List of Slaves Belonging to George Washington and John Parke Custis. Gradual emancipation was seen as a way of mitigating such a loss and reducing opposition from those with a financial self-interest in maintaining slavery. [275][p], Washington's slaves were the subjects of the longest provisions in the 29-page will, taking three pages in which his instructions were more forceful than in the rest of the document. Some slaves at Mount Vernon participated with local, organized Christian congregations, to some degree. Morgan called slavery a system “that enmeshed master and slave” and one Washington sunk further into as he aged, despite his personal desires to eliminate it … [36] He demanded from all of his workers the same meticulous eye for detail that he exercised himself; a former enslaved worker would later recall that the "slaves...did not quite like" Washington, primarily because "he was so exact and so strict...if a rail, a clapboard, or a stone was permitted to remain out of its place, he complained; sometimes in language of severity. Treatment of Slaves. In his old age, Anderson said he was "a much happier man when he was a slave than he had ever been since", because he then "had a good kind master to look after all my wants, but now I have no one to care for me". All Rights Reserved. Washington's early attitudes to slavery reflected the prevailing Virginia planter views of the day and he initially demonstrated no moral qualms about the institution. Some three-quarters of his enslaved workers labored in the fields, while the remainder worked at the main residence as domestic servants and artisans. [242][243] The slaves Washington had bought early in the development of his business were beyond their prime and nearly impossible to sell, and from 1782 Virginia law made slaveowners liable for the financial support of slaves they freed who were too young, too old or otherwise incapable of working. These individuals included Washington’s personal assistant Christopher Sheels, whose plan to escape with his fiancée was thwarted; the family cook Hercules; and Martha Washington’s personal maid Ona Judge, both of whom escaped successfully. He also sold a few parti… The True George Washington: Master and Employer: Treatment of Slaves. [109][110], Washington regarded the "passion" with which one of his overseers administered floggings to be counter-productive, and Charlotte's protest that she had not been whipped in fourteen years indicates the frequency with which physical punishment was used. His personal servant, William Lee, was the only one freed immediately upon his death. Sheep were washed before shearing to prevent the theft of wool, and storage areas were kept locked and keys left with trusted individuals. Augustine was a tobacco planter with some 10,000 acres (4,000 ha) of land and 50 slaves. Divide the class into three groups. This video is part of our Ask Mount Vernon series where our experts answer questions submitting by students from all over the country. Today's post comes from Jim Zeender, Senior Registrar in the National Archives Exhibits Office. Morgan writes that in 1772, Washington was "all business" and "might have been buying livestock" in purchasing more slaves who were to be, in Washington's words, "strait Limb'd, & in every respect strong & likely, with good Teeth & good Countenance". At the time of his death, 318 enslaved people lived at Mount Vernon and fewer than half of them belonged to … They belonged to the Custis estate and were held in trust by Martha for the Custis heirs, and although Washington had no legal title to them, he managed them as his own property. The slaves Washington owned in his own right came from several sources. George Washington and Slavery will be an essential addition to the historiography of eighteenth-century America and of Washington himself. [3], George Washington was born in 1732, the first child of his father Augustine's second marriage. Washington responded kindly to Wheatley in a letter, the only known missive that he wrote to an enslaved individual, and even addressed the letter to "Miss Phillis," an unusually polite way for a member of the gentry to address an enslaved person. That's how slave owners maintained control over enslaved people. Morgan called slavery a system “that enmeshed master and slave” and one Washington sunk further into as he aged, despite his personal desires to eliminate it from his life. [122] Wiencek writes that in 1775 Washington took more slaves than he needed rather than break up the family of a slave he had agreed to accept in payment of a debt. [273][274], In July 1799, five months before his death, Washington wrote his will, in which he stipulated that his slaves should be freed. "[307] Washington recognized this paradox, rejected the notion of black inferiority, and was somewhat more humane than other slaveowners, but failed to publicly become an active supporter of emancipation laws due to Washington's fears of disunion, the racism of many other Virginians, the problem of compensating owners, slaves' lack of education, and the unwillingness of Virginia’s leaders to seriously consider such a step. [232] In 1798, he imagined just such a conflict when he said, "I can clearly foresee that nothing but the rooting out of slavery can perpetuate the existence of our union. "[37][38] In Washington's view, "lost labour is never to be regained", and he required "every labourer (male or female) [do] as much in the 24 hours as their strength without endangering the health, or constitution will allow of". [281] He forbade the sale or transportation of any of his slaves out of Virginia before their emancipation. [87] There is evidence to suggest that white overseers – working in close proximity to enslaved people under the same demanding master and physically and socially isolated from their own peer group, a situation that drove some to drink – indulged in sexual relations with the enslaved people they supervised. Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. With two hours off for meals, their workdays would range between seven and a half hours to thirteen hours, depending on season. In the months that followed, he considered a plan to repossess tenancies in Berkeley and Frederick Counties and transferring half of his Mount Vernon slaves to work them. Still, he approved of “correction” when those methods failed. [247][248] The next year, he instructed his secretary Tobias Lear to sell his western lands, ostensibly to consolidate his operations and put his financial affairs in order. Washington did not himself flog enslaved people, but he did on occasion lash out in a flash of temper with verbal abuse and physical violence when they failed to perform as he expected. The son-in-law of Custis's sister wrote in 1853 that the descendants of those who remained slaves, many of them now in his possession, had been "prosperous, contented and happy", while those who had been freed had led a life of "vice, dissipation and idleness" and had, in their "sickness, age and poverty", become a burden to his in-laws. Federal outlawing of importation of slaves to the United States was enacted in 1807. Be thine.". Writing on the subject to her sister, Abigail Adams explained that Martha Washington’s motives were largely driven by self-interest. "[305] The competing narratives allowed both North and South to claim Washington as the father of their countries during the American Civil War that ended slavery more than half a century after his death. 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