Sherry Chandler

Recently, Thomas Jefferson has been coming under heavy criticism not just for slave ownership but also for miscegenation. Not much has been said about George Washington, however. As far as I can tell, Washington himself cannot be accused of miscegenation but, somewhat like Lincoln, he sure does seem to have been married to it.

I bring this stuff up on Washington’s birthday, not because I want to besmirch Washington, but because it is the worm at the heart of our national rose. Also, it’s a theme I seem to be following lately. Just keeps popping up so I figure there must be some reason for me to think about this stuff right now.

These men were products of their time. They were very wise and forward thinking but they had their limitations and their blind spots. George Washington was a great man but he was fully human and by definition flawed.

Our job, it seems to me, is to acknowledge this fact, not to cast blame and counterblame. Once we acknowledge that this is a national problem, then perhaps we can move beyond it.

From George Washington’s will:

Item Upon the decease of my wife, it is my Will & desire that all the Slaves which I hold in my own right, shall receive their freedom. To emancipate them during her life, would, tho’ earnestly wished by me, be attended with such insuperable difficulties on account of their intermixture by Marriages with the dower Negroes, as to excite the most painful sensations, if not disagreeable consequences from the latter, while both descriptions are in the occupancy of the same Proprietor; it not being in my power, under the tenure by which the Dower Negroes are held, to manumit them. And whereas among those who will recieve freedom according to this devise, there may be some, who from old age or bodily infirmities, and others who on account of their infancy, that will be unable to support themselves; it is my Will and desire that all who come under the first & second description shall be comfortably cloathed & fed by my heirs while they live; and that such of the latter description as have no parents living, or if living are unable, or unwilling to provide for them, shall be bound by the Court until they shall arrive at the age of twenty five years; and in cases where no record can be produced, whereby their ages can be ascertained, the judgment of the Court, upon its own view of the subject, shall be adequate and final. The Negros thus bound, are (by their Masters or Mistresses) to be taught to read & write; and to be brought up to some useful occupation, agreeably to the Laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia, providing for the support of Orphan and other poor Children. and I do hereby expressly forbid the Sale, or transportation out of the said Commonwealth, of any Slave I may die possessed of, under any pretence whatsoever. And I do moreover most pointedly, and most solemnly enjoin it upon my Executors hereafter named, or the Survivors of them, to see that this clause respecting Slaves, and every part thereof be religiously fulfilled at the Epoch at which it is directed to take place; without evasion, neglect or delay, after the Crops which may then be on the ground are harvested, particularly as it respects the aged and infirm; seeing that a regular and permanent fund be established for their support so long as there are subjects requiring it; not trusting to the uncertain provision to be made by individuals. And to my Mulatto man William (calling himself William Lee) I give immediate freedom; or if he should prefer it (on account of the accidents which have befallen him, and which have rendered him incapable of walking or of any active employment) to remain in the situation he now is, it shall be optional in him to do so: In either case however, I allow him an annuity of thirty dollars during his natural life, which shall be independent of the victuals and cloaths he has been accustomed to receive, if he chuses the last alternative; but in full, with his freedom, if he prefers the first; & this I give him as a testimony of my sense of his attachment to me, and for his faithful services during the Revolutionary War.

According to Nancy Hurrelbrinck in her article Freeing His Slaves is One of Washington’s Greatest Legacies

“Washington’s pronouncements on the subject of slavery could be contradictory . … It’s one of the mysteries of his life,” said Henry Wiencek, a fellow at the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities…

As a child, Washington couldn’t have helped but absorb a distinction between the treatment of black and white children, said Wiencek, the author of several books, including the critically acclaimed The Hairstons: An American Family in Black and White. Whereas white illegitimate children of indentured servants, who were often prohibited from marrying, had to be taught to read and write and apprenticed in a trade, their mulatto counterparts were typically indentured for 33 years, “a big chunk of a person’s life then.”

Martha Washington also grew up with slavery. When she met George, she was the widow of the wealthy Daniel Parke Custis, whose father almost willed his estate to a young black boy who was possibly his child, which would have left her husband-to-be penniless.

During the Revolutionary War, Washington hesitated to enlist blacks, but he knew they had been fighting well in New England–and that the British were recruiting slaves by promising them freedom–so he allowed them in. At the end of the war, when his army marched to Yorktown, one in four of his soldiers was black, according to a mercenary German officer’s journal.

“Why isn’t this woven into our collective memory along with Paul Revere, Betsy Ross and Ticonderoga?” Wiencek asked.

At Yorktown, Washington had a spy in enemy camp, James Armistead, who served loyally at the risk of his life, but was sent back to slavery after the war. He appealed to Lafayette, who wrote a tribute that Armistead took to the legislature, winning his freedom.

…

The Washingtons’ views about slavery were also probably influenced by their familial relationships with African-Americans, and may have impelled George to change his mind, he suggested. Martha had a mulatto half-sister who lived with her throughout her life and who had a child with Jackie Custis, Martha’s son by her first marriage.

Jackie Custis died a few years later, but Washington’s family acknowledged the child as part of the family. He was free, but married a slave, and their children were emancipated by the husband of one of Martha’s granddaughters.

“These relationships were everywhere. It’s astonishing, the level of denial that has obscured all of this,” Wiencek said.

For more on Washington, check out the University of Virginia’s Washington papers and the Library of Congress. For more on the painting, see the George Glazer Gallery.

Update: And then there’s this, which happened locally, but which I had to find via Lawyers, Guns and Money.

Watch at YouTube.

This cartoon has been banned from television broadcast. I’m not sure why, possibly for drug-related content??