Richmond – White Hall Historic Site
It’s said that every picture tells a story. But sometimes pictures are lost, or missing, or were never taken in the first place. That leaves only part of the story on display. And at White Hall, that part of the story that many come to see is one of wealth and power.
Photos and oil paintings of Russian tsars and tsarinas in the mansion’s foyer mingle with images and memorabilia of White Hall’s owner and President Lincoln’s Ambassador to Russia, Cassius Marcellus Clay. Nearby is a photo of Clay’s first wife, Mary Jane Warfield Clay, outfitted in elaborate dress as she prepared to escort her husband overseas.
The formal dining room off the foyer displays portraits of the ambassador’s mother and his father, General Green Clay — a slaveowner and businessman who lived on the estate before the mansion’s expansion and whose wealth encompassed more than 200,000 acres of land, and the people who worked it.
There’s a cabinet off the study that holds china from Paris, France and finger bowls from Russia; teardrop wall sconces glitter near the formal entrance; an 1859 Steinway piano lounges in the parlor near intricately carved sideboards and seating and still more treasures, all original belongings of the Clay family.
Not everyone knows the rest of the story: the more than 100 men, women, and children who were enslaved at the estate at various points in its history, or those who lived here who fought for human rights at different points in history.
Each of these persons had a family, a dream, a story of their own. And today, visitors to White Hall are getting a better picture of who these individuals were.
The big picture
Slavery
Many individuals who were enslaved at White Hall are known only by their name, some only by age, some only by gender. The good news is this basic information is now made public for each visitor to acknowledge.
White cards printed with the enslaved persons’ names, ages, or whatever is known about the individual have been placed conspicuously around the house — on walls, tables, sometimes next to the occasional Clay family portrait. They collectively remind us of the individuals and families who lived on the estate without freedom, and certainly without fanfare.
There was Mary Jr., and Jack. There was Old Henry and Old Hannah, a husband and wife enslaved at the estate until they were emancipated after Green Clay’s death. There were dozens more individuals, their names or identifying information now posted for all to see.
These are the individuals who worked in the house, the fields, the gardens, and in the 18th century stone kitchen and building behind the mansion used to prepare the Clays’ meals, make textiles, and finish other chores. They worked with no option to quit while enslaved, and with no rights under the law.
Emancipation
Cassius M. Clay did not support slavery as his father had before him. He became an emancipationist, fueled by anti-slavery beliefs instilled in him during his studies at Yale. Those beliefs would later be manifested in his newspaper, The True American, which operated from 1845 to 1847.
Pro-slavery forces forced the paper out of Kentucky and into Cincinnati in 1846, but not before Clay had made his mark in journalism. It was over 160 years later when White Hall was named an “Historical Site in Journalism” by the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) because of Clay’s journalistic legacy.
Hagit Limor, the national president of SPJ when the honor was bestowed on White Hall in 2011, explained Cassius M. Clay’s impact on American journalism like this to the Richmond Register:
“‘When it comes to what he stood for, he defines hero,’ she said, adding that he was able to use a newspaper to change the course of history.“
An entire room in White Hall is now dedicated to Clay’s career as a politician, journalist, lawyer, and champion of civil rights. A political ally of Abraham Lincoln, Clay was rewarded for his support of the Lincoln administration with the aforementioned ambassadorship to Russia, where Clay lived from 1861 to 1869 – except for a brief trip home in 1862 to encourage home state support for the Emancipation Proclamation. A copy of Lincoln’s appointment of Clay to the ambassadorship is on display at White Hall.
Women’s rights
Commitment to human rights was also valued by Clay’s wife, Mary Jane Warfield Clay – a staunch suffragist – and the Clays’ adult daughters, each who advocated for women’s suffrage and equal rights in some way during their lives:
Mary Barr Clay, a colleague of Susan B. Anthony, was the first Kentucky woman to advocate publicly for women’s rights and the first Kentuckian to serve as president of a national woman’s organization after her 1883 election to the presidency of the American Woman Suffrage Association.
Laura Clay founded the Kentucky Equal Rights Association and successfully lobbied for state laws giving married women in Kentucky the right to control their own property, share guardianship of their children, and pursue higher education. Nationally, Clay campaigned in Oregon, Arizona, and elsewhere for women’s suffrage and became a leading suffragist in the South (although she did not support a federal amendment, instead favoring states’ rights).
Clay would receive an early nod for President of the U.S. by the Democratic Party in 1920, with the nomination ultimately going to Ohio Gov. James Cox. Republican Warren G. Harding would become president that year.
Sallie Clay Bennett was a member of the Kentucky Equal Rights Association, president of the Madison County Equal Rights Association, and a strong advocate for civil rights at the state and federal level. In 1894, Bennett argued for the rights of both Black and white women before a U.S. Senate committee.
Anne Clay Crenshaw was active in the suffrage movement in Kentucky and Virginia, where she moved with her husband. There she helped create the Equal Suffrage League of Virginia and advocated for civil rights.
So, now we know that the story of White Hall goes beyond the dazzling ornamentation and wealth on display in its hallways and rooms. White Hall is more than one story: it is an account of all that happened at that place, to everyone – statesman and cook, daughter and mother, enslaved and free.
By telling the larger story, White Hall is expanding the visitor’s understanding of this Kentucky historic site. And bravo.
Still curious? Go to White Hall’s official website for more information, including a link to White Hall’s Facebook page for news on tours and special events!
