George Washington: Farmer: Being an Account of His Home Life and Agricultural ActivitiesHaworth, Paul Leland
History
George Washington: Farmer: Being an Account of His Home Life and Agricultural Activities
Haworth, Paul Leland
Mount Vernon (Va. : Estate); Washington, George, 1732-1799 -- Homes and haunts -- Virginia -- Mount Vernon (Estate)
He expressly forbade the sale of any slave or his transportation out of
Virginia, and made provision for the care of the aged, the young and
the infirm. He gave immediate freedom to his mulatto man, calling
himself William Lee, or if he should prefer it, being physically
incapacitated, he might remain in slavery. In either case he was to have
an annuity of thirty dollars and the "victuals and cloaths he has been
accustomed to receive." "This I give him as a testimony of my sense of
his attachment to me and for his faithful services during the
revolutionary War."
As a matter of fact, Mrs. Washington preferred to free her own and the
General's negroes as soon as possible and it was accordingly done before
her death, which occurred in 1802.
One of the servants thus freed, by name Cary, lived to the alleged age
of one hundred fourteen years and finally died in Washington City. He
was a personage of considerable importance among the colored population
of the Capital, and on Fourth of July and other parades would always
appear in an old military coat, cocked hat and huge cockade presented by
his Master. His funeral was largely attended even by white persons.
CHAPTER XIII
THE FARMER'S WIFE
Martha Dandridge's first husband was a man much older than herself and
her second was almost a year younger. Before she embarked upon her
second matrimonial venture she had been the mother of four children, and
having lost two of these, her husband, her father and mother, she had
known, though only twenty-seven, most of the vital experiences that life
can give. Perhaps it was well, for thereby she was better fitted to be
the mate of a man sober and sedate in disposition and created by Nature
to bear heavy burdens of responsibility.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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