History Subject Guide

Founding Brothers is a work of historical non-fiction, focusing on key moments both in post-revolutionary America and in the lives of the Founding Fathers. Ellis examines how the specific relationships of the Founding Fathers influenced, or were influenced by, the turbulent period in which they lived. Separated into seven sections, the book uses the lenses of hindsight and foresight to understand both what these men went through, and how history has come to understand them.

Paul Jennings was born into slavery on the plantation of James and Dolley Madison in Virginia, later becoming part of the Madison household staff at the White House. Once finally emancipated by Senator Daniel Webster later in life, he would give an aged and impoverished Dolley Madison, his former owner, money from his own pocket, write the first White House memoir, and see his sons fight with the Union Army in the Civil War.