Christopher Steele was a house servant who after working many years, escaped the plantation, but return to Washington on his death bed.
Harry Washington was born in
Gambia and sold into slavery as a war captive and was purchased by George Washington. During the American Revolutionary War, Harry Washington escaped from slavery in Virginia and served as a corporal in the
Black Pioneers attached to a British artillery unit. After the war he was among
Black Loyalists resettled by the British in
Nova Scotia, where they were granted land. There Washington married Jenny, another freed American slave. In 1792 he joined nearly 1200 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 before she escaped in 1781. She was one of the 3,000 blacks in the
Book of Negroes that sailed on a British ship for
Nova Scotia.
List
Caroline Branham (1764–1843) was born to an enslaved woman of
Daniel Parke Custis,
Martha Washington's first husband. When Martha married
George Washington, she came to live at Mount Vernon where Caroline was born. Branham had nine children, eight of whom were the offspring of her husband Peter Hardiman, a groomsman. Another child, Lucy, is considered the daughter of
George Washington Parke Custis, Martha's grandson and Branham's slaveholder after Martha's death. Besides her household duties, she was responsible for making clothing for Washington's enslaved people. She was able to negotiate the freedom of her grandson, Lucy's son, in exchange for being interviewed by
Jared Sparks.
Robert H. Robinson was freed in 1746 at the age of 21.
West Ford (c. 1784 – 1863) was a mulatto man who was a caretaker of the estate. He arrived at Mount Vernon in 1802, was enslaved until 1805 when he was freed, and continued working there as a free man until 1860. He created an oral history of his life at Mount Vernon.
Sarah Johnson (September 29, 1844–January 25, 1920) was an African American woman who was born into slavery at Mount Vernon, George Washington's estate in Fairfax, Virginia. She worked as a domestic, cleaning and caring for the residence. During the process, she became an informal historian of all of mansion's furnishings. After the end of the Civil War, she was hired by the
Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, ultimately becoming a council member of the organization. She and her husband, Nathan, saved their money and bought four acres of Mount Vernon land to establish a small farm. The book Sarah Johnson's Mount Vernon (2008) tells her story of her life as well as the complex community of people that inhabited Mount Vernon.
Oney Judge (
c. 1773 – February 25, 1848), also known as Ona Judge Staines, was a
mulatto woman enslaved to the Washington family, first at the family's plantation at Mount Vernon and later, after George Washington became president, at the
President's House in
Philadelphia, then the nation's capital city.[1] At the age of 23, she absconded, becoming a
fugitive slave, after learning that Martha Washington had intended to transfer ownership of her to her niece, known to have a horrible temper, and fled to
New Hampshire, where she married, had children, and converted to
Christianity. Though she was never freed, the Washington family did not want to risk public backlash in forcing her to return to Virginia and after so many years of failing to persuade her to return quietly, the family let her be.
William Lee (approximately 1750[2]–1810[3]), also known as Billy or Will Lee, was enslaved by George Washington and served as his personal assistant. He was the only one of
Washington's slaves who was freed immediately by Washington's will. Because he served by Washington's side throughout the
American Revolutionary War and was sometimes depicted next to Washington in paintings, Lee was one of the most publicized African-Americans of his time.
Hercules Posey (1748 – May 15, 1812) was an African American enslaved by the
Washington family, serving as the family's head chef for many years, first at Mount Vernon in Virginia and later, after George Washington was elected president of the newly formed United States of America, in the country's then-capital city of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania at the
President's House, working alongside
Oney Judge. Sometime in 1797, Posey absconded and fled to
New York, where he lived until his death in 1812. He was legally
manumitted upon Washington's death in 1799, though his children remained enslaved by Washington's wife,
Martha Washington.
Christopher Sheels[5] (born
c. 1774,[6] Mount Vernon, Virginia – year and place of death unknown), was an enslaved house servant at George Washington's plantation, Mount Vernon. As a teenager, he worked as Washington's
"body servant" in the presidential households in
New York City, 1789–90, and Philadelphia, 1790–91. In September 1799, Washington foiled an escape attempt by Sheels from Mount Vernon. Three months later he was present at the former-president's deathbed.
Harry Washington (
c. 1740–1800) was born in
Gambia and sold into slavery as a war captive, then purchased by George Washington. During the American Revolutionary War, Harry Washington escaped from slavery in Virginia and served as a corporal in the
Black Pioneers attached to a British artillery unit. After the war he was among
Black Loyalists resettled by the British in
Nova Scotia, where they were granted land. There Washington married Jenny, another freed American slave. In 1792 he joined nearly 1200 freedmen for resettlement in
Sierra Leone, where they set up a colony of free people of color.