Edited by Azizi Powell
This pancocojams post presents some information about United States presidents who owned slaves.
This post also presents information about a paper George Washington wrote in 1799 which listed the names of slaves he owned and slaves he managed for a woman he knew.
This post also includes a sub-set of names from that 1799 list that surprised me because they appeared so contemporary and don't fit the stereotype I learned about what names enslaved people in the United States would have had.
The content of this post is presented for historical and onomastic purposes.
All copyright remains with their owners.
Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post.
RIP all those who have ever been enslaved.
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INFORMATION ABOUT UNITED STATES
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_presidents_of_the_United_States_who_owned_slaves
"This is a list of presidents of the United States who owned slaves. Slavery in the United States was legal from its beginning as a nation, having been practiced in North America from early colonial days. The Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution formally abolished slavery, though the practice effectively ended only after the end of the American Civil War. In total, twelve presidents owned slaves at some point in their lives, eight of whom owned slaves while serving as president. George Washington was the first president to own slaves, including while he was president. Zachary Taylor was the last president to own slaves during his presidency, and Ulysses S. Grant was the last president to have owned a slave at some point in his life.
Slave owning was common among early presidents; of the first twelve, only John Adams (2) and his son John Quincy Adams (6) never owned slaves, although two of the others (Martin Van Buren and William Henry Harrison) did not own slaves while serving as president.
The U.S. president who owned the most slaves was Thomas Jefferson, with 600+ slaves,[1] followed by George Washington, with 200 slaves. The presidents who owned the fewest slaves were Martin van Buren and Ulysses S. Grant, with one slave each.
Presidents who owned slaves
[reformatted from a chart]
1st President - George Washington
Approximate number of slaves - 317
held slaves while in office - Yes (1789–1797)
Notes: Washington was a major slaveholder before, during, and after his presidency. His will freed his slaves pending the death of his widow, though she freed his slaves within a year of his death. See George Washington and slavery for more details."...
-snip-
From https://www.mountvernon.org/george-washington/slavery/ten-facts-about-washington-slavery/
Despite having been an active slave holder for 56 years, George Washington struggled with the institution of slavery and spoke frequently of his desire to end the practice. At the end of his life, Washington made the decision to free all his slaves in his 1799 will - the only slave-holding Founding Father to do so."...
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INFORMATION ABOUT THE 1799 PAPER WHICH LISTED NAMES OF GEORGE WASHINGTON'S SLAVES
[extracted from] “Washington’s Slave List, June 1799,” Founders Online, National Archives, accessed September 29, 2019, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/06-04-02-0405. [Original source: The Papers of George Washington, Retirement Series, vol. 4, 20 April 1799 – 13 December 1799, ed. W. W. Abbot. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1999, pp. 527–542.]
“Washington’s Slave List, June 1799
[June 1799]
Editorial Note
The list of Mount Vernon slaves which GW drew up, probably some time in June 1799, included those slaves owned by him outright, those who were controlled by him as part of Martha Washington’s dowry, and a number who were rented by him in 1786 by contract with Mrs. Penelope French at the time he acquired her life rights to land that she owned on Dogue Run.
The slaves Washington owned in his own right came from several sources. He was left eleven slaves by his father’s will; a portion of his half brother Lawrence Washington’s slaves, about a dozen in all, were willed to him after the death of Lawrence’s infant daughter and his widow; and Washington purchased from time to time slaves for himself, mostly before the Revolution.
Washington also hired for varying periods of time individual slaves, usually skilled artisans, from neighbors and acquaintances. These do not appear on this slave list."...
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NAMES I WAS SURPRISED TO FIND IN A 1799 PAPER LISTING THE NAMES OF GEORGE WASHINGTON'S SLAVES
I have to admit that more than I realized I had accepted the stereotypical version of slavery in the United States that I had been taught and was socialized by movies, books, and television to believe that all Black slaves had names like "Sambo", "Sukey", "Juba", and "Jemima". (Each of these names are on Washington's 1799 list).
Other names have connotations of being proper or elite which don't conform to the stereotyped image of enslaved Black people in the United States.
In that mass media promulgated version of slavery in the United States names such as "Roger", "Jonathan", "Daphne", and "Sophia" (which are also on George Washington's 1799 list) seem incongruous.
Here are the names that surprised me from that 1799 list of George Washington's slaves (given in alphabetical order) :
MALE NAMES:
Ambrose
Anderson
Billy
Charles
Christopher
Elias
Gabriel
Gunner
Guy
Israel
Isaac
James
Jonathan
Julius
Lawrence
London
Morgan
Paschall
Paul
Richmond
Roger
Simon
Spencer
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FEMALE NAMES:
Agnes
Bette Davis
Cecilia
Cornelia
Daphne
Diana
Felicia
Grace
Judy
Julia
Lucretia
Lydia
Maria
Matilda
Priscilla
Rachel
Sophia
Click these pancocojams posts for a complete lists of names from that 1799 paper:
https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2020/02/names-of-enslaved-black-people-on.html
https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2020/02/names-of-enslaved-black-people-on_18.html
Also, click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2020/02/africanarabic-names-other-non-standard.html for a pancocojams post entitled "African & Arabic Names & Other "Non-Standard American" Names In George Washington's 1799 Paper That Lists Names Of His Slaves".
You may not agree that some (or all) of these names are surprising or there may be other names on those lists that surprise you as being "slave names"..
Needless to say, regardless of their names, slavery is an absolutely awful institution for anyone, regardless of their names. Rest in peace (or happier reincarnations) to all those who are listed in that paper and all to people in history who were ever enslaved.
And click https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-36416751 for a BBC article entitled "What does modern slavery look like?"
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