Quote:
Originally Posted by craigimass
I'm sure he said that an open hearth fireplace was important also.
He had hundreds of slaves.
Then he changed his mind upon his sickness and impending death and freed all his slave. You would call that flip-flop today, right?
You pick your quotes, I'll pick mine.
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The open hearth fireplace was important then wasn't it? After all, if he had declared the thing to be of no value he would have been regarded as some kind of nut. Well, he
would have been a nut, come to think of it.
Actually, George didn't free his slaves at all. He gave them to his wife, and declared that she should free them upon her death. He did wish to free them but recognized that such action would result in hardships for all.
He was very considerate, all in all, and reading his will gives some insight into the nature of the man............Here 'tis. I would have a hard time calling his actions a death bed flip-flop since he signed the last draft of his will in July and died in December of 1799.
Rediscovering George Washington . Last Will and Testament | PBS
Quote:
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Item Upon the decease of my wife, it is my Will and desire, that all the slaves which I hold in my own right, shall receive their freedom. To emancipate them during her life, would, tho' earnestly wished by me, be attended with such insuperable difficulties on account of their intermixture by Marriages with the Dower Negroes, as to excite the most painful sensations, if not disagreeable consequences from the latter, while both descriptions are in the occupancy or the same Proprietor; it not being in my power, under the tenure by which the Dower Negroes are held, to manumit them. And whereas among those who will receive freedom according to this devise, there may be some, who from old age or bodily infirmities, and others who on account of their infancy, that will be unable to support themselves; it is my Will and desire that all who come under the first and second description shall be comfortably clothed and fed by my heirs while they live; and that such of the latter description as have no parents living, or if living are unable, or unwilling to provide for them, shall be bound by the Court until they shall arrive at the age of twenty-five years; and in cases where no record can be produced, whereby their ages can be ascertained, the Judgment of the Court, upon its own view of the subject, shall be adequate & final. The negroes thus bound, are (by their Masters or Mistresses), to be taught to read and write; & to be brought up to some useful occupation, agreeably to the Laws of the Commonwealth of Virginia, providing for the support of orphan & other poor Children. And I do hereby expressly forbid the sale, or transportation out of the said Commonwealth of any Slave I may die possessed of, under any pretence whatsoever..............
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Neat, huh?.....
He goes on to require that the ex slaves be educated...