Slavery at White Haven

Slavery played an integral role in the management of White Haven. Every white family that lived at the house before the Civil War, including Ulysses S. Grant, owned enslaved African American laborers who cooked and cleaned the house and tended to the 850 acre farm.

During the American Civil War, "Colonel" Frederick F. Dent, Ulysses S. Grant's father-in-law, sold four enslaved people to his daughter Emma. The bill of sale from this transaction is currently on display at the museum at Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site.

Mary Robinson was an enslaved worker at White Haven in the years before the Civil War. When Ulysses S. Grant died in 1885, she was interviewed by a reporter in St. Louis and discussed the Grant family's life at White Haven.

What was it like to be enslaved at White Haven? How did the realities of slavery differ from Julia Grant's memories? Click to find out.

From 1854 to 1859 Ulysses S. Grant lived at White Haven, a farm run with slave labor. In his roles as a farm hand and farm manager Grant was in frequent contact with enslaved African Americans. Complete this activity to learn more about Ulysses S. Grant and slavery.

The "hiring out" system function in St. Louis as a way for enslavers to temporarily contract their enslaved people to other non-slaveholders in the area. Ulysses S. Grant used the hiring out system while living at White Haven and had two enslaved men hired from other properties working with him in 1858.

Some enslaved African Americans practiced Hoodoo, an ancient religious practice inspired by Central and West African religious practices. While doing archaeological research at Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site in the 1990s, several West African artifacts were discovered, suggesting that some or all of the enslaved African Americans living at White Haven before the Civil War may have practiced Hoodoo.