influential black society: Alexander, African or American?, 9–11.
white students raided black graves: Ibid., 9.
In Martha’s entourage: Chernow, Washington: A Life, 572.
an image for the new American aristocracy: For more on late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century women’s dress and fashion, see Catherine Kelly’s In the New England Fashion.
When Mrs. Washington arrived at Cherry Street: Martha Washington to Frances B. Washington, 8 June 1789.
Rooms were enlarged and remodeled: Ibid.
third floor and attic: For more on Washington’s living conditions in New York, see Donald Jackson and Dorothy Twohig’s The Diaries of George Washington, vol. 6, January 1790–December 1799 (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1979), 26.
Tobias Lear, personal assistant to George Washington: Chernow, Washington: A Life, 583.
Nelly Washington also learned: Thane, Mount Vernon Family, 63; Ribblett, Nelly Custis, 17–18.
Martha Washington was homesick: Lossing, Martha Washington, 22.
“I had no leizure to read”: Chernow, Washington: A Life, 576. For original source, see “From George Washington to David Stuart, 26 July 1789,” Founders Online, National Archives (http://founders.archives.gov/?q=george%20washington%20to%20david%20stuart&s=1111311111&sa=&r=190&sr=, ver. 2014-05-09).
Mrs. Washington greeted her guests: Chernow, Washington: A Life, 577–78.
through lower Manhattan: Brady, Martha Washington: An American Life, 172.
Governor George Clinton owned eight slaves: White, Somewhat More Independent, 10.
educate and baptize black New Yorkers: Harris, In the Shadow of Slavery, 48.
Judge was now in the minority: Although the majority of Mount Vernon’s inhabitants were of African descent, Virginia’s population was a majority white. In 1790 a little under 300,000 enslaved men and women lived in the state; however, the total population hovered around 747,000.
Ten percent of New York’s population: White, Somewhat More Independent, 4.
Stockhouse owned a slave: Ibid., 6.
the majority of the blacks: Ibid., 12.
arduous kinds of domestic work: For additional information about African American women in New York, see Dabel’s A Respectable Woman and Alexander’s African or American?.
“Just before them, a Mulatto girl”: Decatur and Lear, Private Affairs of George Washington, 135–36.
consumed with fear: Chernow, Washington: A Life, 586.
The surgery was quite serious: Tobias Lear to Colonel Clement Biddle, 24 June 1789, in William Baker’s Washington After the Revolution 1784–1799 (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co., 1897).
much larger home on Broadway: Henry B. Hoffman, “President Washington’s Cherry Street Residence,” The New York Historical Society Quarterly Bulletin 23 (January 1939): 90–103; and Anne H. Wharton, “Washington’s New York Residence in 1789,” Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine 43 (1889): 741–45.
“general health seems to be declining”: See Douglas Southall Freeman’s George Washington: A Biography, vol. 6 (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1948–57), 245.
out of harm’s way: On May 18, 1790, the New York Journal reported, “The President of the United States has been exceedingly indisposed for several days past, but we are rejoiced at the authentic information of his being much relieved the last evening.” Similar reports appeared in the Pennsylvania Gazette on May 19, 1790.
Chapter Four
new site for the nation’s capital: For more on the relocation of the federal capital to Philadelphia, see Gary Nash’s First City: Philadelphia and the Forging of Historical Memory (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011), 123.
Judge’s sister, Betty Davis: Nancy’s exact birth date is unknown. George Washington’s 1799 Slave Inventory lists Nancy as nine years of age, dating her birth year as sometime around 1790.
entrenched system of plantation slavery: Virginia’s 1790 census notes that 12,866 free people of color lived in the state, which at the time included West Virginia. This number would include men and women who were Native American as well as African or African American.
“hurt at the idea of bidding adieu”: The Federal Gazette, 1 September 1790.
the site of the nation’s capital: Fergus M. Bordewich, Washington: How Slaves, Idealists and Scoundrels Created the Nation’s Capital (New York: Amistad Books, 2008), 3–7.
the first Congress: See Edward M. Riley’s “Philadelphia, The Nation’s Capital, 1790–1800,” Pennsylvania History 20, no. 4 (October 1953): 358–359, Pennsylvania State University Press.
“the dirty figures of Mrs. Lewis”: “From George Washington to Tobias Lear, 9 September 1790,” Founders Online, National Archives (http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-06-02-0195 [last update: 2015-03-20]). Source: The Papers of George Washington, Presidential Series, vol. 6, 1 July 1790–30 November 1790.
extremely demanding chef: Gerson, “A Thirst for Complete Freedom,” 66.
“the Son of Herculas”: “From George Washington to Tobias Lear, 22 November 1790,” Founders Online, National Archives (http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-06-02-0331 [last update: 2015-03-20]). Source: The Papers of George Washington, Presidential Series, vol. 6, 1 July 1790–30 November 1790, 682–83.
a ninth slave joining them: “Postillion Joe” is mentioned by Washington in correspondence dated October 19, 1795. It is believed that he traveled to Philadelphia from Mount Vernon after an eight-day journey. It is uncertain how long Joe remained in Philadelphia, but the 1799 Mount Vernon slave inventory lists him as among the other slaves living at Mount Vernon.
The “President’s House” stood at 190 High Street: Edward Lawler Jr., “The President’s House in Philadelphia: The Rediscovery of a Lost Landmark,” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 126, no. 1 (January 2002): 5–95.
the house on High Street: Ibid., 5.
also known as “Black Sam”: The racial identity of Samuel Fraunces is still unclear, although most scholars believe that he was a man of African descent. Nicknamed “Black Sam,” Fraunces was a well-known tavern owner in New York who eventually traveled to Philadelphia to serve as a steward for the Washingtons. Although no documentation of his birth has been uncovered, it is suggested that he came from Barbados or possibly Haiti. In the 1790 census, Fraunces was identified as a free white male who had a history of slave ownership and still clung to one slave in his New York residence. For more on Washington’s Steward, see Rice, A Documentary History of Fraunces Tavern and Blockson, “Patriot, White House Steward and Restaurateur Par Excellence.”
Attached to the kitchen: Edward Lawler Jr., “The President’s House in Philadelphia,” 32.
The rear of the property: There was a bit of controversy about the history of the refitting of the smokehouse. While some at the National Park Service were hesitant to claim that slaves were required to live in the smokehouse, much of the necessary documentation provided by scholar Edward Lawler Jr. allows us to accept that slaves did indeed live in the smokehouse.
Friday evening “drawingrooms”: Lawler, “The President’s House in Philadelphia,” 41.
crude wooden structures: John Blassingame’s groundbreaking work, The Slave Community, examines the important role of the slave cabin as a respite from the ever-present watchful eye of the slave master.
slave named Venus: For centuries, a lingering oral testimony generated by African American descendants who lived at Mount Vernon suggests that a slave named West Ford was Washington’s son. According to the oral tradition, Ford’s mother, a slave named Venus who was owned by Washington’s brother (John Augustine Washington) and lived some ninety-five miles from Mount Vernon, had at least one sexual encounter with Washington that yielded a child. Most historians reject this assertion, as no written evidence exists to prove such a claim. Writer and biographer Henry Wiencek suggests that the possibility of Washington fathering West Ford is strong and points o
ut that Ford was eventually freed by Hannah Bushrod Washington, the president’s sister-in-law. Ford was the only slave freed in the will of Hannah Washington, and he was given 160 acres of land adjacent to Mount Vernon—a unique opportunity. For more on this, see Wiencek’s An Imperfect God, 293–99.
Chapter Five
“take advantage of a law of this State”: “To George Washington from Tobias Lear, 5 April 1791,” Founders Online, National Archives (http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-08-02-0050, ver. 2013-08-02). Source: The Papers of George Washington, Presidential Series, vol. 8, 22 March 1791–22 September 1791, 67–68.
“after a residence of six months”: Ibid.
“the blacks in this family”: Ibid.
“as a necessity of his employment”: “From George Washington to Tobias Lear, 12 April 1791,” Founders Online, National Archives (http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-08-02-0062, ver. 2013-08-02). Source: The Papers of George Washington, Presidential Series, vol. 8, 22 March 1791–22 September 1791, 84–86.
“practice of enticing slaves”: Ibid.
“too great a temptation”: Ibid.
strident abolition movement: New York’s first emancipation law was passed in 1799. See Harris, In the Shadow of Slavery, 70.
“to deceive” the public if necessary: “From George Washington to Tobias Lear, 12 April 1791,” Founders Online, National Archives (http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-08-02-0062, ver. 2013-08-02). Source: The Papers of George Washington, Presidential Series, vol. 8, 22 March 1791–22 September 1791, 84–86.
“none but yourself & Mrs. Washington”: Ibid.
they might run off: Ibid.
allow Austin to reunite with his family: Martha Washington to Fanny Bassett Washington, 19 April 1791, in Fields, “Worthy Partner,” 61.
Austin was given a total of $11.66: Austin was given $11.66 for the trip to Mount Vernon—passage to Baltimore in the stage cost $4.55, while the leg of the trip from Baltimore to Alexandria required $4.00 for transportation and close to $3.00 for other expenses, such as food and overnight lodging.
“bind them to a master”: “To George Washington from Tobias Lear, 24 April 1791,” Founders Online, National Archives (http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-08-02-0099 [last update: 2015-03-20]). Source: The Papers of George Washington, Presidential Series, vol. 8, 22 March 1791–22 September 1791, 129–34. The attorney general’s interpretation of the law was incorrect, and in actuality, all members of Congress were protected from the gradual abolition law.
“insolent in the State of Slavery”: Ibid.
“entice them from their masters”: Ibid.
“it behooves me to prevent the emancipation”: Ibid.
gold-headed cane and cocked hat: George Washington Parke Custis, Recollections and Private Memoirs of the Life and Character of Washington (New York: 1860), 422–24.
“pretty strong proof of his intention”: “To George Washington from Tobias Lear, 5 June 1791,” Founders Online, National Archives (http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-08-02-0172, ver. 2013-08-02). Source: The Papers of George Washington, Presidential Series, vol. 8, 22 March 1791–22 September 1791, 231–35.
“his fidelity or attachment to you”: Ibid.
trip back to Virginia: Decatur and Lear, Private Affairs of George Washington, 239.
“his departure for Virginia”: “To George Washington from Tobias Lear, 5 June 1791,” Founders Online, National Archives (http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-08-02-0172 [last update: 2015-03-20]). Source: The Papers of George Washington, Presidential Series, vol. 8, 22 March 1791–22 September 1791, 231–235.
George Washington’s birthday: Hercules successfully ran away from Mount Vernon in early 1797. He escaped after he was demoted from his position as lead chef to a basic manual laborer.
“to prolong the slavery of a human being”: “To George Washington from Tobias Lear, 24 April 1791,” Founders Online, National Archives (http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-08-02-0099 [last update: 2015-12-30]). Source: The Papers of George Washington, Presidential Series, vol. 8, 22 March 1791–22 September 1791, ed. Mark A. Mastromarino (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1999), 129–34.
would eventually release his slaves from bondage: George Washington’s views about slavery changed over time. As historian Philip Morgan notes, the first president had no epiphany, but his misgivings about human bondage evolved so that by the end of his life he chose to emancipate his slaves following the death of his wife. See Philip Morgan’s “To Get Quit of Negroes,” 403–29.
Chapter Six
Ona Judge was given permission to attend the same theater: Decatur and Lear, The Private Affairs of George Washington, 268.
Christopher only received fifty cents: Ibid., 201.
disabled William Lee had returned to Mount Vernon: William Lee served the Washingtons while they lived in New York; however, he returned to Mount Vernon in the summer of 1790 before the Washingtons took up residence in Philadelphia. Lee’s disabling knee injuries prevented him from serving the president in a reliable manner.
It was the first black mutual aid society: William Douglass, Annals of the First African Church in the United States of America, Now Styled the African Episcopal Church of St Thomas (Philadelphia: King and Baird, 1862), 12–49.
160 slaves took their chances: The data concerning runaway slaves comes from Smith and Wojtowicz’s Blacks Who Stole Themselves, as well as a survey of nineteen other Pennsylvania newspapers by Nash and Soderlund. The number of runaway slaves was probably higher than the 122 counted in the surveys. There are likely to have been omissions due to a lack of reporting by some slave masters.
4,500 blacks living around Mount Vernon: According to United States census records, there were 12,320 people living in Fairfax County, Virginia, in 1790. See “Heads of Families—Virginia” in United States Census, 1790.
5 percent of the city’s population: Billy Smith, The Lower Sort: Philadelphia’s Laboring People 1750–1800 (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1994), 193.
remove Giles from service: Washington explains in a letter to Tobias Lear that Giles would probably “never be able to mount a horse again” following a presumed riding accident. See “From George Washington to Tobias Lear, 19 June 1791,” Founders Online, National Archives (http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-08-02-0193, ver. 2014-05-09). Source: The Papers of George Washington, Presidential Series, vol. 8, 22 March 1791–22 September 1791, 275–78.
least desirable for slaves at Mount Vernon: Giles does not appear on the 1799 Mount Vernon slave inventory; however, a slave named Giles appeared on the 1802 list of slaves who were inherited by Martha Parke Custis Peter, granddaughter to Martha Washington. If this was the same Giles, he was only valued at ten pounds, suggesting that his injuries left him virtually worthless in the eyes of his owners. Or perhaps it was his son, a young child incapable of hard labor.
“Paris has become so lazy”: “From George Washington to Tobias Lear, 19 June 1791,” Founders Online, National Archives (http://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/05-08-02-0193, ver. 2013-08-02). Source: The Papers of George Washington, Presidential Series, vol. 8, 22 March 1791–22 September 1791, 275–78.
illness claimed his life: George Washington to William Pearce, 2 November 1794, ser. 4, General Correspondence, George Washington Papers, Library of Congress.
Men and women suffered: For more on yellow fever throughout American history, see Crosby, The American Plague.
Yellow fever sickened and killed many: Chernow, Washington: A Life, 700–702.
Polly Lear died on July 28: See Decatur and Lear’s The Private Affairs of George Washington, 181, and Brighton’s The Checkered Career of Tobias Lear, 115–16.
recruiting black men and women to lend a hand: Newman, Freedom’s Prophet, 87–88.
African Americans represented 10 percent of all deaths: See J. H. Powell’
s introduction to Bring Out Your Dead.
Blacks were accused: See Newman, Freedom’s Prophet, 94–95, for more on the most well-known pamphlet printed to defame the character of Philadelphia blacks during the yellow fever epidemic.
Betty Davis had given birth: Farm reports at Mount Vernon dated January 12, 1793, list Betty Davis as having a baby or being in “childbed.” Washington’s 1799 Slave Inventory lists Oney as six years old and the daughter of Betty D.
his wife, Charlotte, and their five children: Charlotte and Austin were close in age, and based upon information contained in the 1786 and 1799 Mount Vernon slave inventories, Charlotte had at least five children: Billy (born c. 1782); Timothy (born in 1785); and three daughters, Elvey, Jenny, and Eliza (no ages were given for the three girls on the 1799 inventory).
He was “likely to Lose his Life”: John H. Barney to Bartholomew Dandridge, 20 December 1794, George Washington Papers, Library of Congress, 1741–1799, ser. 4, General Correspondence, 1697–1799, http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=mgw4&fileName=gwpage106.db&recNum=835.
“her life must have been miserable”: George Washington to William Pearce, 1 February 1795, The Writings of George Washington, 34:109.
a new slave by the name of Joe: Joe Richardson appeared in the 1786 Mount Vernon slave census, suggesting that he was over the age of fourteen. Joe was married to Sall, who was born around 1769, and like Ona Judge’s family members, she worked as a seamstress at Mount Vernon. Joe arrived in Philadelphia sometime in 1795 following a journey from Mount Vernon to Philadelphia. See “Letter from George Washington to William Pearce October 19, 1795” in John C. Fitzpatrick’s The Writings of George Washington, 34:337–38. At the time that Joe came to Philadelphia, he was married to Sall and had three young sons: Henry, 7; Elijah, 3; and Dennis, 1.
Chapter Seven
Thomas Law and Eliza Custis promised themselves: Henry Wiencek, An Imperfect God, 290.
granddaughter’s explosive announcement: John Adams to Abigail Adams, 23 February 1796 [electronic edition]. Adams Family Papers: An Electronic Archive, Massachusetts Historical Society. http://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/archive/doc?id=L17960223ja&bc=%2Fdigitaladams%2Farchive%2Fbrowse%2Fletters_1789_1796.php. For original copy, see John Adams to Abigail Adams, 23 February 1796, p. 1, original manuscript from the Adams Family Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society. Adams writes that he attended an elaborate ball on the twenty-second of February to celebrate the president’s birthday. Also see Weld, Travels through the states.
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