With his newfound freedom following the death of George Washington, William Lee could have walked away from Mount Vernon and lived as a free man somewhere else. But he chose to stay at the plantation. Just as Washington had instructed, Lee received money from his master’s estate for the rest of his life.
Lee was there when Martha Washington freed the remaining 122 people who had belonged to her husband, rather than wait until after her own death. He was there to see most of them drift away from Mount Vernon to begin new lives as free men, women, and children. Just as Washington had instructed, his elderly enslaved people were given a pension to support them for the rest of their lives. By the time the last one died, in the 1830s, Washington’s estate had paid out more than $10,000 (approximately $300,000 today) for this purpose.
William Lee was at Mount Vernon when Martha Custis Washington died on May 22, 1802. He was there when the 153 people who had belonged to her dower share of her first husband’s estate were divided up among her four grandchildren. He was there as this community of friends he’d lived with since he was sixteen years old also moved away.
William Lee was there when George Washington’s heir, Bushrod Washington, moved in at Mount Vernon.
William Lee was there when Bushrod Washington moved his own enslaved people into the recently vacated slave quarters of the plantation.
As the years went by, William Lee saw many changes take place at Mount Vernon. The only thing that seemed to stay the same was the constant arrival of visitors. Lee still enjoyed seeing guests he knew from the days of the Revolutionary War. He may have recalled the dark days when it seemed America would lose the war—and how it felt to look across the battlefield to see the red coats of the enemy.
When a British diplomat visited Mount Vernon around 1805, he wrote that “there were about thirty Negroes belonging to the establishment at Mount Vernon, and an old mulatto servant who had served General Washington during the war in all his campaigns, and who inquired of me very earnestly after Lord Cornwallis.”
No doubt Lee was curious about their old enemy twenty-five years after they defeated him. Lee was right behind General Washington as he commanded the victory over General Cornwallis at Yorktown, the last major battle of the war.
Visitors who had known Washington from the days of the Revolutionary War also knew William Lee. When artist Charles Willson Peale visited Mount Vernon in 1804 he wrote in his journal, “I inquired for the old Slave Servants of the General and was told they were all dead except William, his faithfull attendant through the war. I went to the Quarters (an out building so called) where I found him making shoes, he was now a cripple & in an extraordinary manner—both of his knee pans was moved from their places—was some inches higher up.”
Lee’s knees weren’t his only problem during those years. He developed a serious drinking problem. He suffered from delirium tremens (DTs), which happens if someone who drinks a lot of alcohol goes through withdrawal when they stop. A young man named West Ford helped Lee when he was suffering and “frequently relieved him on such occasions, by bleeding him.”
West Ford had been the property of George Washington’s brother John Augustine Washington and his wife, Hannah Bushrod Washington. According to the terms of Hannah Washington’s will, Ford was to be freed when he was twenty-one years old. When John Augustine and Hannah Washington’s son, Bushrod Washington (who some historians believe may have been West Ford’s father), inherited Mount Vernon after the death of Martha Washington, he moved West Ford with him to the plantation. Ford was freed about 1805, but he continued living and working at Mount Vernon.
In the winter of 1810, West Ford was called to help Lee again. But it was too late. William Lee was dead. He had lived and worked at Mount Vernon for more than forty years. He was likely buried in the slave cemetery, located about fifty yards from Washington’s tomb.
Christopher Sheels was one of the 153 enslaved people who were part of Martha Washington’s dower estate and divided up between the four Custis grandchildren. (Sheels was inherited by G.W. P. Custis.) Twenty-seven-year-old Christopher Sheels had many different skills. He was a carpenter, house servant, and valet. Sheels’ new master, began building a new home that overlooked the Potomac River and the new federal city, Washington, District of Columbia. Custis called his home Arlington House. Sheels would have served G.W.P. Custis at Arlington House.
It is unknown what happened to Christopher Sheels later in life.
George Washington died in 1799, just a few months after Oney Judge Staines and her daughter avoided capture in New Hampshire.
No one came looking for Oney Judge Staines after George Washington’s death.
No one came looking for Oney Judge Staines after Martha Washington’s death.
No one came looking for Oney Judge Staines ever again.
She lived as a free woman, even though the Custis estate still legally owned her. If she had returned to Mount Vernon years before, as the Washingtons wanted her to, Betsy Custis Law would have inherited her. Betsy Custis Law did inherit Oney Judge Staines’ sister, Delphy Judge, and others, including Hercules’ son, Richmond.
Oney Staines and her husband, Jack, settled down to live in Greenland, New Hampshire, when he returned from sea. In all, they had three children, Eliza, Nancy, and William. Jack died in 1803, leaving Oney Judge Staines a widow around the age of twenty-nine. She could not support herself and three children, so she moved in with the family of John and Phyllis Jack in Greenland, who had taken her in when she was hiding from Washington’s nephew Burwell Bassett Jr. The two families banded together to survive.
Oney Judge Staines never remarried. All three of her children died when they were young adults, and none of them had children. Through the years, Oney Judge Staines and the two Jack daughters continued to live together. When the three women grew older they were very poor.
Of all the people owned by George or Martha Washington, only Oney Judge Staines left any sort of written recollections about her life’s experience. She did not write them, but she consented to be interviewed by reporters twice when she was an elderly woman, once in May of 1845 and again in January of 1847.
Oney Judge Staines told the reporters that the Washingtons had never given her any sort of education or religious instruction. It was only after she arrived in Portsmouth that she learned to read and became a Christian. In an interview that appeared in the May 22, 1845, Granite Freeman, the reporter asked if she was “sorry she left Washington, as she had labored so much harder since.” She answered, “No, I am free, and have, I trust, been made a child of God.”
In the second interview, published in the abolitionist newspaper the Liberator on January 1, 1847, the reporter described Oney Judge Staines as being “nearly white, very much freckled.” She was living with Nancy Jack, daughter of John and Phyllis Jack, in what he described as “an obscure place, and in a poor, cold house,” and was being “maintained as a pauper” by Rockingham County, New Hampshire.
Oney Judge Staines died on February 25, 1848. She is buried in Greenland, New Hampshire.
Hercules ran away from Mount Vernon on Washington’s birthday, February 22, 1797. He was never seen again.
At the time Hercules escaped, Richmond was twenty years old, Eve about fourteen, and Delia about twelve. When he left Mount Vernon, Hercules had no way to know that in about three years he would have been freed legally by the terms of Washington’s will. But even then his three children would not have been freed. Their mother, Alice, was one of Martha Washington’s “dower slaves,” so all three of her children were too.
After Martha Washington’s death, when her enslaved people were divided, Richmond, whose value was listed at £120, was inherited by Betsy Custis Law. Both of Hercules’ daughters, Eve and Delia, were inherited by Nelly Custis Lewis and were moved to her nearby plantation, Woodlawn. Eve, who was described as a dwarf, was valued at £50. Delia was valued at £70.
Peter Hardiman was one of the enslaved people rented by Washington. After the deaths of George and Martha Washington, G.W.P. Custis took Peter Hardiman with him to Arlington House, although the exact date isn’t known.
Custis inherited Washington’s prized donkey, Knight of Malta, which had been a gift from Lafayette. In 1844, G.W.P. Custis wrote an article that appeared in a book titled The Gentleman’s New Pocket Farrier, Comprising a General Description of the Noble and Useful Animal the Horse. He described this animal as having “the fire and ferocity of a lion,” and said he could “only be managed by one groom, and that always at considerable personal risk.” That one groom was Peter Hardiman. In this article, Custis explained why he no longer had any jacks (male donkeys), writing, “Upon losing my groom (Peter) who was the first and last groom to the Mount Vernon Jacks, I parted with my stock.”
It is not known exactly when Peter Hardiman died.
Caroline, her husband Peter Hardiman, and their children were each inherited by G.W.P. Custis after the enslaved people who were part of Martha Washington’s dower estate were divided. Caroline, with her skills as a seamstress and housemaid, was valued at £70 on the list of people who were inherited by Custis. It was far more than many other enslaved women.
Though it is not clear why, at some point later Caroline began using the name Caroline Branham or Brannum. After leaving Mount Vernon, Caroline had another child, a daughter named Lucy Harrison, born about 1806.
It is unclear what happened to Caroline later in life.
As for Caroline’s children, specific details are known about what happened to some of them, while nothing is known about others.
Wilson, son of Caroline
and Peter Hardiman
Seventeen-year-old Wilson went to work at Arlington House as groom in the stables with his father, Peter Hardiman. He was young and strong and given the value of £80.
Rachel, daughter of Caroline
and Peter Hardiman
Rachel was about fifteen years old at the time of the division. She was valued at £50.
By 1813 Rachel had two daughters. Custis sold Rachel and her daughters with the understanding that their new owner would ultimately emancipate them. After Rachel was freed, she had two more children (both free because their mother was free).
Jemima, daughter of Caroline
and Peter Hardiman
Jemima was about thirteen when G.W.P. Custis became her new master. Her value was listed at £40. It is unclear what happened to Jemima. However, slave manumission records in Alexandria list a woman named “Gemima Branham” who was freed in 1813 by her owner, Robert P. Washington. It is possible this was Jemima.
Leanthe, daughter of Caroline
and Peter Hardiman
Leanthe was about eleven years old when their family left Mount Vernon. She was valued at £35. On October 11, 1820, William Costin, a free African American man, bought Leanthe and freed her six days later. Costin was the husband of Delphy Judge (Oney Judge’s sister), whom he had purchased from Betsy Custis Law.
Polly, daughter of Caroline
and Peter Hardiman
Polly was about nine years old when the “dower slaves” were divided up. She was valued at £30.
It is unknown what happened to Polly.
Peter, son of Caroline
and Peter Hardiman
Peter was about seven years old at the time of the division. It is believed that young Peter was the person identified as “Branndum” on the list of those who were inherited by G.W.P. Custis. He was valued at £35.
It is unknown what happened to Peter.
Austin, son of Caroline
and Peter Hardiman
Austin was born sometime before the death of Martha Washington. He was probably less than three years old when Martha Washington’s heirs took possession of the enslaved people who were part of her dower estate. Austin was valued at £25.
He remained enslaved by G.W.P. Custis at Arlington House. Austin was still working at Arlington House when in 1831 Custis’ daughter Mary married Robert E. Lee in the parlor.
As his stepgrandfather George Washington had done, G.W.P. Custis instructed in his will that the people be owned be freed. When he died in 1857, the executor of his will was his son-in-law, Robert E. Lee.
By the time all the paperwork was finalized, the Civil War was in full swing and Lee was a general in the Confederate army. On December 29, 1862, it was official: Sixty-five-year-old Austin Branham, the son of Martha Washington’s housemaid Caroline, was free.
Daniel, son of Caroline
and Peter Hardiman
Daniel was born sometime before the death of Martha Washington. He was probably younger than Austin, so he was likely about one year old when the division of the enslaved people occurred. He was valued at £20.
It is unknown what happened to Daniel.
Lucy Harrison, daughter of Caroline Branham
Lucy Harrison was born around 1806, about four years after her mother, Caroline, moved to Arlington House. Some historians believe George Washington Parke Custis may have been Lucy’s father. At some unknown point in time, G.W.P. Custis sold Lucy to a man named Robert H. Miller.
Lucy had two daughters named Sarah and Eugenia, and a son named Robert Henry Robinson. Eventually Lucy was emancipated along with an infant son named Charles. In the Alexandria County Free Negro Registers, 1797–1861, a note dated November 23, 1852, describes Lucy Ann Harrison as “a mulatto, about 44 years old, 5 feet 1 inch tall, of a copper color, with a mole on her left cheek. She was emancipated by R. H. Miller.”
Miller, the man who owned Lucy and her children, sold her two daughters for $50 each—with the understanding that both Sarah and Eugenia would be freed when they turned twenty-one. The two girls took care of the children of their master, William Gregory. Their mistress taught Sarah and Eugenia to read. Later in life, the Gregory children recalled that Eugenia read stories to them, including “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves.” They also remembered Eugenia telling them Br’er Rabbit and the Tar Baby stories (African folktales long before they were published in American books). As promised, Sarah and Eugenia (Caroline Branham’s granddaughters) were both freed when they turned twenty-one.
This Windsor chair descended through the family of Caroline Branham and her daughter Lucy Harrison. After Lucy was emancipated, she lived as a free woman in Washington, D.C. In 1891, Lucy sold this chair to the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association. It is in their collection today.
Lucy Harrison’s son, Robert, was freed from slavery at some unknown time. He became a Methodist minister and was highly respected in the community. The Robert H. Robinson Library at the Alexandria Black History Museum is named in his honor.
Descendants of Caroline Branham, Lucy Harrison, and Robert Robinson live in the Washington, D.C., area. One of them, Zsun-nee Miller-Matema, worked as an interpreter at Mount Vernon, which ceased operating as a plantation in 1858 and is now a historic landmark. Zsun-nee guided visitors through the rooms of Mount Vernon that her ancestor Caroline cleaned more than two hundred years before.
George Washington Parke (G.W.P.) Custis, Martha Washington’s grandson, who grew up with the Washingtons at Mount Vernon, built Arlington House. Some of the enslaved people who came from Mount Vernon and served Custis at Arlington House were Christopher Sheels, and Caroline Branham and Peter Hardiman and all their children.
Custis’ daughter, Mary, married Robert E. Lee, who became the famous Confederate general. During the Civil War, the union army took possession of Arlington House, then owned by the Lees. This photograph was taken on June 28, 1864, and show groups of men, some Union soldiers—including African Americans—at Arlington House. A couple of months later, the army began burying soldiers killed in the Civil War in Mrs. Lee’s rose garden. This was the beginning of Arlington National Cemetery.
Today Arlington House, built by G.W.P. Custis, sits within Arlington National Cemetery. This cemetery is an especially meaningful place as it is not only a burial ground, but also a shrine for veterans who have served the United States.