Antoine Michel Giusta

Antoine Michel Giusta was born in 1785 in Northern Italy.¹ In 1814, Giusta met John Quincy Adams in Amsterdam Ghent.² President Madison appointed Adams to negotiate the Treaty of Ghent in 1814.³ 

Adams hired Giusta in June 1814 as his servant.⁴ Giusta remained in his service during Adams’ stay in London as U.S. minister to Great Britain (1815-1817). In London, Giusta met Mary Newell—maid and cook to Louisa Catherine Adams; together they managed Adams’ household. In 1817, Giusta accompanied the Adamses on their return to the U.S. for Adams’ appointment as secretary of state (1817 to 1825).⁵ Antoine and Mary married at the Adamses’ family home on December 8, 1818.⁶

When the Adamses moved into the White House in March 1825, President Adams hired Antoine as steward and butler and Mary as assistant housekeeper.⁷ Adams and Giusta enjoyed swimming and boating in the Potomac River together, as well as gardening and planting.⁸ Giusta likely prepared the White House for President-elect Andrew Jackson and assisted with his Inauguration, during which a large crowd arrived at the White House on March 4, 1829.⁹ Giusta arranged three long tables for food in the East Room and oversaw the supply of a large amount of lemonade and orange punch spiked with whiskey.¹⁰ Throughout the day, he managed the crowds inside the congested mansion and on the lawn.¹¹ 

President Andrew Jackson allowed the Giustas to retain their positions at Adams’ recommendation.¹² Management of White House staff was left to Giusta, including free and enslaved workers.¹³ The Giustas left in May 1833; According to Adams, “They…could not abide his negro slaves and his savage temper.”¹⁴ They worked in the restaurant business afterward; in 1837, they declined an offer to work at the White House for President Martin Van Buren.¹⁵ Giusta died on July 31, 1872, in Washington, D.C. and is buried at Oak Hill Cemetery.¹⁶