McClafferty Carla Killough - Buried lives: the enslaved people of George Washingtons Mount Vernon

The Publisher would like to thank Mary V. Thompson, Research Historian at the Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington at Mount Vernon, for her expert review of this book; and Kimberly Wallace-Sanders, PhD, Associate Professor of American Cultural History and African American Studies, Emory University, for her thoughtful sensitivity evaluation of the manuscript.

Copyright 2018 by Carla Killough McClafferty

All Rights Reserved

Book design by Trish Parcell Watts

HOLIDAY HOUSE is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

Printed and bound in August 2018 at Hong Kong Graphics Ltd., China.

www.holidayhouse.com

First Edition

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: McClafferty, Carla Killough, 1958- author.

Title: Buried lives : the enslaved people of George Washingtons Mount Vernon / by Carla Killough McClafferty.

Description: First edition. | New York : Holiday House, 2018. | Audience:

Ages 10 and up. | Audience: Grade 4 to 6.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016058471 | ISBN 9780823436972 (hardcover)

Subjects: LCSH: SlavesVirginiaMount Vernon (Estate)Juvenile literature. |

Washington, George, 1732-1799Relations with slavesJuvenile literature. |

SlaveryVirginiaMount Vernon (Estate)Juvenile literature. |

Mount Vernon (Va. : Estate)Race relationsJuvenile literature.

Classification: LCC E312.17 .M394 2018 | DDC 306.3/62097341dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016058471

Ebook ISBN:9780823441235

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Dedicated to the memory of my son,

Corey Andrew Killough McClafferty

I first met Carla Killough McClafferty over the telephone on the day she called to ask me for an interview related to her upcoming book, Buried Lives: The Enslaved People of George Washingtons Mount Vernon. Shed contacted me because one of the women she writes about in the book is Caroline Branham, my fourth great-grandmother on my fathers side. Her questions to me were aimed at learning what my family knew about my ancestor, who was an enslaved housemaid to the Washington family. Carla asked especially for information that would help fill the gaps in the records of Carolines life storya story that played out as Caroline stood in the shadows of the great and powerful.

I will never forget the conversation Carla and I enjoyed about eighteen months later, when we met face-to-face for dinner at a lovely restaurant in downtown Alexandria, Virginia. Mount Vernon historian Mary V. Thompson joined us, and over our meal Carla enthusiastically shared the journey she had taken in researching the life stories of the individuals she wanted to profile in her book. That journey has culminated in the publication of Buried Livesa book that brings to light some of the life experiences of several of George Washingtons enslaved people.

In these pages we find housemaids, seamstresses, cooks, and horse breeders, each portrayed as the individuals they were: people with a sense of personal authority that transcends the circumstances in which they found themselves. The Washingtons are viewed through the eyes of the enslaved community, as the reality of slavery at Mount Vernon is detailed in the daily business of maintaining status and sorting out duties that made the best use of the Washingtons laborers. Buried Lives presents an excellent examination of class and privilege in the formation of this countryand it is also important because it opens a door to the presence of courage, daring, and ingenuity not commonly thought to exist in the strategies of enslaved people.

Whenever Ive spent time at Mount Vernon, it has always given me pause to think that my ancestor once walked in the presence of so many great people. At any given time, visitors from America, the West Indies, and Europemany of them political leaderswere received by the Washingtons. I wonder, though, how Caroline felt as she cared for the comfort of dignitaries such as the Marquis de Lafayette, who opposed slavery, and others who shaped world philosophies and laws. These people were brilliant in the light of their freedom. What about Carolines freedom, and the freedom of the other people who labored alongside her? What did they feel as they heard about resolutions that would continue to inflict indignities on them, while at the same time securing the freedom and dignity of white Americans?

I have dedicated twenty-eight years to the research of my fathers family, and have long felt that the people who served the needs of the First Family, including Caroline Branham, deserve to be known in their own right. After all, it was their labor that gave General Washington the freedom to leave his estate when necessary in order to develop the guiding principles and policies of our nationand, for a time, to lead it. In my estimation, they, too, were first families of America who played a major role in its history.

While researching the lives of my ancestors, Ive found that there is no way to describe the joy of finding gems of historical information that reveal the words, talents, hobbies, and accomplishments of family. We, the living, tell the tales of those who have died. Their place in history rests in how well we preserve evidence of their fortunes and miseries. The experiences and influences of our ancestors continue to shape us and surround us. But, like those who came before us, we must always find a way to push through and flower wherever we are planted.

ZSun-nee Miller-Matema

F OUNDER OF AFRIA SIA :

T HE I NTERCULTURAL E DUCATION E XCHANGE/

A TTITUDES FOR A MERICA

W ASHINGTON C OUNTY , M ARYLAND

George Washington, the man who led the fight for American freedom, was a slave owner. At the age of eleven Washington inherited ten human beings, and he would own people his entire life. By the time Washington was born, African people had been enslaved in the Americas for hundreds of years.

According to Voyages: The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database, maintained by Emory University, between the years 1501 and 1866 an estimated 12,521,300 Africans were forced onto slave ships that sailed to different destinations. Full ships set sail with their human cargo, who were shackled together in horrendous conditions belowdecks. Over the years, an estimated 10,702,700 people survived the voyage (almost 15 percent died), and of them, approximately 388,700 (3.6 percent) arrived in mainland North Americapart of which would eventually become the United States. The majority (approximately 95 percent) were sold to slave owners in the Caribbean and South America, while approximately 8,900 (0.08 percent) were sent to Europe and about 155,600 (1.5 percent) were taken to other locations in Africa.