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Wiencek writes that if Washington had found buyers for his land at what seemed like a fair price, this plan would have ultimately freed "both his own and the slaves controlled by Martha's family", [265] and to accomplish this goal Washington would "yield up his most valuable remaining asset, his western lands, the wherewithal for his retirement."
When Washington died in 1799, he freed Lee in his will and cited "his faithful services during the Revolutionary War." Lee was the only one of Washington's 124 slaves to be freed outright in his will. According to the terms of Washington's will, his remaining slaves were to be freed upon the death of his wife, Martha Washington.
There Washington married Jenny, another freed American slave. In 1792 he joined nearly 1,200 freedmen for resettlement in Sierra Leone, where they set up a colony of free people of color. Deborah Squash was a slave on George Washington's Mount Vernon plantation
At the time of Washington’s death in 1799, there were 317 enslaved people at Mount Vernon, his home and plantation in Virginia, including 123 people owned by Washington himself. “George ...
On January 1, 1801, one year after George Washington's death, Martha Washington signed an order to free his slaves. Many of them were reluctant to leave; others refused to abandon spouses or children still held as dower slaves by the Custis estate. [286]
He initially planned to sell lands, free his slaves, and use the money from the sale of lands to support his slaves, but he could not find any buyers. [4] During the summer of 1799, Washington made a new will, that stipulated all of the 124 slaves he owned outright would be freed after the death of his wife, Martha.
Speculation exists as to why George Washington freed his slaves in his will. One theory posits that the slaves included two half-sisters of his wife, Martha Custis. Those mixed-race slaves were born to slave women owned by Martha's father and were regarded within the family as having been sired by him.
The July 1799 Mount Vernon Slave Census lists 153 dower slaves. [4] While George Washington freed his 123 slaves through his 1799 will, the dower slaves remained the property of the Custis estate. Following Martha Washington's 1802 death, the Custis estate was settled, and the dower slaves were inherited by the four Custis grandchildren.