Since this moment of reckoning has led to a prickly discussion about our Founding Fathers’ slave-owning pasts, let us take a moment, starting with George Washington, to think about the people they enslaved.
Let’s start with the names. Because so few of us know them. Because their names have been omitted from history books and are barely mentioned in the many volumes that chronicle Washington’s life as a military hero and Founding Father.
Austin
Moll
Giles
Ona Judge
Paris
Hercules
Joe
Richmond
Christopher Sheels
William Lee
That’s just 10 names of the more than 300 people enslaved by George and Martha Washington. They worked and traveled most closely with our nation’s first First Family as chamber maids, postilions, cooks, waiters, laborers, seamstresses and valets.
Did you know that George Washington had only one tooth in his mouth when he became president in 1789, thanks to bad health and 18th-century dentistry? But his false teeth were not made of wood, as is often described in folk songs and lore. His dentures were made from the pulled teeth of slaves.
Roll that around in your head for a minute.
Did you know that the president was often unwell, having survived two wars and a nasty bout with a cutaneous form of anthrax? He was tended to by Richmond and William Lee during long stretches when he was unable to sit or stand.
Did you know that some of the names belong to people who were “dower slaves,” legally controlled by Martha? She had the money in the family as a widow who was left with thousands of acres and hundreds of people when her first husband, Daniel Parke Custis, died.
Did you know that when Ona Judge escaped, Martha insisted that George do everything in his power to track her down so she could gift her to a granddaughter as an attendant (thus avoiding the need to reimburse her first husband’s estate for loss of property)? And yes, the correct word is “property,” because next to acreage (as in real estate), the enslaved composed the greatest source of wealth for families such as the Washingtons.