Martha Dandridge got married when she was 18-years-old; not to George, that came later. She had a lot going for her, she came from a wealthy family and was fairly well educated in a time when most women weren’t given the opportunity. She married a man 20 years her senior, Daniel Parke Custis, who had a 17,000-acre estate (plantation), and was one of the richest planters in Virginia. He treated her like the trophy wife she was, giving her the finest in clothing and jewelry. They had four children, two of whom died as infants. When Martha was 26, Daniel suddenly died, leaving her the wealthiest widow in Virginia with two young children.
Martha grew up with her family owning slaves and at the time of his death, Daniel Parke Curtis owned approximately 250 slaves, 84 of which became Martha’s to use but not technically own. They were part of the Curtis estate and while Martha “owned” them while she lived. Upon her death, those slaves would pass on to the Curtis heirs. When Martha married Colonel George Washington, (a slightly younger man this time), those slaves became his to control according to the law at the time but he could neither free or sell them. George and Martha never had children so they would be inherited by remaining Curtis famil members.
The Blacks are so bad in their nature that they have not the least grat[i]tude for the kindness that may be shewed to them.
Martha Washington
History, more correctly historians have been very kind to Martha and George in telling their relationship with slavery. George is thought of as “bold” for taking the radical step of freeing half of the slaves he personally owned after his death. Oh, the sacrifice he made by not having slaves to tend to his headstone and rake away the leaves. In private letters, he allegedly voiced his displeasure with the institution of slavery while at the same time the number of slaves on his estate at Mount Vernon steadily grew. During his lifetime, at least 577 slaves toiled at Mount Vernon, only when he died did he see fit to release some of them.
The other half of his slaves (as opposed to Martha’s slaves that she controlled but could not free or sell), were to be freed upon Martha’s death. George apparently didn’t think that through because it created a sizable population of people who would be freed the instant Martha died. Some of them were married to or in a relationship with the now freed slaves. Others were tied to those who would never be free but Curtis’s property in perpetuity. Some freed slaves stayed on at Mount Vernon to be near their still-captive lovers and children. Slaves greatly outnumbered white people on the five farms that made up the Mount Vernon estate, many of whom had great incentive to wish Martha dead. Being an educated woman, Martha freed George’s remaining slaves, many of whom went on to found or live in nearby free communities.
Slaves that were part of Martha’s inheritance that could neither be freed or sold were called Dower Slaves, part of her dowry. Any children of the female slaves became part of the estate who would remain slaves until their deaths or the ultimate end of slavery entirely after the Civil War. The rule that made that possible was called Partus Sequitur Ventrem which deviated from British tradition and called for the lineage to follow the mother’s bloodline and not the fathers. It also absolved fathers (or plantation owners) from responsibility for the children they sired. There is no suggestion that George Washington bedded his slaves as did Thomas Jefferson but Partus Sequitur Ventrem would have made it legal.
Martha died just over two years after George, spending most of that time ill and bed-ridden. She burned almost all of the letters she and George had written over the years and made her will. She bequeathed the one slave she owned outright to her grandson. The others were divided among her four grandchildren as her original Dower Share dictated. Almost nothing is known about how Martha treated her slaves. Some biographies tell her story without mention of the word slavery, an institution she benefited from throughout her lifetime. She freed none during her life other than the ones she feared might kill her to gain their freedom. Her letters might have shed some light but she burned those. She had constant contact with the “house slaves” and supervised their activities. Historians say she believed in punishment for slaves but “only that appropriate for the misdeed.” It would be interesting to know what her slaves might say about that?
Whilst they were packing up to go to Virginia, I was packing to go, I didn’t know where; for I knew that if I went back to Virginia, I should never get my liberty. I had friends among the colored people of Philadelphia, had my things carried there beforehand, and left Washington’s house while they were eating dinner.
Oney Judge
There is one account of one of Martha’s dower slaves that ran away rather than be given as a gift to Martha’s granddaughter who had a reputation for meanness. Both Washington’s made several attempts to get Oney back, but under the radar due to George’s position. After she was located in New Hampshire, fear of backlash prevented her from being abducted and returned but “Ona” did offer to return if she would be granted freedom upon both Washington’s deaths. George sent a stern reply:
I regret that the attempt you made to restore the Girl (Oney Judge as she called herself while with us, and who, without the least provocation absconded from her Mistress) should have been attended with so little Success. To enter into such a compromise with her, as she suggested to you, is totally inadmissible, for reasons that must strike at first view: for however well disposed I might be to a gradual abolition, or even to an entire emancipation of that description of People (if the latter was in itself practicable at this moment) it would neither be politic or just to reward unfaithfulness with a premature preference [of freedom]; and thereby discontent before hand the minds of all her fellow-servants who by their steady attachments are far more deserving than herself of favor.
Oney was ultimately left alone in New Hampshire where she married and had three children. Her younger sister, Delphy, was given instead as a wedding present to the granddaughter. As a house servant, Oney hadn’t been tasked with hard labor, she worked much harder physically as a free woman. When asked in an interview if she regretted her decision to escape, she said:
No, I am free, and have, I trust been made a child of God by the means.
Oney Judge
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Previously published on democracyguardian
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