[69] The evidence suggests couples that were separated did not regularly visit during the week, and doing so prompted complaints from Washington that enslaved people were too exhausted to work after such "night walking", leaving Saturday nights, Sundays and holidays as the main time such families could spend together. By 1799, 153 of the people enslaved at Mount Vernon were part of this dower property. That's how slave owners maintained control over enslaved people. George Washington died on Dec. 14, 1799. [197][37] Washington significantly reduced his slave purchases after the war, though it is not clear whether this was a moral or practical decision; he repeatedly stated that his inventory and its potential progeny were adequate for his current and foreseeable needs. "—George Washington, September 9, 1786No history of racism in America can be considered complete without taking into account the role that … Another source of loss was sickness, which, in spite of all Washington could do, made constant inroads on the numbers. Neither George nor Martha Washington could free these slaves by law and upon Martha’s death these individuals reverted to the Custis estate and were divided among her grandchildren. 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. His abolitionist aspirations for the nation centered around the hope that slavery would disappear naturally over time with the prohibition of slave imports in 1808, the earliest date such legislation could be passed as agreed at the Constitutional Convention. [271] Historian Henry Wiencek rendered this judgment:[272], “If you look at Washington’s will, he’s not conflicted over the place of African Americans at all,” Wiencek said in an interview. Morgan gives a different account of the 1775 purchase, writing that Washington resold the slave because of the slave's resistance to being separated from family and that the decision to do so was "no more than the conventional piety of large Virginia planters who usually said they did not want to break up slave families – and often did it anyway". [149][150][151], Washington's actions at the war's end reveal little in the way of antislavery inclinations. George Washington and Slavery will be an essential addition to the historiography of eighteenth-century America and of Washington himself. In the winter of 1775, Wheatley sent Washington a letter containing an ode to the newly appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army. 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. Some three-quarters of his enslaved workers labored in the fields, while the remainder worked at the main residence as domestic servants and artisans. Let’s start with their names. George Washington lived in Philadelphia, then the nation's capital, from 1790 to 1797, and had eight enslaved people working in his household. 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 … [258], Wiencek writes that if Washington had found buyers for his land at what seemed like a fair price, this plan would have ultimately freed "both his own and the slaves controlled by Martha’s family",[259] and to accomplish this goal Washington would "yield up his most valuable remaining asset, his western lands, the wherewithal for his retirement. However, we have to be careful not to romanticize this. Francis Lee, younger brother of William, was well known and respected enough to have his obituary printed in the Alexandria Gazette on his death at Mount Vernon in 1821. [236][249] It is the first clear indication that Washington's thinking had shifted from selling his slaves to freeing them. [48], Washington instructed his overseers to treat enslaved people "with humanity and tenderness" when sick. It would, Washington hoped, "yield more nett profit" which might "benefit myself and not render the [slaves'] condition worse", despite the disruption such relocation would have had on the slave families. On his death in 1743, he left his 2,500-acre (1,000 ha) Little Hunting Creek to George's older half-brother Lawrence, who renamed it Mount Vernon. "[183] James Thomas Flexner’s interpretation is somewhat different from Lacy Ford’s: "Washington was willing to back publicly the Methodists' petition for gradual emancipation if the proposal showed the slightest possibility of being given consideration by the Virginia legislature. The inscription read, "In memory of the many faithful colored servants of the Washington family, buried at Mount Vernon from 1760 to 1860. He was anxious to recover his own slaves, and refused to consider compensation for the upwards of 80,000 formerly enslaved people evacuated by the British, demanding without success that the British respect a clause in the Preliminary Articles of Peace which he regarded as requiring the return of all slaves and other American property even if the British had purported to free some of those slaves. Slaveowners administered punishments to control their workforce. 250–253, 273–275, 285, Presentation by Mary Thompson on Washington and Slavery, February 20, 1999, 'The Only Unavoidable Subject of Regret': George Washington and Slavery, "'The Only Unavoidable Subject of Regret'", The Life of General Washington, First President of the United States, From George Washington to The States, 8 June 1783, If We Can Keep It: How the Republic Collapsed and How it Might Be Saved, Notes on the proposed abolition of slavery in Virginia in 1785, Deliver Us from Evil: The Slavery Question in the Old South, "George Washington – Yale University Press", "slave, Abram (at Pamocra; New Kent County, Va.)", No Property in Man: Slavery and Antislavery at the Nation’s Founding, With a New Preface, City of Sedition: The History of New York City during the Civil War, Encyclopedia of Constitutional Amendments, Proposed Amendments, and Amending Issues, 1789-2002, Invisible in Plain Sight: Self-Determination Strategies of Free Blacks in the Old Northwest, Slavery and the Founders: Race and Liberty in the Age of Jefferson, Student Almanac of African American History: From slavery to freedom, 1492-1876, Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation, Founding Friendship: George Washington, James Madison, and the Creation of the American Republic, “How America’s Founding Fathers Missed a Chance to Abolish Slavery”, "Why Did Martha Washington Free Her Husband’s Slaves Early? Washington, in fact, enacted a 1793 law providing a legal means for slave owners to reclaim their lost “property.” And for five years during his presidency, he … [70] Despite the stress and anxiety caused by this indifference to family stability – on one occasion an overseer wrote that the separation of families "seems like death to them" – marriage was the foundation on which the enslaved population established their own community, and longevity in these unions was not uncommon. No state considered making slavery an issue during the ratification of the new constitution, southern states reinforced their slavery legislation and prominent antislavery figures were muted about the issue in public. This book examines George Washington's evolving views about slavery over his lifetime. Ask the students to read the four passages from documents written by George Washington relating to slaves and the slavery issue. Other factors that may have influenced her decision to free Washington's slaves early include concerns about the expense of maintaining slaves that were not necessary to operate the estate and about discontent among the dower slaves if they continued to mix with slaves who were to be freed. [40] Enslaved people who were less able, through injury, disability or age, were given light duties, while those too sick to work were generally, though not always, excused work while they recovered. Let’s start with their names. However, there is no credible evidence that George Washington took sexual advantage of any slave. When George Washington took control of the Mount Vernon property in 1754, the population of Fairfax County was around 6,500 people, of whom a little more than 1,800 or about 28% were slaves of African origin. 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