Williamsburg Regional Library

Buried lives, the enslaved people of George Washington's Mount Vernon, by Carla Killough McClafferty

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 133-149) and index

illustrations

index present

Ages 8 to 12

Grade 4 to 6

non fiction

Buried lives

bibliography

978250509

by Carla Killough McClafferty

the enslaved people of George Washington's Mount Vernon

"When he was eleven years old, George Washington inherited ten human beings. The life of the first president has been well chronicled, but the lives of the people of color he owned--the people who sustained his plantation and were buried in unmarked graves there--have not. Using fascinating primary source material and photographs of historical artifacts, author Carla Killough McClafferty sheds light on the lives of several of the men and women enslaved by the Washington family: talented people like Caroline, an expert seamstress, and Peter Hardiman, a gifted horseman, who married and raised a family on the plantation. Determined people like Ona Maria Judge, who tended to Martha Washington's needs day and night, but who still managed, one fateful day, to slip away and sail to freedom. McClafferty also explains in clear terms the property laws of the day that complicated George Washington's eventual decision to free the people he owned, and the modern-day archaeological survey at Mount Vernon's Slave Cemetery that is uncovering new information about a burial ground that was nearly forgotten to time"--Page [2] of cover

William Lee - Christopher Sheels -- Caroline (Branham) & Peter Hardiman -- Ona Maria Judge -- Hercules -- The end of an era -- And then what happened? -- Buried lives -- Washington's own words about slavery

pre adolescent