Did Uncle Sam Own Eunuchs?

[ValFirst]

First, I might comment that it is something of a rigamarole to register for this forum. I realize that it concerns a subject that most people think is for screwballs, and for that reason you want to be careful who joins. But I registered only to ask one question which is not a frequently asked one. Wouldn't it make some sense to have an open forum devoted simply to a limited number of seldom asked questions by individuals who aren't members? Incieentally, in case somebody at some time investigates the forum, I'd prefer that my email address not be kept on record.

My question comes from something I read on a website, and couldn't find reliable information about on Google and Yahoo searches. I saw the Eunuch Archive listed on one search, and at first thought it was about historical research into eunuchs, which, of course, are a part of much of past history.

What I read on another website, and what got my attention, was that the White House staff in Washington, up until the Civil War, and maybe at the start of Lincoln's term, was largely made up of slaves. This was described as having been the case from Washington's Presidency onward. Apparently, half a dozen Presidents or more, owned slaves, and some of the slaves on staff would have belonged to them. It's also possible that the government contracted to rent slaves from private slaveowners. But the slaves conceivably were owned by the government, maybe by one specific cabinet department. Some sources say that the White House was largely constructed with slave labor. Slavery, of course, must have been legal in the District of Columbia, and it was definitely legal in Virginia, across the Potomac River, in Virginia. Slavery was also probably legal in Maryland.

I've read, but don't know of any confirmed source for the information, that slaves in parts of the South were castrated to be used as domestic servants. I don't know if this is reported as having done in the area around Washington, but, if it was, it seems possible that eunuch slaves were used in the White House. And, of course, if the White House staff was made up of government-owned chattel slaves, then the government, or Uncle Sam, might have owned eunuchs. To me, that would be rather striking, as I think the Ottoman government and the Chinese government were the only places where eunuchs were government workers at the time, and I don't know if they were owned by those governments or simply employed as civil servants of a kind. I don't even know if the government in classical Rome actually owned slaves, or eunuch slaves, although there were plenty of slaves in the Roman Empire and in classical Greece before it.

This is not a research project, and I am just asking because the possibility of the government having owned eunuchs, seems striking and is therefore interesting. I realize, after accessing the Eunuch Archive, that it isn't mostly about historical matters, but I thought that someone who is a member might have done some research into this subject, and might know something about it.

Val

[MacTheWolf]

I looked briefly and I can't find any example of the U.S. owning eunuchs, African Americans yes, but no eunuchs.

I will keep looking, however.

[talula]

No on all accounts

[markle]

Being in the military is close to being owned, or so it might seem, and I can assume they have several eunuch on the payroll, does that count? Would add, I also imagine there are more surviving eunuch now than in past conflicts.

markle

[Dave]

No, that doesn't count as "owning" a Eunuch.

[ValFirst]

Somebody I mentioned this to, observed that slavery was legal in about half the states, up to the time of the Civil War, all of them had a governor and presumably a governor's mansion, and the staff in those mansions were probably slaves, something which would be cheaper than hiring servants. And, in areas where servants were commonly desexed, some of the slaves who were servants, might be desexed. So, maybe Mississippi or Georgia or some other state owned eunuchs, but that doesn't seem as noteworthy as if the federal government owned eunuchs. I would guess that a lot of information about state government during and before the time of the confederacy, was lost when the CSA was defeated and ceased to exist. Besides that, it might not have been noted that certain individuals had been castrated, since people would have assumed that certain positions in a household woulld be filled by eunuchs.

Val

[Sweetpickle]

I think it's more likely that any slaves working around high officials were their personal property.
If George W. had 300 slaves I doubt he would have the govt buy more.
None of the early high officials who were opposed to slavery would put up with that.

[Ernie of Maine]

I think it's more likely that any slaves working around high officials were their personal property.
If George W. had 300 slaves I doubt he would have the govt buy more.
None of the early high officials who were opposed to slavery would put up with that.

I understan that G.W. sole his slaves befor becomeing The C.E Ernie

[Ernie of Maine]

Being in the military is close to being owned, or so it might seem, and I can assume they have several eunuch on the payroll, does that count? Would add, I also imagine there are more surviving eunuch now than in past conflicts.

markle

I beleve that would get a Honerable Discharge and probable a Purple Heart. Ernie

[Ernie of Maine]

Geoge Washington never lived in The White House it was Built between 1793 & 1801 G.W. govined from New York Citie. New York state was a free state allso G.W. had freed his slaves. Ernie

[Dave]

Geoge Washington never lived in The White House it was Built between 1793 & 1801 G.W. govined from New York Citie. New York state was a free state allso G.W. had freed his slaves. Ernie

please take note that pay and accounting ledgers show that slaves built the capital and the congress buildings.

[ValFirst]

I only did a quick search engine look at this question before making the original post, and didn't find anything that indicated the federal government itself ever owned slaves. However, I presume that Mac the Wolf did find something to confirm that. If the government owned slaves, I think it could be assumed that some of them were male slaves. And you can figure that a certain number of males in the general population, lose their gonads at some time in their lives because of trauma or for some other reason. I would doubt that orchiectomy was used as treatment for prostate cancer in the nineteenth century; orchiectomy for testicular cancer, might be another matter. But I would guess that therapeutic castration was less common in the antebellum period than at present. So, since the federal government owned slaves, there is a chance that some of them had lost their gonads, and the likelihood of that being the case, would depend on the number of slaves the government owned, and what the probability is, that an individual will lose his testes during his lifetime, with that probability perhaps having been lower in the nineteenth century than at present.

With that in mind, it seems that the answer to the question of the post would be, that the federal government might have owned eunuchs, but the odds probably are against it. As to whether state governments owned eunuchs, that might be somewhat more likely. It would be interesting to know the date at which a eunuch was last owned by a government anywhere.

Val