Martha Washington - Half-sibling

Half-sibling

The writer Henry Wiencek, in his 2003 book An Imperfect God: George Washington, His Slaves, and the Creation of America, argues that Martha Washington owned a mulatto slave, Ann Dandridge, who was her half-sister. Dandridge had a child by Martha's son Jacky Custis. Wiencek bases his assertions on original documents he discovered in the files of Mount Vernon and the Virginia Historical Society. He says that previous historians ignored the documentary evidence that this half-sister existed, part of the silence about interracial relationships during the slave society. Wiencek believes this relationship was among the factors that led George Washington to call slavery "repugnant," and likely influenced Washington's decision late in life to free all his slaves.

Helen Bryan acknowledged Ann Dandridge and her relationship to Martha Dandridge in her 2001 Martha Washington: First Lady of Liberty, relying upon Wiencek's research. Bryan stated that the "shadow sister" was close to Martha's age and had been in the household with her since they were children.

In a brief bibliographical note at the end of her book (page 256), Brady denies the existence of Martha Washington's half-sister, and asserts that Wiencek and Bryan accepted "family mythology" and "lore" as fact. Brady does not offer a review of the documents which Wiencek used to assert the paternity of John Dandridge and relationship between Ann and Dandridge's legal children. 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.