Hey, history lovers. I'm Mike Rosenwald with Retropod, a show about the past, rediscovered.

Today, as we wrap up Black History Month, I wanted to replay this clip of former First Lady Michelle Obama's

2016 speech on the opening night of the Democratic National Convention.

So that today, I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves.

And I watch my daughters, two beautiful, intelligent black young women playing with their dogs on the White House lawn.

In that speech, Obama pointed out an ugly piece of American history that is often forgotten.

That buildings that stand as symbols of American democracy were erected with the labor of those

who were not free.

Slaves didn't just help build the White House. They helped run it. According to the White

House Historical Association, as many as seven presidents own slaves while in office, Thomas

Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, John

Tyler, Andrew Polk, and Zachary Taylor. The enslaved people who lived in the White House

slept in the basement. But it wasn't just the White House. Slaves were involved in almost every

stage of the Capitol's construction, which began in 1793.

The federal government relied heavily on them, according to the architect of the Capitol,

to make it possible for Congress to move from Philadelphia to Washington in 1800.

Congress eventually unveiled a marker to acknowledge the work of enslaved people in 2012.

At George Washington's renowned Virginia mansion, Mount Vernon, more than 300 slaves toiled at the time of his death in 1799.

Washington became a slave owner at age 11, according to an exhibit at Mount Vernon that

explores the founding father's relationship with slavery. In his will, Washington freed the

123 enslaved people that he owned outright. And at Thomas Jefferson's famous Virginia estate, Monticello, about 130 men, women and children, were enslaved at any given time, including a woman named Sally Hemings.

For decades, many historians and Jefferson's descendants refused to acknowledge the relationship Jefferson had with this enslaved

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