Construction Plans Proceed on the Philadelphia President's House

When George Washington married Martha Custis, he acquired the majority of the enslaved persons held at the time of his death.

Of the believed to be 299 enslaved persons Washington held at the time of his death, he freed 125.

The remainder were bequeathed to his wife. Upon her death, the remaining enslaved were to be parceled out according to her will.

I guess, A, the true character or knowing of the man lies in some form of merging of his military, personal and his interaction with the enslaved, which would seem to be in a category alone unto itself.

At Ushistory.org/presidentshouse, the nine enslaved persons that were members of George Washington's household staff are listed as:

Oney Judge, Martha Washington's personal servant. Escaped in 1796. More is known about her than any of the other enslaved household members because she gave interviews to abolitionist journals.

Hercules, Washington's renowned chef, who escaped about a year after Judge. He vanished without a trace.

Austin, Judge's half-brother, a stable worker thought to have slept in the quarters behind the house. He was thrown from a horse and killed in 1794.

Giles, a driver or a footman on Washington's carriages who, says historian Ed Lawler Jr., probably lived in President's House slave quarters. Injured early in the 1790s, he returned to Mount Vernon. There is no record of his death.

Paris, a young stable worker who probably lived in the Philadelphia slave quarters. According to Lawler, his "misbehavior" angered Washington, who sent him back to Mount Vernon. He died in 1794.

Richmond, Hercules' son and a kitchen worker in Philadelphia. His mother was Lame Alice, a Mount Vernon seamstress. While at Mount Vernon, Lawler says, he was caught stealing money, which Washington believed augured an escape attempt. Richmond was made a laborer, his subsequent life unknown.

Moll, a nanny for Martha Washington's children and possibly grandchildren.

Joe, a coachman in Philadelphia, whose presence in the presidential household Lawler discovered in 2004.

Christopher Sheels, Washington's personal servant. He was present when Washington died in 1799.

From Innercity.org:

1791/03

While the Capital was still located in Philadelphia, George Washington, fearing the impact of a Pennsylvania law freeing slaves after six months residence in that state, instructed his secretary Tobias Lear to ascertain what effect the law would have on the status of the slaves who served the presidential household in Philadelphia. In case Lear believed that any of the slaves were likely to seek their freedom under Pennsylvania law, Washington wished them sent home to Mount Vernon.

"If upon taking good advise it is found expedient to send them back to Virginia, I wish to have it accomplished under pretext that may deceive both them and the Public."

Slaveholders availing themselves of and fathering children with enslaved girls and women, who were considered property/possessions, was a common occurrence, as is believed to be indicated in Thomas Jefferson's family as well.

His wife, Martha Wayles, was said to be the half sister of an enslaved girl, Sally Hemings, who served as her servant, with both having the same father.

During Thomas Jefferson's first term as president, in 1802, the account of the rumor about Sally Hemings, a rumor that had been known locally, circulated wider when printed in a paper in Richmond, Virginia.  

In addition to the oral tradition handed down among the descendants of Sally Hemings, people close to Thomas Jefferson and those within the Monticello community believed Jefferson to be the father of Sally Hemings' children.

DNA tests prove a link to the Jefferson family, through a Jefferson male.

I think I may have seen that documentary, A.

One documentary I watched claimed that Sally Hemings looked very much like Jefferson's deceased wife, with a beige cast to her complexion.

Historian and genealogist, Rebecca Gates-Coon, asserts that Thomas Jefferson was the father of Sally Hemings' children, a relationship she describes as not a traditional romance, more of ".... persuasion and mutual agreement" .   

The subject of slaveholders and their sexual liaisons within the enslaved community is a very touchy thing and in many cases, not indicative of a love interest, more of a power play.

Many hold fast to the belief Jefferson and others among the so called founding fathers, that were known to share similar thoughts on the enslaved, would not have bedded their chattel.

It is interesting to note, regarding some of his thoughts on slavery, Jefferson opines in Notes on the State of Virginia , a kind of detached disdain for the enslaved, fearing unlike in the case of Roman society, according to him, where the former slave might mix freely within Roman society, that should not be the case if freedom is granted to the enslaved descendants of Africa.   

Oh, I am very sure, as you say, more than a few enslaved Africans turned some heads.

Nonetheless, it may be, Barry, the " .... rippling muscled six pack shirteless ebony field hand" comment relies heavily on Hollywood imagery, maybe from movies like Mandingo, starring Ken Norton.

The first thing that needs to be understood, regarding sexually intimate relations between the enslaved and slaveholders was their status in society.

Slaves had no rights, a view upheld in the United States Supreme Court in 1857 in the Dred Scott decision.

Any entanglements between field hands and slaveholding women could end in castration, death or both,  for the enslaved male since, whether he dared to 'make a move' on the 'mistress' or some slaveholding class female or if she initiated contact, if discovered, the cry of rape would and did ensue upon discovery.

The enslaved females were often the object of attention to be used by all of the males of the household and any males that sought sexual accommodation when visiting a plantation or estate peopled with enslaved persons.

There has been some misguided attempt to portray many of the liaisons between the enslaved and those who claimed ownership of them as love affairs and romances.

Given all of the possible outcomes that may have resulted in events that would have been disastrous for enslaved men and women, if they found themselves the object of the advances of some slaveholder or another man or woman, with whom they may have come in contact, had the enslaved men or women sought to reject the advances made upon their persons, can the emotions or feelings of the enslaved ever be truly known or understood?

As long as one individual in this alleged couple, the slaveholder or a member of society that was not known to be enslaved, in this supposedly loving relationship, held the life and death of the other component of that couple in his or her hands, and that of all those in the enslaved person's circle of those called family and as long as the slaveholder held the power to allow families and alliances to stay in tact, with the enslaved fearing being sold away, brutal punishment in any of a variety of known and unknown forms of actions, among those death, threats used and meant to assure the compliance of the enslaved to the advances of any who may seek them out, their responses, the responses of any enslaved man or woman, can not be said to be that of freely given love and affection.

I hear tell there were a number surreptitious means of taking revenge however, nothing done by the enslaved could or would have been quid pro quo during those " .... ignorant times" , as you have referred to them. 

I'll do my best to keep everyone up to date, Patricia!