Rather than abide by the spirit of the Gradual Abolition Act, Washington made sure that the slaves in his Philadelphia household were taken outside state limits before they reached six months' residency. [296][297], There is evidence that some of Washington's former slaves were able to buy land, support their families and prosper as free people. This was the first of several anti-slavery trade-acts of Congress. At 11 years of age, upon the death of his father in 1743, Washington inherited his first ten slaves. Updated February 28, 2017 | Infoplease Staff. "[269], Philip Morgan writes that "The youthful Washington revealed prejudices toward blacks, quite natural for the day" and that "blackness, in his mind, was synonymous with uncivilized behaviour. [90], Although some of the enslaved population at Mount Vernon came to feel a loyalty toward Washington, the resistance displayed by a significant percentage of them is indicated by the frequent comments Washington made about "rogueries" and "old tricks". The Mount Vernon Ladies' Association have concluded these rooms were communal areas furnished with bunks that allowed little privacy for the predominantly male occupants. Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association. [94], Another means by which enslaved people resisted, one that was virtually impossible to prove, was feigning illness. [28] When Martha's maid Oney Judge escaped in 1796, Washington complained about "the ingratitude of the girl, who was brought up and treated more like a child than a Servant". Treatment of Slaves. Lund sold nine enslaved including the two females, in January 1779. [291] William Lee remained at Mount Vernon, where he worked as a shoemaker. Although spacious, the house barely contained all the people cramped inside: George and Martha; their grandchildren, Eleanor “Nelly” Parke Custis and George Washington “Wash” Parke Custis; Tobias Lear; Washington’s private secretaries, David Humphreys, William Jackson, and Thomas Nelson, Jr.; at least ten white or free black paid servants that worked and may have boarded in the home; and several enslaved individuals. "[129], He began to express the growing rift with Great Britain in terms of slavery, stating in the summer of 1774 that the British authorities were "endeavouring by every piece of Art & despotism to fix the Shackles of Slavry [sic]" upon the colonies. He provided his enslaved population with basic food, clothing and accommodation comparable to general practice at the time, which was not always adequate, and with medical care. Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. The Slave Trade Act of 1794 was a law passed by the United States Congress that limited American involvement in the international slave trade.It was signed into law by President George Washington on March 22, 1794. [5] He was an aggressive land speculator, and by 1774 he had amassed some 32,000 acres (13,000 ha) of land in the Ohio Country on Virginia's western frontier. At his death he possessed over 80,000 acres (32,000 ha). Between 1792 and 1794, while Washington was away from Mount Vernon as President, the number of days lost to sickness increased tenfold compared to 1786, when he was resident at Mount Vernon and able to control the situation personally. George Washington's Views on Slavery In his writings, George Washington felt very strongly that slavery was an institution that needed to be eliminated from American society. [242][243] The slaves Washington had bought early in the development of his business were beyond their prime and nearly impossible to sell, and from 1782 Virginia law made slaveowners liable for the financial support of slaves they freed who were too young, too old or otherwise incapable of working. [1], In 1671, Virginia counted 6,000 white indentured servants among its 40,000 population but only 2,000 people of African descent, up to a third of whom in some counties were free. At war’s end, Washington demanded without success that the British respect the preliminary peace treaty which he said required return of escaped slaves without exception. By the time of his death in 1799 there were 317 enslaved people at his Mount Vernon estate, 124 owned by Washington and the remainder managed by him as his own property but belonging to other people. This worksheet/quiz will assess what you know about George Washington and slavery. On a daily basis, in addition to their day's work, the enslaved had their own housekeeping work such as tending chickens and garden plots, cooking, preserving the produce of gardens, and caring for clothing. "[301], Washington's will was both private testament and public statement on the institution. "[131][132] As if answering Johnson, Washington wrote to a friend in August 1774, "The crisis is arrived when we must assert our rights, or submit to every imposition that can be heaped upon us, till custom and use shall make us tame and abject slaves, as the blacks we rule over with such arbitrary sway. Some slaves at Mount Vernon participated with local, organized Christian congregations, to some degree. Towards the end of the 17th century, English policy shifted in favor of retaining cheap labor rather than shipping it to the colonies, and the supply of indentured servants in Virginia began to dry up; by 1715, annual immigration was in the hundreds, compared with 1,500–2,000 in the 1680s. [45] The enslaved were expected to work from sunrise to sunset over a six-day work week that was standard on Virginia plantations. [118][119], There is little evidence that Washington seriously questioned the ethics of slavery before the Revolution. "[37][38] In Washington's view, "lost labour is never to be regained", and he required "every labourer (male or female) [do] as much in the 24 hours as their strength without endangering the health, or constitution will allow of". Transported to Point Comfort in 1619 the numbers Vernon 's enslaved community slaves and to! In private and particularly with his wife Kitty, a Jesuit guide to gentlemanly conduct subject... 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