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The Enslaved People of George Washington
In addition to being the Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army and the first President of the United States, George Washington was also an active slaveholder for 56 years. Washington publicly spoke about his desire to end slavery, but did not free his own enslaved people during his lifetime. Upon his death in 1799, the 123 people ensllaved by Washington were only freed by his last will and testament. However, his wife, Martha Washington, had "dower slaves" that were not part of her late husband's estate. As a result, Washington could not free them. You will learn about two of the enslaved people at Mount Vernon, Washington’s estate, who also traveled with George and Martha Washington after he was elected president.
Christopher Sheels
George Washington’s personal manservant throughout the Revolutionary War was a man named William Lee. In fact, William, or Billy, Lee can be seen in the background of this famous painting of George Washington.

When William Lee became too ill to attend to Washington, his nephew Christopher Sheels took over. At the time, Christopher was only 14 years old. Sheels was one of the “dower slaves”, meaning he was part of the estate of Daniel Parke Custis, Martha Washington’s first husband, and was inherited by her for “lifetime use”. Because he was one of the “dower slaves”, Sheels and the others like him could not be freed by Washington and upon Martha Washington’s death, they would be inherited by the four Custis grandchildren.
At the time of Washington’s inauguration, New York City served as the nation’s capital. Washington’s first presidential household consisted of about twenty enslaved people. Seven of them came from Mount Vernon. Christopher Sheels was one of the seven.
When the capital was moved to Philadelphia in 1790, the Washingtons had to contend with the Pennsylvania Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery. Pennsylvania had been founded by Quakers who were among the first abolitionists in the United States. They wanted to eradicate slavery in the state, but knew they would have to do it slowly to respect the property rights of slaveholding citizens. This law stated that a non-resident slaveholder visiting Pennsylvania could keep enslaved people for a period of six months, but after that time, the enslaved people would be freed.
Although the Washingtons initially believed this law did not apply to them, Attorney General Edmund Randolph informed them that the law also applied to the president and his enslaved people. However, there was a loophole in the law: if the enslaved people were taken out of Pennsylvania before the six-month period was over, it would void the slaves’ Pennsylvania residency. When Martha Washington took Christopher and her lady’s maid Ona Judge to New Jersey for a two-day trip before the six-month period was over, she eliminated their residency and their right to be free.
Christopher Sheels was returned to Mount Vernon in Virginia in 1792 where he served the family’s meals. When Washington retired from the presidency in 1797 and returned to Mount Vernon, Sheels again became his personal attendant. He was at Washington’s bedside when he died in 1799. Since Christopher was one of the “dower slaves”, he was not among the 123 enslaved people freed by Washington’s will, but was instead inherited by one of the Custis grandchildren when Martha died in 1802. It is unknown where Sheels lived the rest of his life or when he died.
Ona Judge
Ona Judge was born in 1773 at Mount Vernon where her mother Betty was one of the enslaved people and her father, Andrew Judge, was a white indentured servant. Betty was a “dower slave” like Christopher Sheels and since children followed the status of their mothers, Ona was a slave from birth. Ona had a brother, Austin, and a sister, Delphy. When Andrew Judge’s time of service was over, he moved from Mount Vernon to Alexandria, Virginia, and likely did not maintain contact with his three children with Betty.
When Ona was about ten, she was moved into the main house at Mount Vernon to serve as a “playmate” to Nelly Custis, Martha Washington’s granddaughter. Eventually, when Ona was a teenager, she became Martha Washington’s personal lady’s maid. Like Christopher Sheels, Ona was one of the Mount Vernon slaves taken to New York City and then Philadelphia when George Washington was elected president of the United States.
In 1796, Martha Washington informed Ona that she would be given as a “wedding present” to Elizabeth Parke Custis, one of Martha’s granddaughters. Ona had heard of Elizabeth’s temper and also knew that Elizabeth’s intended husband, Thomas Law, had a history of affairs - he had two illegitimate children when he and Elizabeth married. Ona was afraid of both Elizabeth’s harsh temper and Thomas' possible sexual advances, so she began planning her escape. As the Washingtons planned a brief return trip to Virginia, Ona escaped and was secretly placed aboard a ship bound for New Hampshire. George Washington placed an advertisement for her return in the Pennsylvania Gazette and offered a ten-dollar reward.

Although George Washington tried to have Ona Judge captured and returned, he did not want a public scandal and Judge was left in New Hampshire. In her absence, her younger sister Delphy instead became the wedding gift to Elizabeth Parke Custis. She was freed in 1807.
Ona Judge married Jack Staines, a free black sailor, and they had three children together. When Staines died in 1803, Ona and her children became indentured servants in a household in New Hampshire. Ona Judge Staines became a Christian and gave several interviews to the abolitionist newspaper, The Liberator. She died in 1848. Even though she and her children lived free in New Hampshire, because of her status as a Custis dower slave, Ona and her children legally remained fugitive slaves for their entire lives.
To learn more about Christopher Sheels and Ona Judge as well as many other enslaved people of Mount Vernon, visit the virtual museum exhibit Enslaved People at Mount Vernon.
Thomas Jefferson
As you have learned in the last two units, Thomas Jefferson was highly regarded as not only the writer of the Declaration of Independence, but also the Secretary of State under President Washington and the third President of the United States. Besides also being a Virginian, another similarity Jefferson shared with Washington was slaveholding.
Although Jefferson penned the words, “All men are created equal” in the Declaration of Independence, his own personal relationship with slavery was a paradox at best. During his lifetime, Jefferson had over 600 enslaved people, the most of any other US president, but there is one enslaved woman whose name has been associated with Jefferson for more than 200 years. Her name is Sally Hemings.
Sally Hemings
In September of 1802, during Jefferson’s presidency, a reporter for the Richmond Recorder named James Callender published one of the most scandalous stories of his time: Thomas Jefferson had a relationship with one of his slaves, Sally Hemings, and had fathered her children. Although this was a bombshell revelation, Jefferson chose to remain quiet about the topic for the remainder of his life and Sally Hemings stayed behind at Monticello while Jefferson was in the White House.
Sally Hemings was born in 1773 to an enslaved woman named Elizabeth Hemings and Elizabeth’s owner, John Wayles. John Wayles fathered Sally and her five siblings in addition to his white children. One of his white children, Martha Wayles, later married Thomas Jefferson. Sally Hemings became nursemaid to Jefferson’s daughter, Maria, after Martha Jefferson’s death in 1782, even though Sally herself was still a child. When Sally was 14, she accompanied Maria to Paris, France, as a domestic servant and maid in Jefferson’s household while he served as an ambassador to France.
Once Sally came to France, she was considered legally free. In Paris, Sally was reunited with her brother, James, who had been in Paris for two years to study French cooking, and they both lived in Jefferson’s Paris residence. While in Paris, Sally served as Maria’s lady’s maid and accompanied her on social outings. Sally also learned to speak French, although it is not clear if she became fluent in the language. According to later records from Sally’s son, Madison Hemings, Sally began an intimate relationship with Jefferson while in Paris.
When it was time for Jefferson to return to Virginia and Monticello, Sally refused to return. After all, she was a free woman in France; a return to Virginia would mean a return to slavery. However, according to Madison Hemings, Sally negotiated a return to Virginia, but only with “extraordinary privileges” granted to herself and freedom granted to her future children. Although Madison contended that Sally was pregnant with Jefferson’s child when she came back to Monticello, no record of that child has ever been found. She was 16 years old.
Over the course of the next eighteen years, Hemings gave birth to six children fathered by Thomas Jefferson. Four survived to adulthood- Beverly, Harriet, Madison, and Eston- and in 1822, Beverly and Harriet Hemings were allowed to leave Monticello without being legally freed. From there, according to Madison Hemings, both were able to pass into white society and their “African blood” was never discovered.
Thomas Jefferson died on July 4, 1826, and although his will freed both Madison and Eston Hemings, it did not set Sally Hemings free. Jefferson’s daughter, Martha, freed her after his death. She moved to Charlottesville, Virginia, where she lived with Madison and Eston until her death in 1835. In 1852, Eston Hemings legally changed his last name to Jefferson and both he and Madison made it public knowledge that they were sons of Thomas Jefferson. Because Beverly and Harriet Hemings passed into white society, they kept them family lineage a secret. As a result, historians and family members have been unable to locate their descendants.
Watch this clip from PBS News Hour about Monticello’s acceptance and acknowledgement of the relationship between Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings .