The Mystery of George Washington's Cook

"George Washington's Cook"

Hercules

Hercules was born in 1754, and came to Mount Vernon in 1767 as part of payment owed George Washington. He went to work as the ferryman at the Mansion.  It is not certain how he made his way to the kitchen, but it was a blessing that he did.  Here he apprenticed to “Old Doll”, the plantation’s chief cook who had come to Mount Vernon with Martha Washington.  By 1786, Hercules had become the chief cook at Mount Vernon.

Hercules was summoned to Philadelphia in November 1790 to become now President George Washington’s personal cook. The clearest account of Hercules as a chef was written by George Washington Parke Custis, President Washington’s step grandson

“The chief cook would have been termed in modern parlance, a celebrated artiste. He was named Hercules, and familiarly termed Uncle Harkless.

Trained in the mysteries of his part from early youth, and in the palmy days of Virginia, when her thousand chimneys smoked to indicate the generous hospitality that reigned throughout the whole length and breadth of her wide domain, Uncle Harkless was, at the period of the first presidency (Philadelphia 1789-1797), as highly accomplished a proficient in the culinary art as could be found in the United States.

He was a dark brown man, little, if any, above the usual size, yet possessed of such great muscular power as to entitle him to be compared with his namesake of fabulous history.

The chief cook gloried in the cleanliness and nicety of his kitchen. Under his iron discipline,  (woe) to his underlings if speck or spot could be discovered on the tables or dressers, or if the utensils did not shine like polished silver. With the luckless wights (unfortunates) who had offended in these particulars there was no arrest of punishment, for judgment and execution went hand in hand.

The steward, and indeed the whole household, treated the chief cook with much respect, as well for his valuable services as for his general good character and pleasing manners.

It was while preparing the Thursday or Congress dinner that Uncle Harkless shone in all his splendor. During his labors upon this banquet he required some half dozen aprons, and napkins out of number. It was surprising the order and discipline that was observed in so bustling a scene. His underlings flew in all directions to execute his orders, while he, the great master-spirit, seemed to possess the power of ubiquity, and to be everywhere at the same moment.

When the steward in snow-white apron, silk shorts and stockings, and hair in full powder, placed the first dish on the table, the clock being on the stroke of four, ‘the labors of Hercules’ ceased.

While the masters of the republic were engaged in discussing the savory viands of the Congress dinner, the chief cook retired to make his toilet for an evening promenade. His perquisites from the slops of the kitchen were from one to two hundred dollars a year (about $5,000 in today’s money). Though homely in person, he lavished the most of these large avails upon dress. In making his toilet his linen was of unexceptionable whiteness and quality, then black silk shorts, ditto waistcoat, ditto stockings, shoes highly polished, with large buckles covering a considerable part of the foot, blue cloth coat with velvet collar and bright metal buttons, a long watch-chain dangling from his fob, a cocked-hat, and gold-headed cane completed the grand costume of the celebrated dandy .. for there were dandies in those days.. of the president's kitchen.

Thus arrayed, the chief cook invariably passed out at the front door, the porter making a low bow, which was promptly returned.”

In November 1796, during a visit of the president and his entourage to Mount Vernon, Hercules’ son was caught stealing. Washington suspected that father and son were planning to run away. Washington was taking no chances.  When Washington returned to his presidential duties in Philadelphia, Hercules was left behind at Mount Vernon reduced to the status of a common laborer on the farm, digging clay for bricks, and wearing the outfit of a common field hand. This type of punishment, a humiliating loss of status within the slave community itself, had been used before by Washington to exert his authority over recalcitrant slaves.

It was Hercules, however, who was to have the last word.  On February 22, 1797, George Washington’s sixty fifth birthday, Hercules made his bid for freedom, escaping from Mount Vernon forever.  He first made his way to the port city of Alexandria, some eight miles from Mount Vernon, then on to Philadelphia where he had many friends in the free black community and among the abolitionist Quakers.

Washington was angered and confused by the actions of Hercules, believing that Hercules lived a privileged life.   On March 10, 1797, Washington indicated that he wanted Hercules to be found and returned to Mount Vernon, as soon as possible.  This never happened.  Hercules was spotted in Philadelphia in January 1798, but no steps were taken to apprehend him.  Doing so would have created an embarrassing uproar in abolitionist Pennsylvania.  Hercules was last spotted on December 15, 1801 in New York City.

On November 13, 1797, a distressed Washington stated that while he “had resolved never to become the master of another slave by purchase,” because of Hercules' absence, “this resolution I fear I must break.”

Although Hercules vanishes from recorded history on December 15, 1801, there is some evidence that he may have made his way to Europe.  In the galleries of Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, located near the Prado Museum in what is known as Madrid’s “Golden Triangle of Art”, hangs a portrait called “George Washington’s Cook”, and is presumed to be Hercules.  The painting was previously in a British collection, and a French collection, before making its’ way to Spain.  The painting is by Gilbert Stuart, the American artist who painted many of the iconic likenesses of George Washington, including the portrait that appears on every one dollar bill.  These paintings were completed between 1795-1797.

The question is “Who commissioned the painting and why?”   It is unlikely that Washington commissioned the painting, for even though Washington bestowed many favors on Hercules, theirs’ was a strictly master/servant relationship.  Commissioning such a painting of Hercules, a full and solitary frontal picture of the man in the full confidence of his chef’s regalia, would have been totally out of keeping with Washington’s character.  Hercules may have spent some his hard earned money on commissioning a portrait of himself from the very same artist who had been commissioned to paint a portrait of George Washington. This remains one of history’s mysteries.

Secrets of Early America 1607-1816

These are the often overlooked stories of early America. Stories such as the roots of racism in America, famous murders that rocked the colonies, the scandalous doings of some of the most famous of the Founding Fathers, the first Emancipation Proclamation that got revoked, and stories of several notorious generals who have been swept under history’s rug.

How Martha Washington Lived: 18th Century Customs 

Neither Martha Washington nor the women of the South’s leading families were marble statues, they had the same strengths and weaknesses, passions and problems, joys and sorrows, as the women of any age.  So just how did they live?

Colonial Costumes

Happy Birthday to George Washington

On February 22, 2019, we celebrate the 287^th anniversary of George Washington’s Birthday.  Have a piece of cherry pie in honor of the birthday boy!



Here are some interesting facts about the birthday:



Alexandria, Virginia hosts the nation’s oldest and largest George Washington Birthday Parade, capping off a month of tributes to Washington, including the costumed “Birthday Ball” held at Gadsby’s Tavern.

Alexandria, Virginia Parade

GeorgeFest is the longest running festival celebrating Washington’s Birthday.  Started in 1902 in Eustis, Florida, the festival features outdoor dining, music, fireworks, carnival rides, a float parade and an annual 5K run.  It is held annually in the last weekend of February

The federal holiday honoring Washington was originally implemented by an Act of Congress in 1879.

In 1782, Washington created the Purple Heart (which bears his likeness) to recognize meritorious service during the Revolution.  The medal fell into disuse, but was revived in 1932 to mark the bicentennial of Washington’s Birthday.  The revived medal recognizes wounded soldiers.

Since 1862 there has been a tradition in the United States Senate of reading George Washington’s Farewell Address on his birthday, which in part reads:

“I have already intimated to you the danger of parties in the State, with particular reference to the founding of them on geographical discriminations. Let me now take a more comprehensive view, and warn you in the most solemn manner against the baneful effects of the spirit of party generally.

This spirit, unfortunately, is inseparable from our nature, having its root in the strongest passions of the human mind. It exists under different shapes in all governments, more or less stifled, controlled, or repressed; but, in those of the popular form, it is seen in its greatest rankness, and is truly their worst enemy.

The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty.

Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight), the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it.

It serves always to distract the public councils and enfeeble the public administration. It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection….” 

How Martha Washington Lived: 18th Century Customs 

Neither Martha Washington nor the women of the South’s leading families were marble statues, they had the same strengths and weaknesses, passions and problems, joys and sorrows, as the women of any age.  So just how did they live?

The Real Scarlett O'Hara?

Vivian Leigh as Scarlett O'Hara

In 1936, a young former reporter for the Atlanta Journal published her one and only novel, a book called Gone With the Wind, about the American Civil War and Reconstruction in Georgia.  Even in the 21^st century, a Harris poll found that it is the second most popular book among American readers.  Second only to the Bible.  Thirty million copies have been sold worldwide.

Interestingly, it was the mother of President Theodore Roosevelt, Martha “Mittie” Bulloch Roosevelt who provided much of the inspiration for the character of Scarlett O’Hara in the book.

"Mittie" Bulloch Roosevelt

In 1839, Mittie’s father, Major James Bulloch moved his family to Cobb County Georgia.  He built a fine mansion called Bulloch Hall.  Mittie was a true Southern belle, who in 1853, at the age of eighteen, married Theodore Roosevelt Sr. of New York .

Bulloch Hall

In his autobiography published in 1913, her son Theodore Roosevelt Jr. described his mother, “My mother, Martha Bulloch, was a sweet, gracious, beautiful Southern woman, a delightful companion and beloved by everybody. She was entirely 'unreconstructed' to the day of her death.”

Margaret Mitchell, the author of Gone With The Wind, lived her entire life in Atlanta, absorbing local stories told by those who had lived through the Civil War and Reconstruction.  Mitchell had, in fact, interviewed Mittie's closest childhood friend and bridesmaid, Evelyn King, for a story in the Atlanta Journal.  In that interview, Mittie's beauty, charm, and fun-loving nature were described in detail, making her the perfect prototype for the character of Scarlett O’Hara.  Originally, however, Mitchell named her heroine Pansy O’Hara.  Scarlett seems more appropriate, all things considered.

The 1865 Fall of Richmond in Pictures

The last death agonies of the Confederacy captured in pictures.

War and Reconstruction in Mississippi 1861-1875: A Portrait

A portrait of Holly Springs, a small but prosperous town in northern Mississippi’s Marshall County, during the years of the American Civil War and the era of Reconstruction. This is a glimpse of life in Mississippi during these dramatic years, relying on the words of the people who lived during that time and on other primary historical sources to tell the story.

Movie Memorabilia

Divorce in the Colonial South

By all accounts, George and Martha Washington enjoyed a happy marriage for some forty years.  This was fortunate since options in cases of unhappy marriages were limited.  A woman could win a separate maintenance if a husband’s neglect or abuse made it clear that he was not fulfilling his husbandly duty to provide her adequately with clothing, food, and shelter or if he was endangering her life. Once separated from her husband, a woman could try to make her own living, but her chances of achieving financial security on her own were not good. The situation for elite women was somewhat different.  An elite wife who found her husband abusive or their marriage unhappy could usually finance an informal separation whereby she would live with friends and relatives.

There was rarely official religious or legal recognition that a marriage had collapsed.  Maryland legalized divorce in the early eighteenth century, but the other southern colonies made no such provision in their legal codes.  Any English subject could apply to the House of Lords in London for a divorce by means of a private Act of Parliament, but such a difficult and expensive procedure was out of the question for most people.  The situation changed little after the Revolution.  South Carolina did not permit divorce for another fifty years.  The first post-Independence divorce in Virginia did not occur until 1803.  The Georgia constitution of 1798 allowed divorce, but only if approved by a two thirds vote of the legislature.

Love, Sex, and Marriage in Colonial America 1607-1800

A brief look at love, sex, and marriage in colonial America and the early republic.

How Martha Washington Lived: 18th Century Customs 

Neither Martha Washington nor the women of the South’s leading families were marble statues, they had the same strengths and weaknesses, passions and problems, joys and sorrows, as the women of any age.  So just how did they live?

Prada!

Victoria and Albert and 19th Century American Wedding Traditions

Victoria

Victoria and Albert

No single event did more to influence the future course of wedding traditions in America than did the marriage of Queen Victoria to Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha on February 10, 1840.

White as the color of a wedding gown did not become a popular option until after the marriage of Queen Victoria. Victoria wore a white gown that incorporated lace which had a special sentimental value to the young bride.  The Royal wedding portrait was widely published, and many new brides opted for a similar dress. The tradition continues today in the form of the white wedding, though prior to the Victorian era, a young bride was married in any color except black (the color of mourning) or red (which was connected with prostitutes).

Various theories for the meaning of Queen Victoria’s color choice have been put forward, from her appreciation of color symbolism, white representing purity of heart and the innocence of childhood, to conspiracy theories that link the monarch with schemes to promote lace sales.  It was only later that a white wedding gown came to be regarded as a symbol virginity that should only be worn by a virgin bride.

The adoption of the white wedding cake was also a product of Victoria’s wedding. There was a great deal of cake at Buckingham Palace in February 1840.  Queen Victoria's wedding cake weighed three hundred pounds and measured nine feet across and fourteen inches high and was adorned with roses. An ice sculpture of Britannia surrounded by cupids capped the cake. White wedding cake or bride's cake did not become widespread in the United States until the 1860's. Prior to this, cakes served at wedding receptions were a dark and spicy concoction. The more refined cake was created with the introduction of finely ground white flour and the manufacture of baking powder and baking soda. The heavier “fruitcake” was relegated to being the “groom's cake.”

The wedding cake was cut and boxed and given to guests as they left. Often favors were baked inside for luck. Each charm had its own meaning.  In 2016, a piece of Queen Victoria’s wedding cake was sold by Christie’s auction house for about $2,500.  It appeared dry.

The Civil War Wedding

The Civil War Wedding, an entertaining look at the customs and superstitions of weddings during the Civil War era.

Prada!

The Strange Case of George Washington's Teeth

George Washington's Dentures

An unsmiling George Washington

Sometimes it is hard to think of George Washington as a man.  A marble statue…yes.  The guy on the dollar bill…yes.  But a man?  So let’s consider his aches and pains to bring him down to earth ... specifically his painful teeth.

Despite his best efforts to care for his teeth, Washington lost his first tooth at the age of twenty four.  Almost every year thereafter, Washington suffered from severe toothaches, followed by the painful extraction of the teeth.

Washington’s teeth continued to deteriorate, making it hard for him to chew without pain.  In 1773, at the age of 41, Washington wrote to a London merchant thanking him for his gift of two large stone jars of pickled tripe, which is soft and easy to eat.

By the age of 49, Washington was wearing false teeth wired to his remaining ones.  By the time he is 57, and sworn in for the first time as President of the United States, Washington has one remaining real tooth.  That year he receives the first of four full sets of dentures made by John Greenwood, fashioned from hippopotamus ivory and human teeth.

Washington owned eight sets of dentures during his lifetime.  None of these were made of wood, but all were uncomfortable, and painful to use.  The dentures distorted the look of Washington’s mouth and inhibited him from smiling.

Love, Sex, and Marriage in Colonial America 1607-1800

A brief look at love, sex, and marriage in colonial America and the early republic.

Murder in Colonial Virginia

A quick historical look at murder most foul in the Virginia of colonial times and the early Republic. Behind the facade of graceful mansions and quaint cobblestone streets evil lurks.

Prada

The Death of a Confederate Washington

John Augustine Washington III

John Augustine Washington III (1821-1861), was the last private owner of the Mount Vernon Estate.  The estate passed to John Augustine in this way:  George Washington willed the estate to his nephew Bushrod Washington.  The childless Bushrod, in turn, willed the estate to his nephew John Augustine II, the father of John Augustine III.  John Augustine II died in 1832, when John Augustine III was eleven years old.  The widowed Jane Charlotte then took possession of the property.

John Augustine III graduated from the University of Virginia in 1840, and proposed to manage Mount Vernon for his mother.  Jane Charlotte contracted his services for a period of seven years, at an annual salary of $500 (about $14,500 today).

In the forty some years since the death of George Washington, Mount Vernon had deteriorated sadly.  Soil degradation, bad weather, and poor harvests all contributed to the downward economic spiral.  John Augustine brought in money selling and renting out slaves, by land rents, by selling wood, and by running a fishing operation on the Potomac.  Farming still brought in some revenue.

By the 1850s, Mount Vernon had become a tourist Mecca.  Thousands of people descended on the Estate annually to gawk and ask questions.  John Augustine recognized the profit potential of historical tourism, and contracted with the steamboat Thomas Collyer to bring people to the estate.  Slaves sold bouquets of flowers, fruit, milk, and hand-carved canes to tourists. 

By the late-1850s, John Augustine, now the owner of Mount Vernon after the death of his mother, was ready to sell the property and manage other more lucrative family plantations.  He set about trying to find buyers, approaching both the state of Virginia and the federal government.  There was no relief to be found from either.  Finally, in 1858, John Augustine accepted the offer of a new organization, styling itself the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association (MVLA), to buy two hundred acres of the Mount Vernon Estate, including the mansion, outbuildings and the family tomb for the sum of $200,000 (about $5.5 million today).

John Augustine and his family left Mount Vernon in February 1860, moving to Waveland plantation in Fauquier County, Virginia.  John Augustine’s wife, Eleanor, died in childbirth that same year.  With the outbreak of the Civil War, John Augustine joined the Confederate Army with the rank of lieutenant-colonel.  He served as aide-de-camp to General Robert E. Lee during the early days of the war. 

During Lee’s campaign in the mountains of western Virginia, in September 1861, Lee ordered Col. Washington to make a reconnaissance near Cheat Mountain (in what is today West Virginia).  The zealous Washington advanced deep into enemy occupied territory with his detachment.  When the detachment made to return to friendly lines, enemy pickets opened fire.  Col. Washington fell from his horse, as the rest of the detachment scattered. 

The wounded Confederate officer was surrounded by Union troops.  Col. J.H. Morrow, of the third regiment of Ohio volunteers knelt next to the stricken man and “…raised him so as to enable him to recline against his breast, and directed one of his men, standing near, and who wore a felt hat, to run and fill it with water from the stream.”  Col. Morrow bathed the wounded man’s forehead and endeavored to press water between his lips from a saturated handkerchief; but he could not swallow as blood was flowing from his mouth and nose, and a few moments later he was dead.  The dead officer wore a valuable ring, a pin in his shirt bosom, and a gold watch and chain.  These Col. Morrow removed, and also took possession of his sword and pistols, and ordered a new ambulance, under his control, to be brought at once from camp, in which he had the body placed and taken to his headquarters, nearby.

Not long after, Gen. William L. Loring, bearing a flag, and accompanied by a two-horse wagon, arrived from Gen. Lee’s camp in order to obtain possession of and remove the body.  It was then that Col. Morrow learned the name of the officer who had fallen….

General Loring desired to transfer the body from the ambulance to the wagon, but Col. Morrow kindly insisted upon his taking the ambulance.  General Loring’s driver sprang upon the box, taking the reins, with Col. Morrow sitting beside him, and in this manner, the body was taken to General Lee’s headquarters.

The watch and chain, with ring and pin, were turned over to Gen. Loring, and later the sword and pistols were turned over to Gen. J. J. Reynolds…who at that time was serving in the command of Union General George B. McClellan.

From an account written by Thornton Washington for the Washington Examiner, printed in the Spirit of Jefferson (Charles Town, West Virginia) on March 5, 1889.

John Augustine Washington died on September 13, 1861.  He is buried at Zion Episcopal Churchyard in Charlestown, West Virginia.

A distant relative to John Augustine, through the Lees, and a childhood friend, Gen. Lee was hit hard by one of the first personal losses he would experience in the War.  Lee penned the following letter to the eldest of John Augustine’s children, Louisa, aged seven.

Camp on Valley River

Sept. 16, 1861

My dear Miss Louisa,

With a heart filled with grief, I have to communicate the saddest tidings you have ever heard.

May ‘Our Father, Who is in Heaven’ enable you to hear it, for in his Inscrutable Providence, abounding in mercy and omnipotent in person, he has made you fatherless on earth.

Your dear father, in reconnoitering the enemy’s position yesterday, came within range of the fire of his pickets and was instantly killed. He fell in the cause to which he had devoted all his energies, and in which his noble heart was enlisted. My intimate association with him for some months had more fully disclosed to me his great worth than double as many years of ordinary intercourse would have been sufficient to reveal. We had shared the same tent in morning and evening as his earnest devotion to Almighty God elicited my grateful admiration. He is now happy in Heaven. I trust with her he so loved on earth. We ought not to wish them back.

May God, in His mercy, my dear child, sustain you, your sisters and brothers under this heavy affliction. My own grief is so great I will not afflict you further with it.

Faithfully your friend

R. E. Lee

Love, Sex, and Marriage in the Civil War

A brief look at love, sex, and marriage in the Civil War. The book covers courtship, marriage, birth control and pregnancy, divorce, slavery and the impact of the war on social customs.

Prada

Threadbare Brides of the Civil War

Weddings were welcomed social events during the Civil War and even threadbare brides were radiant. Economy usually replaced the glorious wedding gowns of the past and a nice day dress was considered proper attire, but flowers especially orange blossoms were still seen. Northerner Ellen Wright wrote that she was going to renovate her old clothes for her own wedding because she had no interest in, "shining forth in new apparel in these hard times."

Late in the war, after the fall of Columbia, South Carolina. Louisa McCord was preparing to be married.  Old gloves and slippers were re-dyed with ink.  Family and friends had scrapped together a trousseau which was a "monument to needlework ingenuity." A white wedding gown could not be found however, until Louisa’s mother found white muslin clothe available from a Yankee sutler, priced at an exorbitant $10 in greenbacks. The determined mother sold her carpet and some chairs and finally was forced to drive around town selling lard and butter to come up with all of the money needed to buy the clothe.

 
A wedding ring also became a challenge for Louisa's fiancé. He announced that he would have to travel to another part of the state to borrow a ring from a cousin or aunt, but the McCord family came through again. Louisa's sister offered her 16th birthday ring. Louisa wanted to be married in church, but the family had no transportation. The buggy had been confiscated and the horses eaten. Guests who came couldn't stay long "because their supply of horse feed gave out." 

The Civil War Wedding

The Civil War Wedding, an entertaining look at the customs and superstitions of weddings during the Civil War era.

Prada

George Pullman's Worker's Paradise

The model town of Pullman, located on the far south side of Chicago, was built in the 1880s on land controlled by the Pullman Palace Car Company (think railroads and the luxurious Pullman cars).  The town was the brainchild of George W. Pullman, who thought he could avoid strikes, attract the most skilled labor, and achieve greater productivity by providing workers with a superior living environment. 

The residents weren’t as enthusiastic, and complained that rents, and prices in the company owned stores, were too high.  With the Depression of 1892, wages dropped, but rents and food prices stayed the same.  The bloody nationwide Pullman strike of 1894 resulted.  During the course of the strike, 30 strikers were killed and 57 were wounded before the strike was broken.

In 1898, the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that the company’s charter did not include the right to run a town.  Pullman became just another residential neighborhood until the area was granted landmark status, and the Historic Pullman Foundation set to work restoring it in the 1970s.

The Pullman Arcade Building, seen here in 1894 during the strike,  is being guarded by the Illinois National Guard.  The Arcade Building contained a 500-seat theatre, a post office, library, the Pullman Trust and Savings Bank, the town management offices as well as office and storefront spaces that were rented to private businesses.  

Video: The Gilded Age and Revolution

Love, Sex and Marriage in Victorian America

We think we know the Victorians, but do we? The same passions, strengths and weaknesses that exist now, existed then, but people organized themselves very differently.

Prada

The Strange Case of Henry Washington

Mount Vernon

Henry (Harry) Washington

Born on the Gambia River around 1740, Henry Washington (real name unknown) was captured and sold into slavery sometime before 1763.  He subsequently became the property of George Washington and was a groom in the stables at Mount Vernon.  In November 1775, the Royal Governor of Virginia, Lord Dunmore, issued a proclamation offering freedom to any slave who would help put down the American rebels.   That December, George Washington, commanding the Continental Army in Massachusetts, received a report from his cousin Lund that Lord Dunmore’s proclamation had stirred the passions of Washington’s own slaves. “There is not a man of them but would leave us if they believed they could make their escape. Liberty is sweet.”  In August 1776, a month after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Henry Washington made his escape from Mount Vernon, making his way to the British lines and joining Lord Dunmore’s all black “Ethiopian Regiment ”.  With several hundred men under arms, the Ethiopian Regiment fought for the Crown and the freedom of all blacks in slavery, under the regimental motto, “Liberty to Slaves”.  Lord Dunmore’s forces were overwhelmed in Virginia and the Ethiopian Regiment disbanded.  Henry Washington went on to serve in another Loyalist regiment, The Black Pioneers under the command of Sir Henry Clinton as they moved from New York to Philadelphia to Charleston, and, after the fall of Charleston, back to New York. 

Henry Washington was not alone in joining the British.  The so called “Black Loyalists” in the Revolutionary War are estimated to have numbered between eighty and one hundred thousand runaways who sought freedom within the lines of the British army.  By freeing the slaves the British forced slave masters to guard slaves, one of their chief economic assets, instead of fighting British troops. The British were willing to emancipate slaves if by so doing they could first cripple and then crush the rebellion.  Much as in the later American Civil War, military necessity rather than morality acted as the catalyst of history. The use of slaves by the British for military purposes soon prompted the American rebels to begin recruiting blacks.  George Washington gave his approval to Rhode Island's plan to raise an entire regiment of black slaves (the state bought and emancipated slaves willing to become soldiers). Similarly, Massachusetts raised an all-black unit, the Bucks of America under Samuel Middleton, the only black commissioned officer in the Continental Army. In October 1780, even Maryland accepted “any able-bodied slave between 16 and 40 years of age, who voluntarily enters into service . . . with the consent and agreement of his master.” New York began recruiting slaves in March 1781.  By June 1781 some 1,500 of the 6,000 troops under George Washington’s direct command were black.

In 1782, a provisional treaty granting the American colonies their independence was signed by Great Britain. As the British prepared for their final evacuation, the Americans demanded the return of runaway slaves, under the terms of the peace treaty. The British refused to abandon black Loyalists who had fought for the Crown to their fate. Some four thousand blacks who had served the Crown during the war, together with their families, were listed in “The Book of Negroes” (George Washington insisted that such a list be made so that masters could be compensated for their lost property).  Those lucky enough to make the list sailed to freedom in Canada and England.  Among them was Henry Washington.

Henry Washington embarked on the ship L’Abondance in July 1783, with 405 other black loyalists, including women and children, bound for Nova Scotia.  He was forty three years old.  His wife, Jenny was twenty four.  Most of the black loyalists on board L’Abondance were followers of a blind preacher called “Daddy Moses” who settled as a community in a place they named Birchtown.

Life in Nova Scotia was hard.  The Crown was slow in allocating land, the weather was harsh, and the soil rocky and poor.  After several unhappy years in Nova Scotia, Henry Washington together with his wife and three children and 1,192 other black colonists joined an enterprise sponsored by the Sierra Leone Company, and financed by the British government, which allowed black loyalist refugees to join the free black community established in Sierra Leone in West Africa.  In 1791, Henry Washington and his family settled in Sierra Leone. New settlers were promised twenty acres for every man, ten for every woman and five for every child. They were also given assurances that in Sierra Leone there would be no discrimination between white and black settlers.

The Company was long on promises and short on delivery.  Relations between the Company and the colonists deteriorated to the point that the Company sought a royal charter from the British parliament which would give the company formal jurisdiction over Sierra Leone.  The Company wanted full judicial authority to suppress dissent.  The Company explained, “…the unwarranted pretensions of the disaffected settlers, their narrow misguided views; their excessive jealousy of Europeans; the crude notions they had formed of their own rights; and the impetuosity of their tempers…” would soon produce a “ruinous effect.”

The settlers, who regarded themselves as loyal British subjects, petitioned the King, explaining how the black settlers had been given land by the British government as a consequence of “our good behavior in the last war.” The King hearing of their unhappiness about living a cold country offered to “remove us to Sierra Leone where we may be comfortable.” Things had not turned out in accordance with the terms of His Majesty’s offer, and the settlers sought redress. The Company insured that the settler’s petition never reached the King.

By 1799, Sierra Leone’s settlers had grown so discontented, so revolutionary in their rejection of the Company’s rule over the colony, that some in London likened them to the revolutionaries in France.   The Company noted with alarm, “meetings of a most seditious and dangerous nature.”  The governor sent armed marshals to arrest several men on charges of treason.  Within a week thirty one men were in custody.  A military tribunal was set up to try the prisoners for “open and unprovoked rebellion.”  Henry Washington and twenty three others were banished to the colony’s desolate northern shore.

The exiles elected Henry Washington their leader in 1800, only months after George Washington’s death at Mount Vernon.  In the love of liberty, Henry Washington was not excelled by the better known George Washington.

Secrets of Early America 1607-1816

These are the often overlooked stories of early America. Stories such as the roots of racism in America, famous murders that rocked the colonies, the scandalous doings of some of the most famous of the Founding Fathers, the first Emancipation Proclamation that got revoked, and stories of several notorious generals who have been swept under history’s rug.

Prada