Martha Washington

Martha Dandridge Parke-Custis Washington (June 2, 1731-May 22, 1802) served as the first First Lady of the United States when her second husband, George Washington, served as the first President, from 1789 to 1797.

Martha Washington and slavery

Martha Washington was raised in a time when chattel slavery was an economic reality for wealthy southern families. There is no evidence that she ever questioned the ethical and moral foundations of the "southern institution." Under English common law, Martha received the use of and income from one third of Daniel Parke Custis' extensive estate during her lifetime. The estate contained a number of individual real estate holdings, and many slaves attached to those holdings. She was the manager of her "dower" portion of the estate and, as her minor children would someday inherit the entire estate, designated as a trustee of the remaining portions. Although this responsibility came with considerable managerial power, she was legally limited in dealing with and disposing of the property of the estate, including the slaves.

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Martha Washington was upset and personally hurt when two slaves in President Washington's Philadelphia household fled to obtain their freedom. Although all documentation indicates she treated slaves in a kindly and dignified manner, her personal ladies maid Oney or Ona Judge, a slave in the Custis estate, left the household during President Washington's second term. She fled to free black friends in the city, and then traveled to the north. According to historian Patricia Brady, in her 2005 biography of Martha Washington:

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:"Martha felt a responsibility for the unsophisticated girl under her care, especially since her mother and sister were expecting to see her back at Mount Vernon. What she could never understand was that (Oney had)...a simple desire to be free. Ona, as she preferred to call herself, wanted to live where she pleased, do what work she pleased, and learn to read and write....Ona Judge professed a great regard for Martha and the way she had been treated, but she couldn't face a future as a slave for herself and her children." (Brady, p. 209)

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During the Washington family's last week in Philadelphia, their chief cook Hercules also left the household, leaving his family behind.

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Historian Henry Wiencek, in his 2004 book "An Imperfect God: George Washington, His Slaves, and the Creation of America", asserted that Martha Washington owned her own mulatto half-sister, a slave named Ann Dandridge, who had a bastard child by her nephew, Martha's son, John Parke Custis. According to Wiencek, this incident was among several that were instrumental in Washington's decision late in life to change his will and free all his slaves upon his death. The original written source on the existance of a slave named Ann Dandridge was Helen Bryan's 2001 "Martha Washington: First Lady of Liberty." In this book, Bryan stated that the "shadow sister" was close to Martha's age and had been with her since they were children. Wiencek lowered the age of the sister in his account, making her closer to the age of Martha Washington's son and suggested that she was brought up with the Custis family.

Related Topics:
Henry Wiencek - 2004 - Slave

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However, other 20th and 21st century historians have found no contemporary or documentary evidence that this sister ever existed, despite the fact that such a person would have been a valuable asset to any of the three family estates. Patricia Brady asserts that Bryan and Wiencek accepted and adapted post-Civil War family traditions about events in the Custis/Washington family. Documents show that Martha Dandridge took no slaves with her when she moved from her childhood home in Chestnut Grove. No record of Ann Dandridge is found in Custis estate records, and neither the sister nor her children are found in George Washington's meticulous records of slaves at Mt. Vernon in either 1786 or 1799.

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