Well if it isn’t my favorite Confederate on the compost heap! Thing is though George Washington set his free, didn’t he.
“Thing is though George Washington set his free, didn’t he.”
It’s nice to see you try to make the old boy fit into the neo-Yankee mold. A couple of Washington slaves were indeed emancipated after a fashion. Both Ona, Martha’s maid, and Hercules the cook ran away when the Washingtons lived in Pennsylvania.
The Washingtons had taken 9 slaves with them to Philadelphia. At the time Pennsylvania was abolishing slavery and slaves kept in the state more than 6 months would be declared free. So George had them rotated back to Virginia inside of 6 months to prevent that from happening.
At the time of his death the Washingtons owned more than 270 slaves. Martha emancipated the 120 that had belonged to George about a year after his death. Upon her death the remaining 150 were inherited by her children.