It is also noteworthy that George Washington included a provision in his will to free his slaves upon the death of his wife. At the time of his death, there were 317 slaves at Mount Vernon – 123 owned by Washington, 154 "dower slaves", and 40 rented from a neighbor. Washington had completed and updated slave inventory list in 1799.
(from Wikipedia): Washington's secret 1799 will In 1799, Washington revised his 1786 slave inventory list. This was done to make sure that his own slaves would be emancipated.[1] It is speculated that Washington wrote his will in secret in July 1799 because his family would severely disapprove of emancipating, caring for, and educating freemen, women, and children. In the will the old and the infirm freed slaves would be taken care of until death by their heirs. The freed children would be bound by the Court until they reached 25 years of age, and they would be taught to read and write and be brought up to some useful occupation. William Lee was given immediate freedom or the choice to stay at Mt. Vernon with $30 annual pay.[34] Part of Washington's will read as follows: Upon the decease of my wife, it is my will and desire that all the slaves which I hold in my own right shall receive their freedom...And whereas among those who will receive 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 and second description shall be comfortably clothed and fed by my heirs while they live....[34] On the education of the newly freed African Americans: The Negroes thus bound, are (by their Masters or Mistresses), to be taught to read and write; & to be brought up to some useful occupation, agreeably to the Laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia, providing for the support of orphan & other poor Children.[34] To ensure that the executors of the will would not try to find some way to evade his wishes to free the slaves, Washington wrote:[35] 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 http://twitter.com/ravenadal http://theworldebon.blogspot.com ________________________________ From: Tracey de Morsella <tdemorse...@multiculturaladvantage.com> To: scifinoir2@yahoogroups.com; " Lockhart, Daryle " <dar...@darylelockhart.com>; afrikanm...@hotmail.com; Albert Fields <cbilmarket...@yahoo.com>; bettil...@msn.com; CINQUE <cinque3...@verizon.net>; dorothyh...@sbcglobal.net; duva...@hotmail.com; fis...@bellsouth.net; GTW <gwashin...@aol.com>; Jeffrey Ballou <jeffreypbal...@gmail.com>; Kai Pettaway <killa...@gmail.com>; kalpub...@aol.com; keithbjohn...@comcast.net; Kera <imke...@gmail.com>; Leroy Hughes <seriousnup...@yahoo.com>; Logic <logic1...@aol.com>; Martin Baxter <truthseeker...@icqmail.com>; Marvalous <mmb1...@gmail.com>; Michael Gordon <gord...@indiana.edu>; michael.v.w.gor...@gmail.com; ravenadal <ravena...@yahoo.com>; rs...@yahoo.com; Seku Brathwaite <everything...@nyc.rr.com>; Valery Jean <valeryjea...@yahoo.com>; Wendell Theophilus Smith <wendellsmit...@gmail.com>; Whitney J Evans <sonofafieldne...@sbcglobal.net>; williamsf...@speakeasy.net; Zanfordino Anthony <beta...@yahoo.com> Sent: Sun, January 17, 2010 8:25:51 PM Subject: FW:George Washington became a abolitionist (in closet) From:Chris de Morsella [mailto:cdemorse...@yahoo.com] Sent: Sunday, January 17, 2010 6:23 PM To: tdemorse...@multiculturaladvantage.com Subject: RE George Washington and slavery Extracts from "Hidden Cities: The discovery and loss of ancient North American civilization" by Roger G. Kennedy (New York: The Free Press, 1994) pages 96 and 97: "After the [Revolutionary] war,...Philadelphia was the capital of the United States...His [Washington's] first response to abolitionist Philadelphia was to send his household slaves back to Mount Vernon to avoid the automatic freedom required by the laws of Pennsylvania. "By September, 1793, however, he had reached the conclusion that he wished to "liberate a certain species of property which I posess very repugnantly to my feelings." This plan, revealed only to his secretary and stripped from the documents kept in his public records...[but] the laws of Virginia were not hospitable to manumission, however disguised. "When Washington left the presidency, and Philadelphia, in 1797, he reversed his previous response to the laws of Pennsylvania. Instead of sneaking his household slaves away, he sneaked them out of his household into freedom, where their escape could not be detected by the Virginians. Once back at Mount Vernon, surrounded by implacable hostility to manumission on the part of all but a few of his neighbors, he encouraged his slaves to marry, lest they be separated. In his will he required that his executors support the old and infirm among his slaves and provide to the young the same education received by Whites until they were twenty-five and ready for employment. By then, he hoped, the world would be ready for them. Finally, they were all to be set free at the death of his wife. Since many of them had come to the family from her, and since she would otherwise have been left with no one to tend her in her last years, this seemed a reasonable provision. "A gulf had opened between Washington and other planters. By the end of the 1790s, he rendered his judgement on the Peculiar Institution to a visitor, John Bernard: "Nothing but the rooting out of slavery can perpetuate the existence of our union by consolidating it in a common bond of principle." One might expect such language from Abraham Lincoln in 1864, or from John Quincy Adams in 1840, but not from an elderly Virginia planter in 1797. "By then, Washington was full of surprises: he told Edmund Randolph, who had been his attorney general, that should the Union separate north from south, he had made up his mind "to move, and be of the Northern." "
