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After George Washington’s death, Mount Vernon’s enslaved community was divided several times over.
The first division occurred when Martha Washington chose to free her late husband’s slaves early, on January 1, 1801. She may have feared for her safety in a situation where the freedom of so many depended on her death. Like her husband, Martha lacked the legal authority to free the Custis slaves, many of whom watched their spouses and relatives go free.
The second division occurred after Martha Washington died on May 22, 1802. The enslaved people owned by the Custis estate—numbering about 150—were dispersed to her four grandchildren. Legally considered property, enslaved people had no control over their destination. Once again, many families were separated.
Kitty, an enslaved milkmaid and spinner at Mansion House Farm, was deeply affected by George and Martha Washington’s death. Kitty’s husband, Isaac, Mount Vernon’s head carpenter, was owned by George Washington and thus received his freedom in 1801. Because Kitty was a dower slave, her nine daughters and seven grandchildren all belonged to the Custis estate and remained enslaved. In 1802 the family was separated again. After Martha Washington’s death, Kitty and her children were dispersed among Martha’s four grandchildren.
Philadelphia (Delphy) Judge was an enslaved spinner at Mansion House Farm and the younger sister of Ona Judge (Martha Washington’s personal maid who escaped in 1796). After being inherited by Eliza Parke Custis Law in 1802, Delphy Judge married William Costin, a free black man. Law’s husband Thomas freed Judge and her two children in 1807.
The family lived in Washington, D.C., where William Costin worked as a messenger for the Bank of Washington for 24 years and became a well-known figure in the city. When he died, former president John Quincy Adams declared, “The late William Costin, though he was not white, was as much respected as any man in the District.” Their daughter Louisa Parke Costin founded and ran a school for African American children on Capitol Hill from 1823 to 1831.
This ambrotype (ca. 1861-65) depicts Tom, who was possibly enslaved at Mount Vernon and later inherited by the Peter family. During the Civil War, Tom ran away from the Peter home in Maryland and found refuge with a group of abolitionists, who had this image taken.
The content on this page was adapted from Lives Bound Together: Slavery at George Washington’s Mount Vernon, an exhibition on view in the Donald W. Reynolds Museum & Education Center from 2016–2020.
