Archive · With the French army and fleet, 1781 to 1782
April 1781, with a later note
Lund Washington’s list: the seventeen who left Mount Vernon
Seventeen people went from Mount Vernon to the British warship Savage in April 1781. Lund Washington’s own note records which of them were taken back after Yorktown and at Philadelphia.
What it says, in plain language
Washington’s cousin and farm manager, Lund Washington, listed the seventeen men and women who went to HMS Savage when it came up the Potomac in April 1781, with ages and trades. Later he added a note: two women, Lucy and Esther, “were recovered after the siege of York”; four or five men were “recovered in Philadelphia”; and “The Genl.” paid salvage on Tom there. A week before the surrender, Washington’s stepson John Parke Custis, in camp before Yorktown, had searched and “not seen any belonging to him, the General or myself,” and described the dead and dying in the woods. Harry, listed here as a hostler about 40, told the British register in 1783 that he had left Washington about 1776; Deborah told it she had left about 1779. Both sailed free from New York in 1783.
What it adds to the boards
Board 2 says the After Orders of October 25, 1781, sent people “back into slavery.” This note is the record that Washington’s own household was among those who recovered people after Yorktown: Lucy and Esther, and possibly Thomas. The rest of the seven were retaken later in Philadelphia, most likely from a captured British vessel brought into that port in 1782. No letter or order in Washington’s own hand naming the people taken back at Yorktown has been found.
No image of the original is shown here yet. The list is reproduced on Mount Vernon’s website, at the link below; the image is theirs and is not copied here.
Transcription
List of the people who went to the British ship Savage, April 1781 (as transcribed by Mount Vernon and by the editors of the Papers of George Washington)
Peter. an old man. Lewis. an old man. Frank. an old man. Frederick. a man about 45 years old; an overseer and valuable. Gunner. a man about 45 years old; valuable, a Brick maker. Harry. a man about 40 years old, valuable, a Horseler. Tom, a man about 20 years old, stout and Healthy. Sambo. a man about 20 years old, stout and Healthy. Thomas. a lad about 17 years old, House servant. Peter. a lad about 15 years old, very likely. Stephen. a man about 20 years old, a cooper by trade. James. a man about 25 years old, stout and Healthy. Watty. a man about 20 years old, by trade a weaver. Daniel. a man about 19 years old, very likely. Lucy. a woman about 20 years old. Esther. a woman about 18 years old. Deborah. a woman about 16 years old.
Lund Washington’s later note on the list
Frederick, Frank, Gunner, Sambo, Thomas recovered in Philadelphia. Lucy, Esther were recovered after the siege of York. The Genl. pd. salvage on Tom, in Philadelphia but I cannot tell what it was. I pd. 12 Dollars expence on him from Philadelphia here.
Mount Vernon’s own transcription of the note reads the names differently: “Frederick, Frank, Gunner, Sambo, recovered in Philadelphia” and “Thomas, Lucy, Esther were recovered of the siege of Yorktown.” The two readings disagree about where Thomas was retaken.
John Parke Custis to Martha Washington, camp before Yorktown, October 12, 1781 (postscript)
please to inform Mr. Washington that I have made every possible Enquiry after his Negroes, but have not seen any belonging to him, the General or myself; I have heard that Ned is in York a pioneer; old Joe Rachier is in the Neighborhood; His Wife is dead, and I fear that most who left Us are not existing; the mortality that has taken place among the Wretches is really incredible. I have seen numbers lying dead in the Woods, and many so exhausted they cannot walk.
The list and note are given as the editors of the Papers of George Washington print them, with Mount Vernon’s variant reading noted; Custis’s postscript as transcribed by Mount Vernon.