Originally Published in the Cecil Whig

Black history month is half over and President’s day is next Monday. It appears the stars are aligning for a look at how George Washington, born in February, related to African Americans, especially those he enslaved.

When George Washington died, he was eulogized as being “first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.” That eulogy was delivered by “Light Horse” Harry Lee, a friend and fellow Virginian. Unbeknownst to him, Lee’s assertion that our first president was “first in the hearts of his countrymen,” included his countrymen of African descent; at least some of them. Delaware historian, Syl Woolford, in a talk about Early Black Methodism at the Historical Society of Cecil County earlier this month, noted that at least one African American Methodist leader had high praise for his late president when Washington died. According to the “President’s House in Philadelphia” web site, The Reverend Richard Allen, a bishop of the First African Methodist Episcopal Church there, referred to the president as a “sympathizing friend and tender father.” Bishop Allen went on to note how Washington “watched over us, and viewed our degraded and afflicted state with compassion and pity – his heart was not insensible to our sufferings.” He then praised the President for freeing his slaves and afterwards, “gave them an inheritance.”

What Washington did, in fact, was to free the 125 slaves that he owned upon the death of his wife, Martha. The 150 slaves that Martha owned, were controlled by her and her descendants. Remember, George Washington left no children of his own. According to an article in the Historic Alexandria Quarterly by Dr. Denis Pogue, the President would have had to pay off Martha’s descendants to the tune of 6,000 pounds sterling in order to free her slaves too. That was too much even for George Washington to afford. In addition, the Mt. Vernon web site backs up Bishop Allen’s assertion that the General “gave them an inheritance,” noting that “Washington provided support for slaves who were too old, ill, or too young to support themselves. The young slaves,” the site continues, “were to receive assistance until the age of twenty-five and were to be taught to read, write, and pursue an occupation. The will specifically prohibited the sale or transportation of any Washington slave out of Virginia and admonished his executors to respect his wishes for their care.”

George Washington’s views on slavery were not always this liberal. He was born into the plantation life. When his father died, there were 64 slaves working his farms and, on that day, young George inherited ten of his own. For the next two decades, Washington added to his slave numbers. However, as the Revolutionary War began, Washington’s views on the freedom of his slaves began to change. According to Dr. Pogue’s article, as early as 1778 the General wrote “every day I long more and more to get clear of (Negroes).” But he worried, “my scruples arise from the reluctance in offering these people at public vendue (sp).” Still, Washington was not willing to enlist African Americans into the Continental Army, at least not at first. Washington’s hand was forced by two things, first, Virginia’s Royal Governor, Lord Dunmore’s proclamation freeing all slaves of rebelling citizens who fought for his Majesty’s army, and secondly, the constant shortage of white enlistees in the army.

As the war drew to a successful conclusion, Washington returned to Mt. Vernon, but remained vigilant and aware of affairs in his new nation, including the fact that several states adopted constitutions that abolished slavery. Even his native Virginia in 1782, allowed for the manumission of slaves under certain conditions. During this time too, supporters and detractors of slavery were stating their respective cases to Washington. The General bound all of these pamphlets into a single volume he titled Tracts on Slavery.

It should be pointed out that Washington, though desirous to “get clear of (Negroes),” was not yet willing to manumit his slaves. In 1780, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania began a program of gradual manumission. Their law included a clause that freed slaves living in Pennsylvania for 6 months. Aware of this clause, as President, living in Philadelphia, Washington rotated his slaves in and out of the national capital every 5 months or so to avoid freeing them. He even went to the trouble of tracking down at least one slave when she escaped from his service which the “President’s House in Philadelphia” illustrates both on line and at the house site.

At his death, Washington had come full circle: from slave inheritor to strict master, from a “whites only” army to the first and only integrated U.S. army for a century and a half, and from slave tracker to slave emancipator, the only one of the southern founders to do so. President Washington’s actions were such that they united a southern slave holder like Henry Lee, and a black bishop in the Methodist church like Richard Allen, to jointly proclaim our first President, “first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.”