Paul Jennings Paul Jennings was an enslaved man owned by James Madison who lived in the White House during the Madison presidency. He was 15 years old in 1814 when the <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/157">British invaded Washington, DC</a>, and burned down the presidential residence. Almost fifty years later, Jennings wrote a memoir recalling that day and asserting that a gardener and the cook saved the portrait of George Washington, not Mrs. Madison. Jennings gained his freedom in 1847 and became a prominent member of the free black community in Washington, DC. In 1848, he helped to organize an ultimately unsuccessful <a href="http://mallhistory.org/items/show/287">slave escape</a> in Washington; the path the slaves took toward freedom ran across the Mall. <a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=39&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=Paul+Jennings">Paul Jennings</a> Courtesy of Sylvia Jennings Alexander <a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=38&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1800-1829">1800-1829</a> <a href="/items/browse?advanced%5B0%5D%5Belement_id%5D=38&advanced%5B0%5D%5Btype%5D=is+exactly&advanced%5B0%5D%5Bterms%5D=1830-1859">1830-1859</a>