New Yorker: Did George Washington Have an Enslaved Son?
Did George Washington Have an Enslaved Son?New Yorker, 3/14/2022
Awareness of West Ford had faded both in Gum Springs and at Mount Vernon, but in recent years his story has been at the center of a bitter controversy between the two sites. His descendants have demanded that Mount Vernon recognize Ford for his contributions to the estate, which was near collapse during the decades after Washingtons death. They also argueciting oral histories from two branches of the familythat Ford was Washingtons unacknowledged son, a claim that Mount Vernon officials have consistently denied. As that debate continues, Black civic organizations in Gum Springs are engaged in related battles to save their endangered community. They have resisted, with some success, Virginias planned expansion of Richmond Highway, which would encroach on the town, and they have embarked on the process of getting Gum Springs named a national historic site.
In the spring of 2021, a friend and I decided to take a drive through Virginia to explore the states complicated racial history. While researching the trip, I came across some articles about Ford and the patrimony debate. I wanted to learn more about him and the community he had started. Our first stop was Gum Springs, which today is home to some three thousand people. We visited Bethlehem Baptist Church, founded, in 1863, by a freedom seeker named Samuel K. Taylor, who served as its pastor for thirty years. We hoped to go inside, but a sign was taped to the door: Space Is Uninhabitable. The Gum Springs Historical Society and Museum was closed for the day. We found only one citation of West Ford, at a housing project on Fordson Road that was named for him. The historical marker for the town had been destroyed by drivers who, while speeding off the highway, had run into it. Replaced a few months later, it reads Gum Springs, an African-American community, originated here on a 214-acre farm bought in 1833 by West Ford (ca. 1785-1863). A freed man, skilled carpenter, and manager of the Mount Vernon estate. . . . Gum Springs has remained a vigorous black community.
Six days later, we completed our trip near its starting place, at Mount Vernon, set on an expansive lawn overlooking the Potomac River. The house, gardens, and outbuildings have been impeccably restored, and the estate includes a lavish library, along with a large museum and an education center. A guide escorted us and half a dozen other visitors on a slavery tour. We saw the slave quarters and the slave cemetery, where between ninety and a hundred and twenty people are believed to be buried in unmarked graves. A stone marker, laid in 1929, reads In memory of the many faithful colored servants of the Washington family. We stopped at the nearby Slave Memorial, opened in 1983a striking truncated granite column, encircled by boxwood hedges and by a low stone wall.
When the guide asked for questions, I said, What about West Ford? She paused, then stammered, We dont talk about him.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/03/14/did-george-washington-have-an-enslaved-son
brush
(53,745 posts)Typical, so much denial of history going on latelycritcal race theory, book banning, banning the very teaching of the history of the civil rights movement in schools now.
It's crazy. And what about all the Black families with the surname of "Washiinton" and "Jefferson" too for that matter.
And if you go back to the estate, pls suggest that they stop calling the tour the "slabe" tour, or using the term "slave" cabins. The "enslaved tour" and "enslaved cabins" is more like it as they were not just slaves, they were enslaved.
Karadeniz
(22,475 posts)residents who go way back.
teach1st
(5,932 posts)Karadeniz
(22,475 posts)testing, but we can guess why.
Docreed2003
(16,850 posts)A). West Ford's story is certainly incredible and fascinating in and of itself. Why would an enslaved child be singled out and afforded his freedom at 21 if not for some special connection? Why would Washington's nephew provide an inheritance that large without similar reasons?
B). It's heartbreaking to read stories about communities like Gum Springs who throughout their history dreamed of a prosperous community built by and for people of color, only to have those dreams shattered by the racism that permeates society in new incarnations with each generation. The gentrification of today, the redlining and intentional blighting of communities with interstate and highway projects, and on and on. The very real history held within towns like this across the country is being lost. In the confines of what those on the right want to teach as history, I doubt that history would ever be taught.
C). It's telling the response "We don't talk about him" from Mount Vernon staff, and it goes back to my two earlier points. West Ford was responsible for preserving the history and helping restore the history of Mount Vernon, yet an uncomfortable discussion about who might be his father equates to erasing his contributions completely. We cannot allow this current trend in states like Virginia and Tennessee and Florida and elsewhere to erase uncomfortable history to succeed. Our history is much more rich, fascinating, and meaningful when the full story is told and shared.
teach1st
(5,932 posts)I couldn't agree more. Thanks!