Jane Steele asks about the "dower slaves" at Mount Vernon. Martha Dandridge
married the wealthy planter Daniel Parke Custis, who died suddenly at about
age 46, leaving Martha with two children, a lot of cash and land, and a
couple of hundred slaves. She then married George Washington. Neither George
Washington nor Martha Washington ever owned any of the Custis land or
slaves, which were entailed to Jacky Custis, the only son of Martha and the
late Daniel Parke Custis. Jacky married and his children became the heirs of
the Custis land and slaves. One of those heirs, the only male, was George
Washington Parke Custis, who grew up at Mount Vernon and with his
inheritance built Arlington, named for the old Custis estate in Accomack
County, now Arlington National Cemetery. GWP Custis's only child, Mary,
married Robert E. Lee. It is sometimes said that Robert E. Lee freed his
slaves during the Civil War, but Lee did not own any slaves. The slaves he
freed had belonged to his father-in-law, GWP Custis, who died just before
the Civil War and had made Lee his executor with the requirement that Lee
free the Custis slaves within five years. Many of those people had come from
Mount Vernon. Jacky Custis's plantation, Abingdon, is now Reagan National
Airport; it has been excavated and the site can be visited.

As I said, the Custis slaves belonged neither to George Washington nor to
Martha, but to the Custis Estate until Jacky Custis reached majority. For
her lifetime Martha received part of the income from the labor of those
slaves, and the rest of the income went to Jacky and then to his heirs. GW
and Martha could not free those slaves or sell them. Thus, when George
Washington tried to free his slaves during his presidency, he had to
negotiate with Jacky's heirs because GW's slaves had intermarried with
Custis slaves, and GW did not want to break up families by freeing his
slaves while leaving their Custis-owned spouses and children in slavery. The
Custis heirs refused to free their slaves, thus frustrating Washington's
manumission plan. Washington freed his slaves in his will, a document that
refers to "evasion" and "pretenses," making it clear that the general did
not trust the Custises. A long answer to a short question. If I have made
any mistakes I will be pleased to be corrected by the learned members of
this list. 

Henry Wiencek
Charlottesville

P.S. I am not a "Dr." but a plain "Mr."