White House Historical Association

Sally Houseman

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"Sally Houseman," White House Workers History Project, White House Historical Association, 2026, https://whha.whirlihost.com/Detail/workers/134.
Position
Laundress
Years in President's House
circa 1803
Legal Status
Free Person
Gender
Female
Race/Ethnicity
White
Presidency
Thomas Jefferson
Biography
Sally Houseman was a washerwoman in Thomas Jefferson's White House, but details about her life outside this employment remain unknown. In a letter from May 18, 1803, Sally’s brother, John Houseman, wrote to Thomas Jefferson: “I have a Sister by name Sally Houseman living in your House. She has been ill used by one of your Domesticks (Abraham Golden) and knocked prostrate on the floor; and that without any assault from her side.”1 She was paid $7 per month, according to Jefferson’s 1803 memorandum book.2 She disappears from Jefferson’s books after 1803. Jefferson may have hired other women on a short term basis to assist Sally.3
  1. “To Thomas Jefferson from John A. Houseman, 18 May 1803,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/01-40-02-0299. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, vol. 40, 4 March–10 July 1803, ed. Barbara B. Oberg. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2013, p. 391.]
  2. “Memorandum Books, 1803,” Founders Online, National Archives, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/02-02-02-0013. [Original source: The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, Second Series, Jefferson’s Memorandum Books, vol. 2, ed. James A Bear, Jr. and Lucia C. Stanton. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997, pp. 1089–1117.]
  3. Lucia Stanton, “Those Who Labor for My Happiness:" Slavery at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello,” (Charlottesville, Virginia: University of Virginia Press, 2012), 4.
Birthplace
Unclear from Context
Unclear from Context
Related Worker
Abraham Golden
Valets, Lady's Maids, and First Family Attendants, Kitchen, Dining Room, Pantry, and Storeroom, 1801 – 1804
Related Association Content
https://www.whitehousehistory.org/a-well-ordered-household