Untold Stories: George Washington Saves a Slave Family from Being Divided

“I wish from my soul that the legislature of this state [Virginia] could see the policy of a gradual abolition of slavery.” —George Washington

There are so many inspiring, beautiful stories about the great heroes of American history which are scarcely ever told. One happens on them accidentally—buried in a thick, out-of-print biography, in small print on a museum sign, casually and fleetingly mentioned in an obscure educational video. America cannot return to greatness in the future if we do not truly understand the greatness of our past. That is why I am writing an article series to tell a few of these little-known but moving or illustrative “untold stories” of American greatness.

Previous articles in this series have included how Union Col. Trimble saved black freemen from Confederate enslavers; the story of the first Native American Indian university graduate, Caleb Cheeshahteaumuck; Abraham Lincoln’s meeting with freed slaves in Richmond; and trailblazing Marines throughout US history. Today’s story involves George Washington’s actions as a slaveowner—a controversial issue, but one that shows Washington in a much more admirable light than most people might think. This is especially true when it comes to his efforts to save slave families from being broken up.

George Washington was a slaveowner for his entire adult life. While in many ways he was an exceptional master in terms of his treatment of slaves, especially once he came into the property of Mount Vernon, he probably did not start to see slavery as a serious moral problem until after the Revolution. Washington’s views on slavery were already changing during the Revolutionary War. His slave and constant companion throughout the war Billy Lee (later freed) may have had something to do with that—and the necessity of circumstances certainly had a hand as well. Washington lifted initial restrictions on black soldiers in the Revolutionary Army, and some slaves who fought for the Army were promised freedom. Throughout the 1780s, Washington became “[i]ncreasingly troubled by the moral and economic implications of slavery,” as Mount Vernon puts it, and vowed that he would never buy another slave.

While Washington may have hoped to put the abolishment of slavery in the Constitution, he largely avoided the slavery issue as president, worried that it would split the already fragile union of states. By the late 1790s, however, not long before his death, Washington finally forced himself to face the reality of slavery in his own life. In 1797, he developed a plan to sell his western lands so that he could purchase the freedom of the “dower slaves,” or those who had come to him by marriage to Martha Dandridge Custis, so that he would not have to divide slave families (he could not free the dower slaves unless he bought them). Sadly, buyers did not materialize, and the plan failed. “I wish from my soul that the legislature of this state [Virginia] could see the policy of a gradual abolition of slavery,” Washington passionately wrote Lawrence Lewis in 1797. At Washington’s death, more than a third of the 316 slaves living at Mount Vernon were essentially pensioners, too old or too young to work, but able to continue living there because Washington refused to divide families. Of the 123 slaves belonging to him, Washington freed them in his will.

As I mentioned above, Washington was sometimes an exceptionally thoughtful slave master. While nothing can make slavery a good or justified state, Washington was about as desirable a slave master as possible. For instance, Sunday was a day off for most Washington slaves—except the house slaves, who had to serve dinner. The Washingtons used to have dinner early on Sundays, so as to give the house slaves a few hours extra off from work. Another story about Washington, told by the slave himself, shows Washington doing something astonishing—asking a slave’s permission to borrow a slave’s property:

“Sambo Anderson, one of George Washington’s enslaved carpenters at Mansion House Farm, had a punt [flat-bottomed boat] that he probably used to cross Little Hunting Creek in order to visit River Farm, where his wife and children lived. Although Washington owned many boats, he sometimes borrowed Anderson’s small vessel. Years later, Anderson recalled that Washington always asked permission to use the boat and invariably returned it to the location where he found it.”

Aside from his plan to sell property to purchase slaves’ freedom and prevent family break-ups mentioned above, there is one other very notable instance of Washington going out of his way to prevent the break-up of a slave family. The story involves a slave named George originally belonging to Washington’s mother, Mary Washington. While George Washington was unusually careful not to split slave families, his mother (who was fabled for her stubbornness) seems to have had no such qualms, and deeded away each of her slaves to a different person in her will. The only one willed to George Washington seems to have been done so at his particular desire. The reason? The slave George was married to a woman owned by George Washington, and Washington was loath to see the family split apart by Mary’s death.

“To provide financial assistance to his mother and also to meet his plantations’ labor needs, George Washington rented some of Mary Washington’s enslaved people. In such capacity, ‘Negro boy George’ worked at Mount Vernon in the 1770s. While there, he married Sall Twine, an enslaved woman, and fathered at least four children with her. Mary Washington certainly knew of his family situation and also of George Washington’s interest in becoming his owner. In a letter to his sister Betty, the first president acknowledged that George ‘never stayed elsewhere [other than Mount Vernon], for which reason, and because he has a family I should be glad to keep him. . .in order for that the fellow may be gratified, as he never would consent to go from me.’”

George officially became Washington’s after Mary’s death, and, although Sall and the children could sadly not be freed by Washington (they were among the dower slaves Washington failed to purchase), George became a free man after Washington’s death through the provision of Washington’s will.

At a time in America where too many men were content to decry the evils of slavery while making no move themselves, George Washington was an exceptional example of a man who went out of his way to combat many of the worst aspects of slavery and ensure that slave families could not be separated.

(Signs and docents at George Washington’s Mount Vernon and Mary Washington’s Home in Fredericksburg, VA were sources for this article.)