Rather than abide by the spirit of the Gradual Abolition Act, Washington made sure that the slaves in his Philadelphia household were taken outside state limits before they reached six months' residency. The majority of Mount Vernons one million visitors per year, one presumes, pause to stare a… [198][199] Nevertheless, he negotiated with John Mercer to accept six slaves in payment of a debt in 1786 and expressed to Henry Lee a desire to purchase a bricklayer the next year. [208] Each state was allowed to keep it, change it, or eliminate it as they wished, though Congress could make various policies that would affect this decision in each state. She refused to follow the example he set by emancipating his slaves, and instead she bequeathed the only slave she directly owned (named Elish) to her grandson. [295] Such reports were influenced by the innate racism of the well-educated, upper-class authors and ignored the social and legal impediments that prejudiced the chances of prosperity for former slaves, which included laws that made it illegal to teach freedpeople to read and write and, in 1806, required newly freed slaves to leave the state. More active methods of protest included actions such as theft, arson, and sabotage of crops. After his father’s death in 1743, Washington inherited 10 slaves. Today's post comes from Jim Zeender, Senior Registrar in the National Archives Exhibits Office. Let’s start with their names. Some three-quarters of his enslaved workers labored in the fields, while the remainder worked at the main residence as domestic servants and artisans. [287] Martha felt threatened by being surrounded with slaves whose freedom depended on her death and freed her late husband's slaves on January 1, 1801. A significant proportion of the enslaved population at Mount Vernon resisted the system by various means, including by theft to supplement food and clothing as well as income, by feigning illness, and by running away. The True George Washington: Master and Employer: Treatment of Slaves. [132] The historian Edmund Sears Morgan explained that Washington was not alone in this regard: "Virginia produced the most eloquent spokesmen for freedom and equality in the entire United States: George Washington, James Madison, and, above all, Thomas Jefferson. [103][104][105], Jessie MacLeodAssociate CuratorGeorge Washington's Mount Vernon[106], Washington used both reward and punishment to encourage discipline and productivity in his enslaved population. [61] Each enslaved person was provided with a basic daily food ration of one US quart (0.95 l) or more of cornmeal, up to eight ounces (230 g) of herring and occasionally some meat, a fairly typical ration for the enslaved population in Virginia that was adequate in terms of the calorie requirement for a young man engaged in moderately heavy agricultural labor but nutritionally deficient. [sic] selling Negroes, as you would Cattle in the market, I would not, in twelve months from this date, be possessed of one as a slave. [263] From 1791, he arranged for those who served in his personal retinue in Philadelphia while he was President to be rotated out of the state before they became eligible for emancipation after six months residence per Pennsylvanian law. Although the ratio had improved by 1799 to around 2:1, the Mount Vernon estate had grown by only 10 percent to some 8,000 acres (3,200 ha) while the working slave population had grown by 65 percent to 201. Others used their time to play games and sports. [160] At his death, Washington's extensive library included at least seventeen publications on slavery. He had a strong work ethic and expected the same from his workers, enslaved and hired. That circular letter inveighed against “local prejudices” but explicitly declined to name any of them, “leaving the last to the good sense and serious consideration of those immediately concerned.”[153][155], Emancipation became a major issue in Virginia after liberalization in 1782 of the law regarding manumission, which is the act of an owner freeing his slaves. "[133], Washington shared the common Southern concern about arming African Americans, enslaved or free, and initially refused to accept either into the ranks of the Continental Army. [115] Threats of demotion to fieldwork, corporal punishment and being shipped to the West Indies were part of the system by which he controlled his enslaved population. [136][137][f] In 1780, he suggested to one of his commanders the integration of African-American recruits "to abolish the name and appearance of a Black Corps. In 1799, more than 50 enslaved men and women were trained in specific trades that … Augustine was a tobacco planter with some 10,000 acres (4,000 ha) of land and 50 slaves. Enslaved people occasionally earned money through their normal work or for particular services rendered – for example, Washington rewarded three of his own enslaved with cash for good service in 1775, an enslaved person received a fee for the care of a mare that was being bred in 1798 and the chef Hercules profited well by selling slops from the presidential kitchen. In accordance with state law, George Washington stipulated in his will that elderly enslaved people or those who were too sick to work were to be supported by his estate in perpetuity. White people and people of African descent in the lowest stratum of Virginian society shared common disadvantages and a common lifestyle, which included intermarriage until the Assembly made such unions punishable by banishment in 1691. "[131][132] As if answering Johnson, Washington wrote to a friend in August 1774, "The crisis is arrived when we must assert our rights, or submit to every imposition that can be heaped upon us, till custom and use shall make us tame and abject slaves, as the blacks we rule over with such arbitrary sway. 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. [246] In December 1793, he sought the aid of the British agriculturalist Arthur Young in finding farmers to whom he would lease all but one of his farms, on which his slaves would then be employed as laborers. Influences from both African and European religious practices can be found amongst Mount Vernon’s enslaved population. Wiencek bases his argument on the fact that the passage was written in the past tense and appears in Humphreys' notebook amid drafts Humphreys had written for public statements Washington was to make about assuming the presidency. Large numbers of unemployed poor, of whatever color, was a cause for concern in 18th-century America, to the extent that expulsion and foreign resettlement was often part of the discourse on emancipation. [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. [99], The most emphatic act of resistance was to run away, and between 1760 and 1799 at least forty-seven enslaved people under Washington's control did so. "[269], Philip Morgan writes that "The youthful Washington revealed prejudices toward blacks, quite natural for the day" and that "blackness, in his mind, was synonymous with uncivilized behaviour. "[268] According to historian Albert Tillson, one reason why enslaved black people were lodged separately at Mount Vernon is because Washington felt that some white workers had habits that were "not good" (e.g., Tillson mentions instances of "interracial drinking" in the Chesapeake area), and another reason is that, Tillson reports, Washington "expected such accommodations would eventually disgust the white family. I think I knew General Washington intimately and thoroughly; and were I called on to delineate his character it should be in terms like these....He was, indeed, in every sense of the words, a wise, a good, and a great man....in nothing bad, in few points indifferent; and it may truly be said that never did nature and fortune combine more perfectly to make a man great and to place him in the same constellation with whatever worthies have merited from man an everlasting remembrance. With precious little free time and control over their own schedules, enslaved people at Mount Vernon attempted to exert some control over their personal lives. As punishment, he whipped her with a hickory switch, a reprisal Washington deemed “very proper.” Charlotte’s response—that she had not been whipped for 14 years—suggests that physical punishment was sporadic, but not unheard of, at Mount Vernon. "I never mean (unless some particular circumstance should compel me to it) to possess another slave by purchase; it being among my first wishes to see some plan adopted, by which slavery in this country may be abolished by slow, sure and imperceptible degrees. A kinder-than-average slave owner was still a slave owner, and Washington was not one to tolerate disobedience or attempted escapes. A passage in the notebook of Washington's biographer David Humphreys[m] dated to late 1788 or early 1789 recorded a statement that resembled the emancipation clause in Washington's will a decade later. The key values in which he is home-schooled are restraint, reserve and dignity. It is possible Washington hoped Martha and her heirs who would inherit the dower slaves would solve this problem by following his example and emancipating them. To the last, he was committed to making profits, even at the expense of the disruptions such transfers would indisputably have wrought on his slaves. However, there were several circumstances that arose following the American Revolution that would prevent Washington from actively pursuing the elimination of slavery during his lifetime. George Washington lived in Philadelphia, then the nation's capital, from 1790 to 1797, and had eight enslaved people working in his household. leave Virginia and move up north). In addition, Washington was willed ten slaves. [285][286] Already from 1795, dower slaves were being transferred to Martha's three granddaughters as the Custis heirs married. [176] A sudden end to slavery would also have caused a significant financial loss to slaveowners whose human property represented a valuable asset. Most of Washington’s human property lived, worked, and died at Mount Vernon. "[260] Ellis concludes that Washington prioritized his own financial security over the freedom of the enslaved population under his control, and writes, on Washington's failure to sell the land at prices he thought fair, "He had spent a lifetime acquiring an impressive estate, and he was extremely reluctant to give it up except on his terms. I said, “Wow that’s really interesting that George Washington has placed an ad—or rather, his people have placed an ad—in the newspaper for a runaway slave who they called “Oney Judge.” (Oney was the diminutive of her name like Timmy or Bobby; her name was Ona.) "I never mean (unless some particular circumstance should compel me to it) to possess another slave by purchase; it being among my first wishes to see some plan adopted, by which slavery in this country may be abolished by slow, sure and imperceptible degrees. Of that total, he owned 124, leased 40 and controlled 153 dower slaves. [152][153][154] Before resigning his commission in 1783, Washington took the opportunity to give his opinion on the challenges that threatened the existence of the new nation, in his Circular to the States. Africans who had been baptised before arriving in Virginia could be granted the status of indentured servant until 1682, when another law declared them to be slaves. Ask the students to research the … 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". By law, neither George nor Martha Washington could free the Custis dower slaves. [78] African-born slaves brought with them some of the religious rituals of their ancestral home, and there is an undocumented tradition of voodoo being practiced at one of the Mount Vernon farms. Wiencek suggests Washington considered making precisely such a statement on taking up the presidency in 1789. George Washington's Views on Slavery In his writings, George Washington felt very strongly that slavery was an institution that needed to be eliminated from American society. [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. To get the … Washington as a slave owner: Arriccio George Washington owned human beings before he ever made a decision to do so; he inherited 10 enslaved people at the age of 11 when his father died. [95], Enslaved people asserted some independence and frustrated Washington by the pace and quality of their work. The history of George Washington and slavery reflects Washington's changing attitude toward enslavement. "[68] Only thirty-six of the ninety-six married slaves at Mount Vernon in 1799 lived together, while thirty-eight had spouses who lived on separate farms and twenty-two had spouses who lived on other plantations. [14][15][16] Between 1752 and 1773, he purchased at least seventy-one slaves – men, women and children. Thus it was that Judge, an especially talented seamstress, and Hercules escaped in 1796 and 1797 respectively and eluded recapture. No such movement could be started. The slaves Washington owned in his own right came from several sources. A major new biography of Washington, and the first to explore his engagement with American slaveryWhen George Washington wrote his will, he made the startling decision to set his slaves free; earlier he had said that holding slaves was his "only unavoidable subject of regret." [2] In Washington's lifetime, slavery was deeply ingrained in the economic and social fabric of Virginia, where some forty percent of the population and virtually all African Americans were enslaved. By 1789 Washington was the “largest slave owner in Fairfax County,” and by 1799 he owned 317 slaves, including 143 children (Morgan 2000:281-82). "[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. [281] In the late 1790s, about half the enslaved population at Mount Vernon was too old, too young, or too infirm to be productive. Like nearly all wealthy landowners in Virginia, George Washington owned enslaved people who worked his land. The practices of George Washington as to the dogs on his plantation and with which he hunted, and his attitudes towards the dogs of his slaves, show considerable influence from his English roots, though with significant adaptation to the very [41][50] The paternal concern for the welfare of his enslaved workers was mixed with an economic consideration for the lost productivity arising from sickness and death among the labor force. © 2020 Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association. The Slave Trade Act of 1794 was a law passed by the United States Congress that limited American involvement in the international slave trade.It was signed into law by President George Washington on March 22, 1794. [b] – making him one of the largest slaveholders in Fairfax County. , leaving them to work diligently from sunrise to sunset over a period of decades through acts of deliberate harm. 60 ], there are few records of how the newly freed slaves fared of both patriarchy paternalism. 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