|
on slavery |
1766: GW sent a “rogue and runaway” slave to the islands
to be sold for rum, molasses, etc. (Flexner,p114)
1774: GW said new British laws would make Americans "as tame and abject slaves as the blacks we rule over with such arbitrary sway." (Flexner, p114)
1778/9: GW was reluctant to buy or sell slaves, although he felt that: “If these poor wretches are to be held in a state of slavery, I do not see that a change of masters will render it more irksome, provided husband and wife, and parents are not separated from each other, which is not my intention to do." (Flexner, p118)
1786 GW complained about a Quaker abolitionist society: “I can only say that no man living wishes more sincerely than I do to see the abolition of (slavery)…But when slaves who are happy & content to remain with their present masters, are tampered with & seduced to leave them… it introduces more evils than it can cure."(Hirschfield,p187)
Before
1793:"The
unfortunate condition of the people whose labors I in part employed has
been the only unavoidable subject of regret. To make the adults among them
as easy and comfortable as their actual state of ignorance and improvidence
would admit; and to lay a foundation to prepare the rising generation for
a destiny different from that in which they were born, afforded some satisfaction
to my mind, and could not, I hoped, be displeasing to the justice of the
Creator." (Flexner,
p121)
1793:
As president GW signed the Fugitive Slave Act.
1793:
GW hoped to rent and/or sell parts of his land, freeing the slaves to work
as laborers. In a private letter he said his most powerful motive
was:"to
liberate a certain species of property which I possess very repugnantly
to my own feelings, but which imperious necessity compels, and until I
can substitute some other expedient by which expenses not in my power to
avoid (however well disposed I may be to do it) can be defrayed." He
was unable to find suitable renters or buyers and the plan fell through.(Flexner,
p113)
Approx
1794: One of GW’s slaves died: “I
hope every necessary care and attention was afforded him. I expect
little from (Overseer) McKoy, or indeed from most of his class,
for they seem to consider a Negro much in the same light as they do the
brute beasts on the farms, and often treat them as inhumanely.” (Wilkins,p83)
1796:
Oney (or Ona) Judge ran away to New Hampshire.She
was one of GW’s slaves – Martha’s personal servant.
President GW asked the Treasury Secretary for help in getting her back:
“I am sorry to give you, or any one else trouble on such a trifling occasion,
but the ingratitude of the girl, who was brought up and treated more like
a child than a Servant (and Mrs Washington’s desire to recover her) ought
not to escape with impunity if it can be avoided.”(Wilkins,p82)
1796: A
federal customs official in New Hampshire located GW’s runaway slave Oney
Judge.GW asked him to “seize
her and put her on board a Vessel bound immediately to this place or to
Alexandria (Virginia).” The customs official warned that
this would spark a riot.(Gerson
)
1796:,
The customs official wrote that Oney Judge agreed to return if GW promised
to free her in his will. GW
wrote to the customs official:“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 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 political or just to reward unfaithfulness
with a premature preference; and thereby discontent before hand the minds
of all her fellow-servants who by their steady attachments are far more
deserving of favor.” Oney Judge remained free.(Wilkins,p82)
1799: GW complained that he
had too many slaves. “To sell the overplus I cannot, because I am
principled against this kind of traffic in the human species. To
hire them out is almost as bad, because they could not be disposed of in
families to any advantage, and to disperse the families I have an aversion.What
then is to be done? Something must or I shall be ruined…”
(Hirschfield,p74)
1799: When GW died his will called for his manservant William Lee
to be freed immediately, and given a pension. The other slaves were
to be freed when his widow died. Martha chose to free them two years later.
According to Abigail Adams this was because MW feared her life might be
in danger, since her death meant freedom for the slaves. (Hirschfield
p 214) Neither GW nor MW could legally free the dower slaves (which
Martha brought to the marriage) because they still belonged to the Custis
estate.
Return
to home
page