The 85 dower slaves is a minimum number because the Custis Estate Inventory lists some women's names with the notation "& children," but not the number of children. See Edward Lawler Jr., "President's House Slavery by the Numbers,"Archived February 19, 2009, at the Wayback Machine from ushistory.org
Two 1840s interviews with Oney Judge, President's House, US History. In the interviews, her first name is spelled "O-N-A", but all prior references spell it "O-N-E-Y".
1788 amendment, President's House of Philadelphia, US History.org
"Washington's Runaway Slave", The Granite Freeman, Concord, New Hampshire (May 22, 1845); carried at President's House in Philadelphia, Independence Hall Association, accessed 11 February 2011
The numbers of people enslaved by Washington and Custis come from the 1799 Mount Vernon slave census.Archived April 27, 2005, at the Wayback Machine, George Washington Papers, University of Virginia Without documentation, the names of which dower slaves were distributed to which Custis grandchild have to be inferred by comparing names in Mount Vernon records with Custis family records. This has created a frustrating obstacle for genealogists and people researching their family history.
web.archive.org
The 85 dower slaves is a minimum number because the Custis Estate Inventory lists some women's names with the notation "& children," but not the number of children. See Edward Lawler Jr., "President's House Slavery by the Numbers,"Archived February 19, 2009, at the Wayback Machine from ushistory.org
The numbers of people enslaved by Washington and Custis come from the 1799 Mount Vernon slave census.Archived April 27, 2005, at the Wayback Machine, George Washington Papers, University of Virginia Without documentation, the names of which dower slaves were distributed to which Custis grandchild have to be inferred by comparing names in Mount Vernon records with Custis family records. This has created a frustrating obstacle for genealogists and people researching their family history.
