In the End

George Washington's Tomb

I finally finished the book and in the end GW emancipated his slaves, was it too little too late? He talked about letting his slaves free while he was president but thought it would divide the nation and cause back lashes.  He made his final will 5 months before his death, emancipating his slaves at the death of Martha. After GW's death Martha became paranoid that the slaves would kill her to gain their freedom, so she eventually freed them before her death. 

I am going to go backwards in the next couple days, to talk about the things I learned in this book before I started the blog. Some of the topics will be West Ford, black's in the Revolutionary War, a young GW, family ties and trees, the presidentcy.

I am really excited about this authors new book he is working on about Thomas Jefferson. In the mean time I am starting a new book this evening regarding Myths in History.

William Custis Costin

So last night the part of the book I was reading had to do with William Custis Costin, who is apparently GW's step mulatto grandson. You see Martha Washington had a half sister who was a her fathers child with a slave woman. Her name was Ann Dandridge and when she was young she was sent to live with Martha. She was kept at Mt Vernon as a slave, but she was kept in the main house doing "light" work.

Martha had a daughter who died and she had a son Jacky, these were children from her marriage before GW. Jacky eventually died also but had fathered 4 children with his wife and 1 child with his AUNT!! Yes William Custis Costin was the child of Jacky Custis and Ann Dandridge. So Martha had a grandchild that was also her nephew!! Amazing.

He was a free man even though his mother was a slave. GW and Martha would have given him a private manumission which was legal in Virginia, however, they would not have done it publicly because of the backlash they would have received for having black relatives.  After Ann had William she married a slave man by the name of Costin, they went on to have 4 other children.

When both Martha and GW had died Ann was set free by a family member. Thomas Law had married Jacky's daughter Eliza, he freed Ann and her other children.

Another small note, when Jacky died his wife sent their 2 youngest children to live with Martha at Mt Vernon, she raised them as her own.

So I guess with the all the talk these days about dysfunctional families, it really isn't a new issue.

So disappointed in George Washington

The current book I am reading is An Imperfect God: George Washington, His Slaves, and the Creation of America by Henry Wiencek, it is genius.

It is teaching me so much about who George Washington was, the title is perfect. George Washington has been put on a pedestal and he really should be knocked off as far as I am concerned. I wonder if the Borglum would have put him on Mt Rushmore if he had read this book.

 One of the things that struck me most, I am mean really affected me, was the raffle. One of GW's colleagues needed to get rid of his assets to pay off debt, well as we all know slaves were property, so they thought of a scheme to make more money than what they would get at an auction, so they came up with a lottery/raffle!! If you buy a ticket in this raffle you are not going to win a quilt, a trip, a car; you are going to get a human being!! Children were raffled separate than their mothers, husbands separated from their wives; if you had the right ticket you would just show up at the property where your prize was and take it home. Ripping children from their parents that didn't know anything about the raffle, you wouldn't even have time to say good bye.

I just can't imagine what it take inside of you to lay your head down at night and think this is ok.

Whew glad to get that off my chest. More stuff to come from this book tomorrow.