The slaves who participated in constructing the White House were not paid, contrary to a conservativeblogosphere talking point that emerged following Michelle Obama’s speech Monday night at the Democratic National Convention. “I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves,” Obama said on Monday, drawing criticism from onlookers arguing that slaves did not play a substantial role in building the White House, or that the slaves who built the White House were paid. Historians and fact-checkers have proven that this is not the case, and that while some laborers who helped build the presidential home were compensated, the slaves were not.
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