Information about Martha Washington

Martha Dandridge Custis Washington
Martha Washington
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Spouse	Daniel Parke Custis (1749-1757) George Washington (1759-1799)
Relations	John Dandridge and Francis Jones
Children	Daniel Custis, Francis, Jacky, Patsy
Occupation	First Lady of the United States

Martha Dandridge Custis Washington (June 2, 1731 – May 22, 1802) was the wife of George Washington, the first president of the United States. Although the title was not coined until after her death, Martha Washington is considered as the first First Lady of the United States. During her lifetime, she was simply known as "Lady Washington".

Biography

Born on her parents' Chestnut Grove Plantation in New Kent County near Williamsburg, Virginia on June 2, 1731 between midnight and 1, Martha ("Patsy") Dandridge was the eldest daughter of Virginia planter John Dandridge (1700–1756) and Francis Jones (1710-1785) [1] [2].

At the age of 18, she married Daniel Parke Custis, a rich bachelor two decades her senior. They lived together at White House Plantation on the south shore of the Pamunkey River, a few miles upriver from Chestnut Grove. She had four children by Custis. A son and a daughter, Daniel (1751-1754) and Frances (1753-1757), died in childhood, but two other children, John (Jacky) Parke Custis (1754-1781) and Martha ("Patsy") Parke Custis (1756-1773) survived to young adulthood. Custis' death in 1757 left Martha a rich widow, with independent control over a dower inheritance for her lifetime and trustee control over the inheritance of her minor children.

Martha D. Custis married Colonel George Washington on January 6, 1759. Shortly after they were married, he left the colonial arm of the British military due to the British policy denying colonials command opportunities with the regular British army. They lived a prosperous and apparently happy life at Washington's Mount Vernon estate. Martha and George Washington had no children together, but they raised Martha's two surviving children. John Parke Custis served as an aide to Washington during the siege of Yorktown in 1781. During this service, Jack died, probably of typhus. After his death, the Washingtons raised two of his children, Martha's youngest grandchildren, Eleanor Parke Custis (March 31, 1779 - July 15, 1852), and George Washington Parke Custis (April 30, 1781 - October 10, 1857). They also provided personal and financial support to nieces, nephews and other family members in both the Dandridge and Washington families.

Content to live a private life at Mount Vernon and her homes from the Custis estate, Martha Washington nevertheless followed Washington into the battlefield when he served as Commander in Chief of the American Army. She spent the infamous winter at Valley Forge with the General, and was instrumental in maintaining some level of morale among officers and enlisted troops. She opposed his election as President of the newly formed United States of America, and refused to attend the inauguration (April 30, 1789), but gracefully fulfilled her duties as the official state hostess during their two terms.

Martha Washington and her husband died at Mount Vernon. She was buried on May 22, 1802 at Mount Vernon. In 1831, her remains were moved from their original burial site a few hundred feet to a brick tomb that overlooks the Potomac River.

Martha Washington and slavery

Martha Washington was raised in a time when chattel slavery was an economic reality for elite southern white families. She never questioned the ethical and moral foundations of the "southern institution." Under English common law, Martha received the use of and income from one third of Daniel Parke Custis' extensive estate during her lifetime. The estate contained a number of plantations and farms, and many enslaved men, women, and children attached to those holdings. Upon his marriage to Martha, George Washington became the legal manager of the Custis estate, under court oversight. In actuality, estate records indicate Martha Washington continued to make many decisions. Although the Washingtons wielded managerial control and received income from the estate, they could not sell Custis land or slaves, which were entailed to Martha's son, John ("Jacky") Custis.

Martha Washington was personally upset when her personal lady's maid Oney Judge, a slave girl of the Custis estate, fled the first family's Philadelphia household during President Washington's second term. Oney Judge hid with free black friends in the city, and then traveled to the north. Patricia Brady, in her 2005 biography of Martha Washington, writes:

"Martha felt a responsibility for the unsophisticated girl under her care, especially since her mother and sister were expecting to see her back at Mount Vernon. What she could never understand was that (Oney had)...a simple desire to be free. Ona, as she preferred to call herself, wanted to live where she pleased, do what work she pleased, and learn to read and write . . . Ona Judge professed a great regard for Martha and the way she had been treated, but she couldn't face a future as a slave for herself and her children." (Brady, p. 209)

During the Washington family's last week in Philadelphia, their chief cook Hercules also fled slavery, leaving a daughter at Mount Vernon who told a visitor that she was glad her father was free.

Historian Henry Wiencek, in his award-winning 2004 book "An Imperfect God: George Washington, His Slaves, and the Creation of America", citing original documents he discovered in the files of Mount Vernon and the Virginia Historical Society, writes that Martha Washington owned her own mulatto half-sister, a slave named Ann Dandridge, who had a child by Martha's son (and therefore Ann's nephew), John Parke "Jack" Custis. According to Wiencek, this incident was among several that led George Washington to call slavery repugnant, and probably influenced Washington's decision late in life to free all his slaves. Another source on the existence of a slave named Ann Dandridge was Helen Bryan's 2001 "Martha Washington: First Lady of Liberty." In this book, which draws upon Wiencek's research, Bryan stated that the "shadow sister" was close to Martha's age and had been with her since they were children.

Wiencek writes that previous historians ignored the documentary evidence that this sister existed. In a brief bibliographical note at the end of her book (page 256), Patricia Brady denies the existence of Martha Washington's half sister and asserts that Wiencek and Bryan accepted "family mythology" and "lore." Brady does not offer a review of the documentary evidence discovered by Wiencek in the Virginia Historical Society and in the Washington, D.C., archives where Ann Dandridge's manumission is recorded--Land Records, Liber H., #8, p. 382; Liber R, #17, p. 288. In assessing the documents that have survived on this question, Wiencek notes that Ann Dandridge was omitted from the Custis estate records and the records of slaves at Mt. Vernon. Having studied plantation families for many years, Wiencek observes that family ties between slaves and slave owners were often kept hidden.

The Custis estate

Some of the estate left by Daniel Parke Custis to his descendants was eventually confiscated from George Washington Parke Custis' son-in-law, Robert E. Lee during the Civil War. The property later became Arlington National Cemetery. In 1882, after many years in the lower courts, the matter of the ownership of Arlington National Cemetery was brought before the United States Supreme Court. The Court affirmed a Circuit Court decision that the property in question rightfully belonged to the Lee family. The United States Congress then appropriated the sum of $150,000 for the purchase of the property from the Lee Family.

Washington

Mrs. Washington had a row galley named in her honor, the USS Lady Washington. It holds the distinction of being the first U.S. military ship to be named in honor of a woman and for a vessel named while the person was still alive (see also List of U.S. military vessels named after living Americans). It has a number of other distinctions as well, as the first ship named after a (future) First Lady and the only known active vessel in the U.S. Navy named in honor of a woman (as of 2005).

U.S. Postage Stamp

In 1902 Martha Washington became the first American woman to be commemorated by a U.S. postage stamp. It was an 8 cent stamp. In 1923, a second stamp was issued in her honor, a 4 cent. The third Martha Washington 1 1/2 cent stamp was issued in 1938.

Appearance on U.S. Currency

Martha Washington is the only woman whose portrait has appeared on a U.S. currency note. It appeared on the face of the $1 Silver Certificate of 1886 and 1891, and the back of the $1 Silver Certificate of 1896.

First Spouse Coin

The First Spouse Program under the Presidential $1 Coin Act authorizes the United States Mint to issue 1/2 ounce $10 gold coins to honor the first spouses of the United States. Martha Washington's coin was released on June 19, 2007, and sold out in just hours.

Obverse

Reverse

References

• Brady, Patricia. "Martha Washington: An American Life." Viking/Penquin Group, New York, New York, 2005. ISBN 0-670-03430-4.
• Wiencek, Henry. "An Imperfect God: George Washington, His Slaves, and the Creation of America." Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York, hardbound edition 2003, paperback edition 2004. ISBN 0-374-52951-5.

External links

• Martha Washington at findagrave
• White House biography
• Biography from National First Ladies Library

Honorary titles
Preceded by None	First Lady of the United States 1789–1797	Succeeded by Abigail Adams

•  • [ e] First Ladies of the United States

M. Washington A. Adams M. Jefferson Randolph D. Madison E. Monroe L. Adams E. Donelson S. Jackson A. Van Buren A. Harrison J. Harrison L. Tyler P. Tyler J. Tyler S. Polk M. Taylor A. Fillmore J. Pierce H. Lane M. Lincoln E. Johnson J. Grant L. Hayes L. Garfield M. McElroy R. Cleveland F. Cleveland C. Harrison M. McKee F. Cleveland I. McKinley Edith Roosevelt H. Taft Ellen Wilson Edith Wilson F. Harding G. Coolidge L. Hoover E. Roosevelt B. Truman M. Eisenhower J. Kennedy C. Johnson P. Nixon B. Ford R. Carter N. Reagan B. Bush H. Clinton L. Bush