Raleigh Marshall (’05) recalls being surrounded by history since elementary school. Coach lamps that once belonged to Founding Father James Madison were mounted on the wall in Marshall’s basement.

There were also nearly a thousand black-and-white photos scattered about. Within the collection was a photo of Marshall’s great-grandmother, Pauline Jennings Marshall.

But it wasn’t until 2008, with the help of Elizabeth Dowling Taylor, a researcher and author, that Marshall discovered the significance of the family heirlooms within his ancestral home. Through his great-grandmother, he is the great-great-great-grandson of Paul Jennings, an African American enslaved by the Madison family.

While serving as director of education at Montpelier, the Madison family estate in Orange County, Virginia, Taylor found herself captivated by Jennings’ story and decided to write a book-length biographical narrative on him titled A Slave in the White House: Paul Jennings and the Madisons. In it, Jennings is recognized for a plethora of achievements, including writing the first White House memoir, A Colored Man's Reminiscences of James Madison.

Through Taylor, Marshall became fascinated by his family’s history. He is now a member of the Pearl Coalition, whose mission is to build a replica of the Pearl ship, on which slaves attempted to escape Washington, D.C., in 1848.

Marshall, an engineer at Microsoft, is also a father to a 1-year-old girl, Aria. He hopes to instill their family’s legacy in her as she grows up.

“You know, there’s an old saying that the worst thing is to be forgotten,” Marshall said. He refuses to let that happen with his family’s history.