Martha Dandridge Custis Washington was the wife of George Washington, the first president of the United States. Although the title was not coined until after her death, she served as the inaugural first lady of the United States, defining the role of the president's wife and setting many precedents that future first ladies would observe. During her tenure, she was referred to as "Lady Washington". Washington is consistently ranked in the upper half of first ladies by historians.
George Washington Parke Custis was an American plantation owner, antiquarian, author, and playwright. His father John Parke Custis was a stepson of George Washington. He and his sister Eleanor grew up at Mount Vernon and in the Washington presidential household.
William Lee, also known as Billy or Will Lee, was an American slave and personal assistant of George Washington. He was the only one of Washington's slaves who was freed immediately by Washington's will. Because he served by Washington's side throughout the American Revolutionary War and was sometimes depicted next to Washington in paintings, Lee was one of the most publicized African-Americans of his time.
The history of George Washington and slavery reflects Washington's changing attitude toward the ownership of human beings. The preeminent Founding Father of the United States and a hereditary slaveowner, Washington became increasingly uneasy with it. Slavery was then a longstanding institution dating back over a century in Virginia where he lived; it was also longstanding in other American colonies and in world history. Washington's will immediately freed one of his slaves, and required his remaining 123 slaves to serve his wife and be freed no later than her death, so they ultimately became free one year after his own death.
Ona "Oney" Judge Staines was a biracial woman who was enslaved by the Washington family, first at the family's plantation at Mount Vernon and later, after George Washington became president, at the President's House in Philadelphia, then the nation's capital city. In her early twenties, she absconded, becoming a fugitive slave, after learning that Martha Washington had intended to transfer ownership of her to her granddaughter, known to have a horrible temper. She fled to New Hampshire, where she married, had children, and converted to Christianity. Though she was never formally freed, the Washington family ultimately stopped pressing her to return to Virginia after George Washington's death.
Harry Washington was a Black Loyalist in the American Revolutionary War, and enslaved by Virginia planter George Washington, later the first President of the United States. When the war was lost the British then evacuated him to Nova Scotia. In 1792 he joined nearly 1,200 freedmen for resettlement in Sierra Leone, where they set up a colony of free people of color.
Hercules Posey was an enslaved African owned by George Washington, at his plantation Mount Vernon in Virginia. "Uncle Harkless," as he was called by George Washington Parke Custis, served as chief cook at the Mansion House for many years. In November 1790, Hercules was one of eight enslaved Africans brought by President Washington to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, then the temporary national capital, to serve in the household of the third presidential mansion.
The President's House in Philadelphia was the third U.S. Presidential Mansion. George Washington occupied it from November 27, 1790, to March 10, 1797, and John Adams occupied it from March 21, 1797, to May 30, 1800.
Christopher Sheels, was a slave and house servant at George Washington's plantation, Mount Vernon, in Virginia, United States.
The Quander family is believed to be the oldest documented African-American family that has come from African ancestry to present day America. Historians believe so because they cannot find any records of any other African-American family whose ancestry has been consistently kept and published.
Lund Washington (1737–1796) was a distant cousin of George Washington who served as steward of the Mount Vernon estate during the American Revolution.
West Ford was the caretaker and manager of Mount Vernon, which had been the home of George Washington. Ford also founded Gum Springs, Virginia near Mount Vernon. He was a man of mixed-race, and possibly of Washington family descent.
Betty was a biracial enslaved woman owned by Martha Washington. She was owned by the Custis Estate and worked at Daniel Parke Custis' plantation, the White House, on the Pamunkey River in New Kent County, Virginia. Custis married Martha Dandridge in 1750 and, when he died in 1757, Betty became one of Martha's dower slaves whom she brought to George Washington's plantation, Mount Vernon, after the Washington marriage in 1759. Betty worked at Mount Vernon until she died.
Deborah Squash was a slave on George Washington's Mount Vernon plantation before she escaped in 1781. She went to New Amsterdam, which was the headquarters for the British during the American Revolution. At the end of the war, she was one of the 3,000 blacks in the Book of Negroes that sailed on a British ship for Nova Scotia.
"The Only Unavoidable Subject of Regret": George Washington, Slavery and the Enslaved Community at Mount Vernon is a scholarly book on the history of slavery at Mount Vernon during the times of George Washington. Written by Mary V. Thompson, the book was published in the United States in 2019.
Sarah Johnson was an African American woman who was born into slavery at Mount Vernon, George Washington's estate in Fairfax, Virginia. She worked as a domestic, cleaning and caring for the residence. During the process, she became an informal historian of all of the mansion's furnishings. After the end of the Civil War, she was hired by the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, ultimately becoming a council member of the organization. She bought four acres of Mount Vernon land to establish a small farm. The book Sarah Johnson's Mount Vernon (2008) tells the story of her life within the complex community of people who inhabited Mount Vernon.
Maria Carter Syphax, otherwise spelled Mariah, was the matriarch of the Syphax family, a prominent family of African Americans in the greater Washington, D.C., area who became civic leaders, civil servants, and educators. She was born into slavery as Maria Carter, daughter of an enslaved woman and George Washington Parke Custis, a grandson of Martha Washington through her first marriage. Syphax was thus a great-granddaughter of First Lady Martha Washington.
Caroline Branham (1764–1843) was an enslaved housemaid and seamstress of George and Martha Washington. She was married to Washington's hired groomsman Peter Hardiman, whose slaveholder was David Stuart. Branham gave birth to nine children, seven with Hardiman. Her son, Austin (1798-1879), and her ninth child, Lucy, are believed to have been a child of the plantation; the boy's and girl's father was George Washington Parke Custis. Branham served the Washington family and their many visitors, ensuring they resided comfortably.
