Caroline Webb

One of the presidential households we know the least about is that of Zachary Taylor. Documentation is scarce, as most of his personal papers were lost when Union soldiers occupied his family’s plantation in Louisiana during the Civil War. Furthermore, Taylor’s tenure as president was short, as he died in office less than two years into his term, meaning he produced fewer records to begin with. As a result, only a handful of individuals have been identified as working at the Taylor White House. Records are even more scarce for the enslaved workers in President Taylor’s household. One of them was likely Caroline Webb. 

Information about Webb’s early life is limited. She was born sometime in the early 1830s to Jane Webb, an enslaved servant of Army officer (and future president) Zachary Taylor.¹ Caroline first appears in the historical record in 1849, just after Taylor was elected president. Prior to his election, he was an officer in the U.S. Army. Army regulations at this time provided wages to officers to employ their own servants to cook for them, shave them, do their laundry, and perform other remedial tasks; if the servant was enslaved, then the officer could pocket the wage themself and use it to provide food and clothing for the worker. Officers had to file paperwork to receive the wages, which Taylor did in 1849 when he listed Caroline Webb as one of his enslaved servants, alongside her brother William and mother Jane. The pay period covered November 1848 to January 1849, just before Taylor was elected president when he was stationed in Louisiana.²

Like many of the early slave owning presidents, Taylor brought some of his enslaved workers with him to the White House to serve him and his family and to supplement the free wage laborers. Caroline Webb was likely among them, along with her mother Jane and brother William Webb. Evidence for them working at the White House comes from President Taylor’s will, which he drafted in 1846 and which took effect when he died in 1850. Taylor willed Caroline, William and Jane (along with three other enslaved workers) to his wife, First Lady Margaret Taylor.³ The fact that these six enslaved workers were given specifically to the first lady suggests they worked closely with her or the family and were trusted by her. We know that one of the other enslaved workers mentioned in the will, Charles Porter, did work at the White House, so it is likely the others did as well.⁴

Nothing else is known about Caroline at this time.