WHITE SERVANTS AND OVERSEERS
In colonial Virginia, as in most other new countries, one of the
greatest problems that confronted the settlers was that of labor. It
took human muscle to clear away the forest and tend the crops, and the
quantity of human muscle available was small. One solution of the
problem was the importation of black slaves, and of this solution as it
concerned Washington something will be said in a separate chapter.
Another solution was the white indentured servant.
Some of these white servants were political offenders, such as the
followers of Monmouth, who were punished by transportation for a term of
years or for life to the plantations. Others were criminals or
unfortunate debtors who were sold in America instead of being sent to
jail. Others were persons who had been kidnapped and carried across the
sea into servitude. Yet others were men and women who voluntarily bound
themselves to work for a term of years in payment of their passage to
the colonies. By far the largest number of the white servants in
Washington's day belonged to this last-mentioned class, who were often
called "redemptioners." Some of these were ambitious, well-meaning
people, perhaps skilled artisans, who after working out their time
became good citizens and often prospered. A few were even well educated.
In favor of the convicts, however, little could be said. In general they
were ignorant and immoral and greatly lowered the level of the
population in the Southern States, the section to which most of them
were sent.
Whether they came to America of their own free will or not such servants
were subjected to stringent regulations and were compelled to complete
their terms of service. If they ran away, they could be pursued and
brought back by force, and the papers of the day were full of
advertisements for such absconders. Owing to their color and the ease
with which they found sympathizers among the white population, however,
the runaways often managed to make good their escape.
To give a complete list of Washington's indentured servants, even if it
were possible, would be tedious and tiresome. For the most part he
bought them in order to obtain skilled workmen. Thus in 1760 we find him
writing to a Doctor Ross, of Philadelphia, to purchase for him a joiner,
a brick-layer and a gardener, if any ship with servants was in port. As
late as 1786 he bought the time of a Dutchman named Overdursh, who was a
ditcher and mower, and of his wife, a spinner, washer and milker; also
their daughter. The same year he "received from on board the Brig Anna,
from Ireland, two servant men for whom I agreed yesterday--viz--Thomas
Ryan, a shoemaker, and Cavan Bowen a Tayler Redemptioners for 3 years
service by Indenture." These cost him twelve pounds each. The story of
his purchase of servants for his western lands is told in another place,
as is also that of his plan to import Palatines for the same purpose.
On the day of Lexington and Concord, but before the news of that
conflict reached Virginia, two of his indentured servants ran away and
he published a lengthy advertisement of them in the Virginia _Gazette_,
offering a reward of forty dollars for the return of both or twenty
dollars for the return of either. They were described as follows:
"THOMAS SPEARS, a joiner, born in _Bristol_, about 20 years of age, 5
feet 6 inches and a half high, slender made. He has light grey or
blueish colored eyes, a little pock-marked, and freckled, with sandy
colored hair, cut short; his voice is coarse, and somewhat drawling. He
took with him a coat, waistcoat, and breeches, of light brown duffil,
with black horn buttons, a light colored cloth waistcoat, old leather
breeches, check and oznabrig shirts, a pair of old ribbed ditto, new
oznabrig trowsers, and a felt hat, not much the worse for wear. WILLIAM
WEBSTER, a brick maker, born in _Scotland_, and talks pretty broad. He
is about 5 feet six inches high and well made, rather turned of 30, with
light brown hair, and roundish face.... They went off in a small yawl,
with turpentine sides and bottom, the inside painted with a mixture of
tar and red lead."
In the course of his business career Washington also employed a
considerable number of free white men, who likewise were usually skilled
workers or overseers. He commonly engaged them for the term of one year
and by written contracts, which he drew up himself, a thing he had
learned to do when a boy by copying legal forms. Many of these papers
still survive and contracts with joiners and gardeners jostle inaugural
addresses and opinions of cabinet meetings.
As a rule the hired employees received a house, an allowance of corn,
flour, meat and perhaps other articles, the money payment being
comparatively small.
Some of the contracts contain peculiar stipulations. That with a certain
overseer provided: "And whereas there are a number of whiskey stills
very contiguous to the said Plantations, and many idle, drunken and
dissolute People continually resorting the same, priding themselves in
debauching sober and well-inclined Persons the said Edd. Voilett doth
promise as well for his own sake as his employers to avoid them as
he ought."
Probably most readers have heard of the famous contract with the
gardener Philip Bater, who had a weakness for the output of stills such
as those mentioned above. It was executed in 1787 and, in consideration
of Bater's agreement "not to be disguised with liquor except on times
hereinafter mentioned," provided that he should be given "four dollars
at Christmas, with which he may be drunk four days and four nights; two
dollars at Easter to effect the same purpose; two dollars at
Whitsuntide to be drunk for two days; a dram in the morning, and a drink
of grog at dinner at noon."
Washington's most famous white servant was Thomas Bishop, who figures in
some books as a negro. He had been the personal servant of General
Braddock, and tradition says that the dying General commended him to
Washington. At all events Washington took him into his service at ten
pounds per year and, except for a short interval about 1760, Bishop
remained one of his retainers until death. It was Bishop and John Alton
who accompanied Washington on his trip to New York and Boston in
1756--that trip in the course of which, according to imaginative
historians, the young officer became enamored of the heiress Mary
Phillipse. Doubtless the men made a brave show along the way, for we
know that Washington had ordered for them "2 complete livery suits for
servants; with a spare cloak and all other necessary trimmings for two
suits more. I would have you choose the livery by our arms, only as the
field of arms is white, I think the clothes had better not be quite so,
but nearly like the inclosed. The trimmings and facings of scarlet, and
a scarlet waist coat. If livery lace is not quite disused, I should be
glad to have the cloaks laced. I like that fashion best, and two silver
laced hats for the above servants."
When the Revolution came Bishop was too old to take the field and was
left at home as the manager of a plantation. He was allowed a house, for
he had married and was now the father of a daughter. He lived to a great
age, but on fair days, when the Farmer was at home, the old man always
made it a point to grasp his cane and walk out to the road to see his
master ride by, to salute him and to pass a friendly word. He seems to
have thought of leaving Mount Vernon with his daughter in 1794, for the
President wrote to Pearce: "Old Bishop must be taken care of whether he
goes or stays." He died the following January, while Washington was away
in Philadelphia.
Custis tells an amusing story of Bishop's daughter Sally. Following the
Revolution two of Washington's aides-de-camp, Colonels Smith and
Humphreys, the latter a poet of some pretensions, spent considerable
time at Mount Vernon arranging the General's military papers. One
afternoon Smith strolled out from the Mansion House for relaxation and
came upon Sally, then in her teens and old enough to be interesting to
a soldier, milking a cow. When she started for the house with the pail
of milk the Colonel gallantly stepped forward and asked to be permitted
to carry it. But Sally had heard from her father dire tales of what
befell damsels who had anything to do with military men and the fact
that Smith was a fine-looking young fellow in no way lessened her sense
of peril. In great panic she flung down the pail, splashing the contents
over the officer, and ran screaming to the house. Smith followed, intent
upon allaying her alarm and ran plump into old Bishop, who at once
accused him of attempting to philander with the girl, turned a deaf ear
to all the Colonel's explanations, and declared that he would bring word
of the offense to his honor the General, nay more, to Mrs. Washington!
In great alarm the Colonel betook himself toward the Mansion House
pondering upon some way of getting himself out of the scrape he had
fallen into. At last he bethought himself of Billy Lee, the mulatto body
servant, and these two old soldiers proceeded to hold a council of war.
Smith said: "It's bad enough, Billy, for this story to get to the
General's ears, but to those of the lady will never do; and then
there's Humphreys, he will be out upon me in a d--d long poem that will
spread my misfortunes from Dan to Beersheba!" At last it was decided
that Billy should act as special ambassador to Bishop and endeavor to
divert him from his purpose. Meanwhile Bishop had got out his old
clothes--Cumberland cocked hat and all--of the period of the French War,
had dressed with great care and, taking up his staff, had laid his line
of march straight to the Mansion House. Billy met him midway upon the
road and much skirmishing ensued, Billy taking two lines of attack:
first, that Smith was a perfect gentleman, and, second, that Bishop had
no business to have such a devilishly pretty daughter. Finally these
tactics prevailed, Bishop took the right about, and a guinea dropped
into the ambassador's palm completed the episode.
In due time Sally lost her dreadful fear of men and married the
plantation carpenter, Thomas Green, with whose shiftless ways, described
elsewhere, Washington put up for a long time for the sake of "his
family." Ultimately Green quitted Washington's service and seems to have
deserted his wife or else died; at all events she and her family were
left in distressed circumstances. She wrote a letter to Washington
begging assistance and he instructed his manager to aid her to the
extent of £20 but to tell her that if she set up a shop in Alexandria,
as she thought of doing, she must not buy anything of his negroes. He
seems to have allowed her a little wood, flour and meat at killing time
and in 1796 instructed Pearce that if she and her family were really in
distress, as reported, to afford them some relief, "but in my opinion it
had better be in anything than money, for I very strongly suspect that
all that has, and perhaps all that will be given to her in that article,
is applied more in rigging herself, than in the purchase of real and
useful necessaries for her family."
By his will Washington left Sally Green and Ann Walker, daughter of John
Alton, each one hundred dollars in "consideration of the attachment of
their father[s] to me."
Alton entered Washington's service even before Bishop, accompanying him
as a body servant on the Braddock campaign and suffering a serious
illness. He subsequently was promoted to the management of a plantation
and enjoyed Washington's confidence and esteem. It was with a sad heart
that Washington penned in his diary for 1785: "Last night Jno. Alton an
Overseer of mine in the Neck--an old & faithful Servant who has lived
with me 30 odd years died--and this evening the wife of Thos. Bishop,
another old Servant who had lived with me an equal number of years
also died."
The adoption of Mrs. Washington's two youngest grandchildren, Nelly
Custis and George Washington Custis, made necessary the employment of a
tutor. One applicant was Noah Webster, who visited Mount Vernon in 1785,
but for some reason did not engage. A certain William Shaw had charge
for almost a year and then in 1786 Tobias Lear, a native of New
Hampshire and a graduate of Harvard, was employed. It is supposed that
some of the lessons were taught in the small circular building in the
garden; Washington himself refers to it as "the house in the Upper
Garden called the School house."
Lear's duties were by no means all pedagogical and ultimately he became
Washington's private secretary. In Philadelphia he and his family lived
in the presidential mansion. Washington had for him "a particular
friendship," an almost fatherly affection. His interest in Lear's little
son Lincoln was almost as great as he would have bestowed upon his own
grandson. Apropos of the recovery of the child from a serious illness he
wrote in 1793: "It gave Mrs. Washington, myself, and all who knew him
sincere pleasure to hear that our little favourite had arrived safe and
was in good health at Portsmouth--we sincerely wish him a long
continuance of the latter--that he may be always as charming and
promising as he now is--that he may live to be a comfort and blessing to
you--and an ornament to his Country. As a token of my affection for him
I send him a ticket in the lottery that's now drawing in the Federal
City; if it should be his fortune to draw the Hotel, it will add to the
pleasure I feel in giving it."
Truly a rather singular gift for a child, we would think in these days.
Let us see how it turned out. The next May Washington wrote to Lear,
then in Europe on business for the Potomac Navigation Company, of which
he had become president: "Often, through the medium of Mr. Langdon, we
hear of your son Lincoln, and with pleasure, that he continues to be the
healthy and sprightly child he formerly was. He declared if his ticket
should turn up a prize, he would go and live in the Federal City. He did
not consider, poor little fellow, that some of the prizes would hardly
build him a baby house nor foresee that one of these small tickets would
be his lot, having drawn no more than ten dollars."
Lear's first wife had died the year before of yellow fever at the
President's house in Philadelphia, and for his second he took the widow
of George A. Washington--Fanny--who was a niece of Martha Washington,
being a daughter of Anna Dandridge Bassett and Colonel Burwell Bassett.
This alliance tended to strengthen the friendly relations between Lear
and the General. In Washington's last moments Lear held his dying hand
and later penned a noble description of the final scene that reveals a
man of high and tender sentiments with a true appreciation of his
benefactor's greatness. Washington willed him the use of three hundred
sixty acres east of Hunting Creek during life. When Fanny Lear died,
Lear married Frances Dandridge Henley, another niece of Mrs. Washington.
Lear's descendants still own a quilt made by Martha Washington and given
to this niece.
During part at least of Washington's absence in the French war his
younger brother John Augustine, described in the General's will as "the
intimate friend of my ripened age," had charge of his business affairs
and resided at Mount Vernon. The relations with this brother were
unusually close and Washington took great interest in John's eldest son
Bushrod, who studied law and became an associate justice of the Federal
Supreme Court. To Bushrod the General gave his papers, library, the
Mansion House Farm and other land and a residuary share in the estate.
I am inclined to believe that during 1757-58 John Augustine did not have
charge, as Mount Vernon seems to have been under the oversight of a
certain Humphrey Knight, who worked the farm on shares. He was evidently
a good farmer, for in 1758 William Fairfax, who kept a friendly eye upon
his absent neighbor's affairs, wrote: "You have some of the finest
Tobacco & Corn I have seen this year," The summer was, however,
exceedingly dry and the crop was good in a relative sense only. Knight
tried to keep affairs in good running order and the men hard at work,
reporting "as to ye Carpentrs I have minded em all I posably could, and
has whipt em when I could see a fault." Knight died September 9, 1758, a
few months before Washington's marriage.
Washington's general manager during the Revolution was Lund Washington,
a distant relative. He was a man of energy and ability and retired
against protests in 1785. Unfortunately not much of the correspondence
between the two has come down to us, as Lund destroyed most of the
General's letters. Why he did so I do not know, though possibly it was
because in them Washington commented freely about persons and sections.
In one that remains, for example, written soon after his assumption of
command at Cambridge, the General speaks disparagingly of some New
England officers and says of the troops that they may fight well, but
are "dirty fellows." When the British visited Mount Vernon in 1781 Lund
conciliated them by furnishing them provisions, thereby drawing down
upon himself a rebuke from the owner, who said that he would rather have
had his buildings burned down than to have purchased their safety in
such a way. Nevertheless the General appreciated Lund's services and the
two always remained on friendly terms.
Lund was succeeded by Major George Augustine Washington, son of the
General's brother Charles. From his youth George Augustine had attached
himself to his uncle's service and fought under him in the Revolution,
a part of the time on the staff of Lafayette. The General had a strong
affection for him and in 1784 furnished him with money to take a trip to
the West Indies for his health. Contrary to expectations, he improved,
married Fanny Bassett, and for several years resided at Mount Vernon.
But the disease, consumption, returned and, greatly to his uncle's
distress, he died in 1792. Washington helped to care for the widow until
she became the wife of Tobias Lear.
Two other nephews, Robert Lewis and Howell Lewis, were in turn for short
intervals in charge of affairs, but presently the estate was committed
to the care of an Englishman named Anthony Whiting, who was already
overseer of two of the farms. Like his predecessor he was a victim of
consumption and died in June, 1793. Washington showed him great
kindness, repeatedly urging him not to overexert, to make use of wines,
tea, coffee and other delicacies that had been sent for the use of
guests. As Whiting was also troubled with rheumatism, the President
dropped affairs of state long enough to write him that "Flannel next the
skin [is] the best cure for, & preventative of the Rheumatism I have
ever tried." Yet after Whiting's death the employer learned that he had
been deceived in the man--that he "drank freely--kept bad company at my
house in Alexandria--and was a very debauched person."
William Pearce, who followed Whiting, came from the eastern shore of
Maryland, where he owned an estate called "Hopewell." His salary was a
hundred guineas a year. A poor speller and grammarian, he was
nevertheless practical and one of the best of all the managers. He
resigned in 1797 on account of rheumatism, which he thought would
prevent him from giving business the attention it deserved. Washington
parted from him with much regret and gave him a "certificate" in which
he spoke in the most laudatory terms of his "honesty, sobriety industry
and skill" and stated that his conduct had given "entire satisfaction."
They later corresponded occasionally and exchanged farm and family news
in the most friendly way.
The last manager, James Anderson, was described by his employer as "an
honest, industrious and judicious Scotchman." His salary was one hundred
forty pounds a year. Though born in a country where slaves were unknown,
he proved adaptable to Virginia conditions and assisted the overseers
"in some chastisements when needful." As his employer retired from the
presidency soon after he took charge he had not the responsibility of
some who had preceded him, for Washington was unwilling to be reduced to
a mere cipher on his own estate. Seeing the great profusion of cheap
corn and rye, Anderson, who was a good judge of whisky, engaged the
General in a distillery, which stood near the grist mill. The returns
for 1798 were £344.12.7-3/4, with 755-1/4 gallons still unsold.
Washington's letters to his managers are filled with exhortations and
sapient advice about all manner of things. He constantly urged them to
avoid familiarities with the blacks and preached the importance of
"example," for, "be it good or bad," it "will be followed by all those
who look up to you.--Keep every one in their place, & to their duty;
relaxation from, or neglect in small matters, lead to like attempts in
matters of greater magnitude."
The absent owner was constantly complaining that his managers failed to
inform him about matters concerning which he had inquired. Hardly a
report reached him that did not fail to explain something in which he
was interested. This was one of the many disadvantages of farming at
long range.
In 1793 Washington described his overseers to Pearce, who was just
taking charge, in great detail. Stuart is competent, sober and
industrious, but talkative and conceited. "If he stirs early and works
late ... his talkativeness and vanity may be humored." Crow is active
and possessed of good judgment, but overly fond of "visiting and
receiving visits." McKoy is a "sickly, slothful and stupid fellow."
Butler, the gardener, may mean well, but "he has no more authority over
the Negroes he is placed over than an old woman would have." Ultimately
he dismissed Butler on this ground, but as the man could find no other
job he was forced to give him assistance. The owner's opinions of Davy,
the colored overseer at Muddy Hole Farm, and of Thomas Green, the
carpenter, are given elsewhere.
In the same letter he exhorted Pearce to see what time the overseers
"turn out of a morning--for I have strong suspicions that this, with
some of them, is at a late hour, the consequences of which to the
Negroes is not difficult to foretell. All these Overseers as you will
perceive by their agreements, which I here with send, are on standing
wages; and this with men who are not actuated by the principles of honor
or honesty, and not very regardful of their characters, leads naturally
to endulgences--as _their_ profits whatever may be _mine_, are the same
whether they are at a horse race or on the farm."
From the above it will appear that he did not believe that the overseers
were storing up any large treasury of good works. In the Revolution he
wrote that one overseer and a confederate, "I believe, divide the
profits of my Estate on the York River, tolerably between them, for the
devil of anything do I get." Later he approved the course of George A.
Washington in depriving an overseer of the privilege of killing four
shoats, as this gave him an excuse when caught killing a pig to say that
it was one of those to which he was entitled. Even when honest, the
overseers were likely to be careless. They often knew little about the
stock under their charge and in making their weekly reports would take
the number from old reports instead of actually making the count, with
the result that many animals could die or disappear long before those in
charge became aware of it.
[Illustration: Part of Manger's Weekly Report]
Washington's carpenters were mostly slaves, but he usually hired a
white man to oversee and direct them. In 1768, for example, he engaged
for this purpose a certain Jonathan Palmer, who was to receive forty
pounds a year, four hundred pounds of meat, twenty bushels of corn, a
house to live in, a garden, and also the right to keep two cows.
The carpenters were required not only to build houses, barns, sheds and
other structures, but also boats, and had to hew out or whipsaw many of
the timbers and boards used.
The carpenter whose name we meet oftenest was Thomas Green, who married
Sally Bishop. I have seen a contract signed by Green in 1786, by which
he was to receive annually forty-five pounds in Virginia currency, five
hundredweight of pork, pasture for a cow, and two hundred pounds of
common flour. He also had the right to be absent from the plantation
half a day in every month. He did not use these vacations to good
advantage, for he was a drunken incompetent and tried Washington's
patience sorely. Washington frequently threatened to dismiss him and as
often relented and Green finally, in 1794, quit of his own accord,
though Washington thereafter had to assist his family.
The employment of white day labor at Mount Vernon was not extensive. In
harvest time some extra cradlers were employed, as this was a kind of
work at which the slaves were not very skilful. Payment was at the rate
of about a dollar a day or a dollar for cutting four acres, which was
the amount a skilled man could lay down in a day. The men were also
given three meals a day and a pint of spirits each. They slept in the
barns, with straw and a blanket for a bed. With them worked the
overseers, cutting, binding and setting up the sheaves in stools
or shocks.
Laziness in his employees gave our Farmer a vast deal of unhappiness. It
was an enemy that he fought longer and more persistently than he fought
the British. In his early career a certain "Young Stephens," son of the
miller, seems to have been his greatest trial. "Visited my Plantations,"
he confides to his diary. "Severely reprimanded young Stephens for his
Indolence, and his father for suffering it." "Visited my Quarters & ye
Mill according to custom found young Stephens absent." "Visited my
Plantations and found to my great surprise Stephens constantly at work."
"Rid out to my Plantn. and to my Carpenters. Found Richard Stephens hard
at work with an ax--very extraordinary this!"
To what extent the change proved permanent we do not know. But even
though the reformation was absolute, it mattered little, for each year
produces a new crop of lazybones just as it does "lambs" and "suckers."
Enough has been said to show that our Farmer was impatient, perhaps even
a bit querulous, but innumerable incidents prove that he was also
generous and just. Thus when paper currency depreciated to a low figure
he, of his own volition, wrote to Lund Washington that he would not hold
him to his contract, but would pay his wages by a share in the crops,
and this at a time when his own debtors were discharging their
indebtedness in the almost worthless paper.
If ever a square man lived, Washington was that man. He believed in the
Golden Rule and he practiced it--not only in church, but in business. It
was not for nothing that as a boy he had written as his one hundred
tenth "Rule of Civility": "Labor to keep alive in your Breast that
Little Spark of Celestial fire called Conscience."
In looking through his later letters I came upon one, dated January 7,
1796, from Pearce stating that Davenport, a miller whom Washington had
brought from Pennsylvania, was dead. He had already received six
hundred pounds of pork and more wages than were due him as advances for
the coming year. What should be done? asked the manager. "His Wife and
Children will be in a most Distressed Situation." As I examined the
papers that followed I said to myself: "I will see if I know what his
answer will be." I thought I did, and so it proved. Back from
Philadelphia came the answer:
"Altho' she can have no _right_ to the Meat, I would have none of it
taken from her.--You may also let her have middlings from the Mill,--and
until the house may become indispensably necessary for the succeeding
Miller, let her remain in it.--As she went from these parts she can have
no friends (by these I mean relations) where she is. If therefore she
wishes to return back to his, or her own relations, aid her in
doing so."
Not always were his problems so somber as this. Consider, for example,
the case of William M. Roberts, an employee who feared that he was about
to get the sack. "In your absence to Richmond," writes anxious William,
November 25, 1784, "My Wife & I have had a Most Unhappy falling out
Which I Shall not Trouble you with the Praticlers No farther than This.
I hapened To Git to Drinking one Night as She thought Two Much. & From
one Cros Question to a nother Matters weare Carred to the Langth it has
been. Which Mr. Lund Washington will Inform you For My part I am
Heartily Sorry in my Sole My Wife appares to be the Same & I am of a
pinion that We Shall Live More Happy than We have Don for the fewter."
In his dealings with servants Washington was sometimes troubled with
questions that worry us when we are trying to hire "Mary" or "Bridget."
Thus when Mrs. Washington's ill health necessitated his engaging in 1797
a housekeeper he made the following minute and anxious inquiries of
Bushrod Washington at Richmond concerning a certain Mrs. Forbes:
"What countrywoman is she?
"Whether Widow or Wife? if the latter
"Where her husband is?
"What family she has?
"What age she is?
"Of what temper?
"Whether active and spirited in the execution of her business?
"Whether sober and honest?
"Whether much knowledge in Cookery, and understands ordering and
setting out a Table?
"What her appearance is?
"With other matters which may occur to you to ask,--and necessary for me
to know.
"Mrs. Forbes will have a warm, decent and comfortable room to herself,
to lodge in, and will eat of the victuals of our Table, but not set at
it, at any time _with us_, be her appearance what it may, for if this
was _once admitted_, no line satisfactory to either party, perhaps,
could be drawn thereafter.--It might be well for me to know however
whether this was admitted at Govr. Brookes or not."
Considerate and just though he was, his deliberate judgment of servants
after a long and varied experience was that they are "necessary
plagues ... they baffle all calculation in the accomplishment of any
plan or repairs they are engaged in; and require more attention to and
looking after than can be well conceived."
Perhaps the soundest philosophy upon this trying and much debated
servant question is that of Miles Standish, who proceeded, however,
straightway to violate it.