Milly
Cite this Page
"Milly," White House Workers History Project, White House Historical Association, 2026, https://whha.whirlihost.com/Detail/workers/268.
- Position
- Maid
- Years in President's House
- circa 1845 – 1849
- Legal Status
- Enslaved Person
- Gender
- Female
- Race/Ethnicity
- Black or African American
- Presidency
- James K. Polk
- Biography
- Milly was an enslaved woman who worked at the White House during James K. Polk’s presidency. On March 5, 1849, soon after Polk’s term as president ended and he and his wife Sarah Polk were preparing to depart Washington, D.C. to return to Tennessee, he wrote in his diary: “I take with me also my servant (Henry) & Milly, a maid servant belonging to J. Knox Walker.” Walker was Polk’s nephew and lived in the White House while working as the president’s private secretary, which means Milly almost certainly lived and worked in the White House as well.1 We know little else at this time about Milly’s role in the White House other than Polk’s reference to her as a “maid servant.” She appears again several times in Polk’s diary, including on March 28, 1849, when he recorded that Milly fell ill with cholera on the journey to Tennessee.2 Two days later, Polk recorded that “Our servant girl was still ill, but had been saved . . . by timely treatment.”3 According to historian Amy Greenberg, Milly was married to Henry Carter, an enslaved man who worked for President Polk at the White House - likely the same “Henry” mentioned in Polk’s diary entry from March 5.4 Little else is known about Milly at this time, including her full name.
- “March 5, 1849,” The Diary of James K. Polk During His Presidency (Chicago: A.C. McClurg & Co., 1910), 4:377.
- March 28, 1849,” Diary of James K. Polk, 4:413.
- “March 30, 1849,” Diary of James K. Polk, 4:414.
- Amy S. Greenberg, Lady First: the World of First Lady Sarah Polk (Alfred A. Knopf, 2019), 177.
- Birthplace
- Unclear from context
- Unclear from context