite: Daniel Murray and the Story of a Forgotten Era Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Slave Ship: A Human History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Family Tree: A Lynching in Georgia, a Legacy of Secrets, and My Search for the Truth Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Red Summer: The Summer of 1919 and the Awakening of Black America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Voyage of the Slave Ship Hare: A Journey into Captivity from Sierra Leone to South Carolina Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Resurrection of Nat Turner, Part 1: The Witness Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Other Madisons: The Lost History of a President's Black Family Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Uprising: The Untold Story of America's Largest Slave Revolt Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Birth of a Nation: Nat Turner and the Making of a Movement Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Soul by Soul: Life Inside the Antebellum Slave Market Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Weeping Time: Memory and the Largest Slave Auction in American History Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5African Founders: How Enslaved People Expanded American Ideals Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBefore the Mayflower: A History of the Negro in America, 1619-1962 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
African American History For You
Invisible Generals: Rediscovering Family Legacy, and a Quest to Honor America's First Black Generals Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Black AF History: The Un-Whitewashed Story of America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5No Sweeter Sound: The History of Black Country Music Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Master Slave Husband Wife: An Epic Journey from Slavery to Freedom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Color of Money: Black Banks and the Racial Wealth Gap Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sweet Taste of Liberty: A True Story of Slavery and Restitution in America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5You Have to Be Prepared to Die Before You Can Begin to Live: Ten Weeks in Birmingham That Changed America Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Defining Moments in Black History: Reading Between the Lies Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Ain't I a Woman: Black Women and Feminism 2nd Edition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Flee North: A Forgotten Hero and the Fight for Freedom in Slavery's Borderland Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5On Juneteenth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Cross and the Lynching Tree Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Long Time Coming: Reckoning with Race in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Speeches by Malcolm X, 1925-1965: The Ultimate Collection Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Saying It Loud: 1966—The Year Black Power Challenged the Civil Rights Movement Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Never Caught Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Devil You Know: A Black Power Manifesto Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5We Carry Their Bones: The Search for Justice at the Dozier School for Boys Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Survivors of the Clotilda: The Lost Stories of the Last Captives of the American Slave Trade Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Most Tolerant Little Town: The Explosive Beginning of School Desegregation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Willie Lynch Letter and the Making of a Slave Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5She Came to Slay: The Life and Times of Harriet Tubman Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Black Ghost of Empire: The Long Death of Slavery and the Failure of Emancipation Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Medical Bondage: Race, Gender, and the Origins of American Gynecology Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Mis-Education of the Negro Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Organ Thieves: The Shocking Story of the First Heart Transplant in the Segregated South Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Delectable Negro: Human Consumption and Homoeroticism within US Slave Culture Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Fire Is upon Us: James Baldwin, William F. Buckley Jr., and the Debate over Race in America Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for The Invisibles
Rating: 3.6666667222222222 out of 5 stars
3.5/5
9 ratings1 review
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Holland has written a well researched and interesting book about slavery and the presidency. As a reader of history I knew a bit about this subject beforehand from Presidential biographies and first hand accounts from freed slaves, but to have it all in one book is a wonderful way to have this information in one place.