The Enslaved Community of President James Monroe with a Focus on Loudoun County, 1784-1849

The Enslaved Community of President James Monroe project began with the Black History Committee of the Friends of the Thomas Balch Library in Leesburg, Loudoun County, Virginia. James Monroe, the 5th president of the United States, owned plantations in Albemarle and Loudoun Counties in Virginia, and he made his Loudoun property, Oak Hill, his retirement home after his second presidential term ended. The BHC wanted to learn more about the people enslaved there. A small group of independent researchers organized, created a research plan, and began their work in 2007, in preparation for a Friends fundraising event at Oak Hill. Research continued through 2011 and is done sporadically at present as new information is uncovered. The dataset contains extracted information about the people enslaved by Monroe and his family, including daughters Eliza and her husband George Hay; daughter Maria and her husband Samuel Gouverneur; the Hay’s daughter Hortensia Monroe Hay Rogers; Monroe’s uncle Joseph Jones; and Monroe’s brother Andrew.