Hubbry Logo
West FordWest FordMain
Open search
West Ford
Community hub
West Ford
logo
8 pages, 0 posts
0 subscribers
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Be the first to start a discussion here.
West Ford
West Ford
West Ford
View on Wikipedia
from Wikipedia

Portrait of West Ford in 1859, by Benson John Lossing

West Ford (c. 1784 – 1863) was the caretaker and manager of Mount Vernon, which had been the home of George Washington. Ford also founded Gum Springs, Virginia near Mount Vernon. He was a man of mixed-race, and recent DNA analysis shows that he is of Washington family descent.[1][2]

Ford was born on the Bushfield Plantation in Westmoreland County, Virginia, the son of a woman named Venus, who was classified as "mulatto" in the parlance of the time. Venus was held in bondage as a house slave by Washington's brother John Augustine Washington, and by John's wife Hannah.[3][4] The Ford family's oral history states that West Ford’s father was President Washington, and some historians who have addressed the matter believe that theory is possible, though not probable.[1][5][6]

In 1802, Ford moved to Mount Vernon, where President Washington had died in 1799. Ford became a free man about 1805. In 1833, he established the settlement of Gum Springs, which was the first African American settlement in Fairfax County, Virginia. He continued to work at nearby Mount Vernon until 1860, and returned to Mount Vernon when the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association brought him to the estate to care for him during his final illness and death, while the American Civil War was raging.[4]

Early life

[edit]

West Ford's exact birth date is unknown but Mary V. Thompson, Mount Vernon Research Historian, writes that the year was "about 1784".[7] West Ford's age has been recorded several times all with different dates in the range of 1784 to 1787.[8]

When John Augustine Washington died in 1787, he left Venus and her parents, Jenny and Billey, to his wife, Hannah. There was no mention of West in his will.[9] In Hannah's will, written in 1802, she specified:

[I]t is my most earnest wish and desire this lad West may be as soon as possible inoculated for the small pox, after which to be bound to a good tradesman until the age of 21 years, after which he is to be free the rest of his life.[10]

Major George W. Ford, a grandson of West Ford, stated in a 1937 article that his grandfather was a personal attendant of George Washington as a small boy and that Washington took him to church and on wagon rides.[1] West was taught to read, write and do arithmetic, which was against the law for slaves in Virginia. He was also taught the trade of carpentry.[11]

Photograph of pencil sketch likely commemorating West Ford's freedom circa 1805.[12] This cabinet card (a style of photograph) was donated to Mount Vernon in 1985.[13]

Moving to Mount Vernon, gaining freedom, inheriting land

[edit]

When Bushrod Washington—a judge on the U.S. Supreme Court who was the son of John and Hannah—inherited Mount Vernon upon the death of his uncle George, he brought his personal slaves with him including West Ford, Jenny (West’s grandmother), Venus (West’s mother), and Bettey (sister to West).[14]

Along with Ford's jobs of carpenter and gardener, he would become the main guardian of George Washington's tomb as many visitors were known to flock to his gravesite. West was granted his freedom around 1805.

Ford fathered four children—William, Daniel, Jane, and Julia—with his wife, Priscilla Ford, a free black woman from Alexandria. Their children were born free, and were educated on the Mount Vernon Plantation. When Bushrod Washington (nephew and heir to Mount Vernon after the death of Washington) died in 1829 without issue, he willed land to three of his nephews and a niece, also including Ford who was given 160 acres of land on Little Hunting Creek.[15][4] One of his grandsons was Major George W. Ford.[1]

Founding Gum Springs

[edit]

In 1833, Ford sold the land he inherited from Bushrod Washington, to buy a larger plot of 214 acres, located two miles north at Gum Springs Farm.[16] He divided his new land into four equal parcels for his children in 1857. At that time, Ford was the second richest free black farmer in Fairfax County, Virginia.

West Ford Historical Highway Marker, Gum Springs, Virginia. Photo by M. Hollis 2022.

Gum Springs Farm was the nucleus of a black community throughout the 19th century, a depot for blacks before and after the Civil War; Ford later became known as the "founder and father of Gum Springs". In view of its 1833 establishment, Gum Springs, Virginia is the oldest African American settlement in Fairfax County.[17] A Virginia State historical marker honoring Ford[18] was placed in Gum Springs on Fordson Road in June 2023.[19]

Later life

[edit]

West Ford was frequently highlighted in news publications during his tenure at Mount Vernon, making his private life a matter of public record. In 1850, two Virginia newspapers—the Alexandria Gazette and the Virginia Advertiser—carried articles describing his prestigious position and authority at Mount Vernon.[citation needed] Another article was written by Benson J. Lossing, who was a prolific and popular American historian and a personal friend of George Washington Parke Custis (grandson of Martha Washington and step-grandson of George). Lossing asked after his interview if he could sketch West's picture. West told him he needed to clean up a bit as, "Artists make colored folks look bad enough anyhow." After the sketch was finished, West signed his name with Lossing's pencil at the bottom of the drawing. Lossing submitted the article for print in the Harpers New Monthly Magazine.[20] This 1859 drawing can be seen at top right.

Linda Allen Hollis (in red) and other West Ford Descendants at Mount Vernon June 2025.


When the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association bought the Mount Vernon Plantation in 1858,[3][4] Ford became a valuable source of information about the original appearance of the estate in George Washington's day. He had managed the Mount Vernon estate during most of his adult life for George Washington’s heir Bushrod Washington, then for Bushrod’s heir John Augustine Washington II (grandson of George Washington’s brother John), and then for the latter’s son John Augustine Washington III. When Ford became ill in 1863, he was brought to Mount Vernon to be cared for by the Association. He died on July 20 of that year in the mansion house. His obituary appeared in the Alexandria Gazette Newspaper and read:

West Ford, an aged colored man, who has lived on the Mount Vernon estate the greater portion of his life, died yesterday afternoon at his home on the estate. He was, we hear, in his 79th year of his age. He was well known to most of our older citizens.[7][21]

Washington fatherhood controversy

[edit]
Photograph believed to be of Ford taken at Mount Vernon in 1858[22]

Descendants of Ford maintain, through their family's oral tradition, that George Washington was the father of West Ford.[1][23] They also have gathered documentation including historical accounts, scholarly works on Washington, last wills and testaments, drawings, tax records, census data, and personal letters.[24] The controversy about whether Washington was Ford's father first surfaced in 1940.[25][21][26] The Ford family's claim gained greater publicity after DNA tests carried out in 1999 lent support to the asserted connection between Thomas Jefferson and children born to his enslaved servant and companion Sally Hemings.[27]

Hannah and her enslaved maid, Venus, per Washington's diary, visited Mount Vernon, where George Washington was in residence, sometime between July 1784 and January 1785. It can be inferred that Venus was in George's company at least three recorded times from George's diary in 1785. The dates the brothers (George and John) were in each other's company are June 1785, October 1785, October 1786.[28] A detailed explanation on possible dates of interaction has been compiled and published by historian and author John Wayland.[29]

An argument against George Washington's paternity is that he fathered no children with Martha Washington.[3] As she bore four children in her previous marriage, some sources state that Washington was infertile, perhaps due to an early bout with smallpox or tuberculosis, though studies have shown that smallpox does not always cause sterility.[30] In a letter written in 1786 (West Ford's birth date is believed to be around 1784–1786) to a nephew, George Washington expressed his opinion that it was not because of himself that he was childless with his wife. The letter also stated that he had no biological children:

If Mrs. Washington should survive me there is moral certainty of my dying without issue, and should I be the longest liver, the matter in my opinion is almost as certain; for whilst I retain the reasoning faculties I shall never marry a girl and it is not probable th[a]t I should have children by a woman of an age suitable to my own should I be disposed to enter into a second marriage.

Some speculate that it was Martha Washington who could not conceive a child with her husband. Authors William Rasmussen and Robert Tilton have written that, "According to a tradition passed down in Masonic circles, Martha Washington would have needed some sort of corrective surgery in order to conceive additional children, after the birth of Patsy."[31][29] But regardless of whether Martha Washington could biologically have had children after her marriage to George, most historians believe that George could not, despite his own expressed opinion.[5]

DNA testing has not been carried out even though the family has asked for it to be conducted. In 1994, locks of hair supposedly from George Washington were given to the FBI for testing, but not enough DNA was recovered to make analysis possible.[32] In addition, West Ford's exact burial site is unknown. His family has stated that his body was placed in the old tomb of Washington upon his death and now it is thought his body was buried in Mount Vernon's Enslaved Burial Ground along with burials of perhaps 50 to 75 other individuals.[33] Without corroborating evidence including DNA, or favorable treatment to indicate a relationship, establishing a relationship between the two is challenging. Linda Allen Hollis, the Ford family's official chronicler, is conducting new DNA research and gathering information from extended family branches to help substantiate the claim that West Ford was the son of George Washington.[2][34] However if evidence was able to be found it still may be possible to discern if the two men were father and son.[32][35][36] According to Bushrod Washington biographer Gerard Magliocca, it is more logical that West Ford's father was one of the four Washington men who lived at Bushfield plantation when Ford's mother was there. (Bushfield is where West Ford grew up before moving to Mount Vernon in 1802.)[37]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
[edit]
Revisions and contributorsEdit on WikipediaRead on Wikipedia

West Ford

View on Grokipedia
from Grokipedia
West Ford (c. 1784 – July 20, 1863) was an African American man born into slavery at Bushfield Plantation in Westmoreland County, Virginia, who later labored at George Washington's Mount Vernon estate before gaining freedom and establishing the Gum Springs community for free Blacks in Fairfax County. The son of an enslaved woman named Venus, Ford was owned by members of the Washington family, including John Augustine Washington and Hannah Bushrod Washington, and was manumitted under the terms of Hannah's will in the early 1830s. After emancipation, he received over 100 acres of land from Bushrod Washington and worked as an overseer at Mount Vernon until around 1850, maintaining close ties to the estate. Ford's descendants have preserved an oral tradition asserting that George Washington was his biological father, stemming from alleged relations with Venus during Washington's visits to Bushfield, though no contemporary documentation supports this claim and the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association has found no corroborating evidence in primary records. This family narrative, passed down through multiple generations, contrasts with the absence of any mention in Washington's extensive correspondence or estate papers, and lacks genetic substantiation due to unavailable DNA from Washington himself. Despite the unverified paternity, Ford's life exemplifies transition from enslavement to landownership and community leadership, as he purchased additional property to found Gum Springs in 1833, a settlement that endured as a hub for free African Americans amid antebellum restrictions. His legacy includes eight children with Priscilla Bell and contributions to preserving Mount Vernon's grounds post-emancipation.

Early Life and Enslavement

Birth and Parentage Claims

West Ford was born in 1784 at Bushfield Plantation in , owned by —George Washington's younger brother—and his wife Hannah . His mother was an enslaved woman named Venus, documented in estate inventories as a skilled in spinning and weaving, who remained at Bushfield or related properties under the Washington family's control. No primary records specify Ford's exact birth date beyond the year 1784, nor do they name his father explicitly. Oral traditions preserved within Ford's descendants assert that fathered West Ford through a relationship with during one of Washington's visits to Bushfield. This narrative, first documented in family accounts in the late and publicized more widely in the 20th, emphasizes Ford's lighter complexion and preferential treatment later in life as circumstantial support. Proponents, including descendant organizations, have pursued DNA analysis comparing Ford lineage Y-chromosomes to those of Washington collateral relatives, citing preliminary similarities as suggestive, though not probative, evidence. Archival examinations by historians, drawing on Washington's diaries, letters, and estate records, yield no corroboration for the claim and highlight inconsistencies. Washington, aged 52 in 1784, resided primarily at and spent much of the early 1780s traveling for public duties, with documented visits to Bushfield limited and brief; 's documented presence there aligns with opportunities for liaisons involving other white overseers or residents, but Washington's correspondence evinces no such involvement. Furthermore, Washington emancipated several enslaved individuals in his 1799 will but provided no special provisions for Ford or , and his lifelong public image of marital fidelity to —bolstered by private letters—contradicts unsubstantiated affair allegations without contemporary witnesses or admissions. DNA efforts remain hampered by the lack of Washington's direct male-line descendants for definitive comparison, rendering family the sole basis for the paternity assertion amid a historical pattern of similar unsubstantiated claims about Founding Fathers.

Upbringing at Bushfield Plantation

West Ford was born circa 1784 at Bushfield Plantation in , a owned by —brother of —and his wife, Hannah Bushrod Washington. He grew up there under enslavement alongside his mother, , who served as a house slave, and his maternal grandparents, Billy and Jenny, also enslaved on the plantation. Hannah Washington's will, executed in 1801, included specific directives for Ford's welfare during his late adolescence: inoculation against and an to a tradesman until age 21, followed by . These measures reflect an atypical arrangement for an enslaved individual, positioning Ford for skilled labor and rather than lifelong field or domestic bondage. Oral traditions preserved by Ford's assert that, as a young child, he acted as a personal attendant to during the latter's visits to Bushfield from 1785 to 1791, joining him on wagon rides, hunts, and trips to Christ Church, though no contemporaneous confirm these interactions.

Career at Mount Vernon

Transfer to Mount Vernon

In 1802, following the death of George Washington in 1799, Bushrod Washington, nephew of the former president and son of John Augustine Washington, inherited the Mount Vernon estate. As the new proprietor, Bushrod relocated from Bushfield Plantation in Westmoreland County, Virginia, bringing several enslaved individuals with him, including the approximately 18-year-old West Ford. West Ford, who had been born into at Bushfield around 1784 to the enslaved woman , was transferred as part of this household move to provide continuity in labor and management at the estate. The transfer marked Ford's departure from the smaller Bushfield operation to the larger plantation, where he would remain for the majority of his life. No precise date for Ford's arrival at is documented, but it coincided with Bushrod Washington's assumption of control over the property in early 1802. This relocation integrated Ford into the enslaved community at , which numbered around 150 slaves retained from Washington's estate and additional laborers under Bushrod's ownership.

Responsibilities as Manager

West Ford served as the overseer and manager of starting around 1802, when inherited the estate from . In this position, he supervised the enslaved workforce, which numbered in the hundreds during the early , and directed plantation operations including crop cultivation, livestock management, and general maintenance of the grounds and buildings. Following his circa 1805, Ford retained his managerial duties under and later owners, including John Augustine Washington II and John Augustine Washington III, for over five decades until approximately 1863. His responsibilities encompassed ensuring the productivity of the estate's farms, coordinating labor assignments among enslaved individuals, and acting as a trusted intermediary between the owners—often absent due to legal or political commitments—and the on-site workforce. Ford's oversight extended to practical decisions on daily estate affairs, reflecting the confidence placed in him by the , as evidenced by his continued post-emancipation and letters documenting his communications with owners on matters. This granted him notable compared to typical overseers, allowing independent handling of routine while upholding the estate's operational continuity amid financial strains faced by the inheritors.

Path to Freedom and Property Ownership

Emancipation by Bushrod Washington

West Ford, born circa 1784 at Bushfield Plantation in , was enslaved by the Washington family, including , nephew of and heir to . In her 1801 will, Hannah Bushrod Washington—Bushrod's mother and West Ford's owner at Bushfield—stipulated that Ford be upon reaching the age of 21, reflecting his favored status within the family due to longstanding ties. This provision aligned with Virginia laws allowing under specific conditions, though enforcement depended on the executor. Bushrod Washington, who inherited in 1802 following Martha Washington's death, formally manumitted West Ford around 1805, when Ford turned approximately 21 years old. The manumission occurred after Ford had been transferred to in 1802 alongside other enslaved individuals from Bushfield, where he had served in various capacities. This act fulfilled Hannah's testamentary intent, granting Ford legal freedom while he continued residing and working at the estate in a supervisory role, indicative of the transitional arrangements common for manumitted individuals in early 19th-century plantations. Post-emancipation, Ford's status shifted from enslaved laborer to a compensated overseer, managing slaves and grounds at under Bushrod's direction until Bushrod's death in 1829. This arrangement underscores the pragmatic continuity in estate operations, as Ford's skills and familiarity with the property made him indispensable, despite his newfound liberty. No records indicate resistance or legal challenges to the , which proceeded smoothly within the familial and proprietary context of the Washington inheritance.

Inheritance of Land and Economic Independence

Upon the death of on September 26, 1829, his will bequeathed West Ford 119 acres of land along Hunting Creek in , adjacent to . This inheritance positioned Ford as one of the earliest documented free Black landowners in the region, granting him a measure of economic through direct amid Virginia's restrictive laws on free persons of color. By 1831, tax assessments recorded Ford and his son as substantial property holders, possessing not only the inherited acreage but also livestock including horses, mares, colts, and mules, as well as four-wheeled pleasure carriages and harnesses, indicative of diversified agricultural and personal assets. Ford maintained his role as manager at while leveraging the land for farming and self-sustenance, thereby achieving financial independence without reliance on wage labor alone. In 1833, Ford sold the original 119 acres to acquire 214 adjacent acres, expanding his holdings and subdividing portions—specifically four parcels of 52¾ acres each—for distribution to his children, which further solidified intergenerational . This strategic transaction, executed during a period of post-emancipation adjustment for free Blacks, underscored Ford's acumen in and his transition from custodial labor to proprietary enterprise.

Establishment of Gum Springs

Founding the Community

In 1829, following the death of Bushrod Washington, West Ford inherited approximately 160 acres of land adjoining Mount Vernon in Fairfax County, Virginia, which provided him with significant economic resources as a freedman. Ford subsequently sold this property and, in 1833, purchased a larger tract of 214 acres in the southeastern portion of Fairfax County, near what is now the city of Alexandria. This acquisition marked the establishment of Gum Springs, named for a prominent gum tree that served as a landmark on the site, and positioned the land as the foundational nucleus for a self-sustaining settlement. The community originated as Ford's personal homestead but rapidly evolved into a refuge for other freed , including former slaves and , whom Ford permitted to settle and build homes on portions of the property. This intentional development reflected Ford's status as one of the wealthiest Black landowners in at the time, enabling him to foster economic independence amid persistent legal restrictions on free Blacks under Virginia's antebellum laws. By providing for farming and basic shelter, Gum Springs became Fairfax County's earliest documented free Black community, predating broader emancipation efforts. Ford's oversight ensured the settlement's viability through and communal support, with early residents engaging in crop cultivation and small-scale enterprises to sustain the group. Historical records indicate that the community's growth stemmed directly from Ford's practices, which prioritized collective stability over purely individual gain, laying the groundwork for its endurance as a distinct enclave into the post-Civil War era.

Support for Freed Slaves Post-Civil War

The Gum Springs community, founded by West Ford on land he purchased in 1833, evolved into a vital refuge for newly emancipated following the Civil War's conclusion in 1865. Freed individuals, often arriving without resources or family networks, settled in the area to pursue self-sufficiency through farming, lumbering, and skilled trades acquired during enslavement, such as and masonry learned at estates like . This settlement pattern transformed Gum Springs into Fairfax County's oldest sustained African American enclave, attracting runaways during the war and emancipated people afterward who sought stability amid widespread displacement. Community members, including West Ford's descendants, facilitated integration by pooling resources to establish essential institutions. By the late , residents had founded schools—such as one supported on free black-owned —and churches, which provided and spiritual support denied under . Economic cooperation enabled acquisition and business ventures, with early post-war households engaging in and local labor to avoid dependency on former enslavers. External aid amplified these efforts without supplanting local initiative. The , established by Congress in 1865, offered rations, , and labor contracts that bolstered Gum Springs' growth, while Quaker organizations like the Friends' Freedmen's Aid Association provided funding for schools and vocational training starting around 1867. These interventions helped sustain a population that swelled with migrants, enabling families to register births, marriages, and property deeds independently for the first time. By 1870, census records showed Gum Springs supporting over 100 households, many headed by Civil War-era freedmen who leveraged the community's structure for generational advancement.

Family, Later Years, and Death

Marriage and Descendants

West Ford married Rose Bell, a free woman of color born circa 1787, in 1812 while still residing and working at . The couple had eight children, several of whom were born and raised on the plantation. Known children include William Washington Ford (born circa 1814, died 1874), Jane Ford, Daniel Ford, and . William Ford, the eldest son, married Henrietta Bruce, daughter of free Black landowners Daniel and Hannah Bruce, on September 3, 1840. Their son, Major George Ford, represented the third generation of Fords to live and work at . Priscilla Bell died in 1859, four years before West Ford's own death. Descendants through these lines maintained family properties in and have documented West Ford's contributions to post-emancipation Black communities.

Final Years and Burial

In his final years, West Ford, then in his late seventies, maintained ties to both Gum Springs and , where he had long served as caretaker. The Ladies' Association, which assumed stewardship of the estate in 1858, provided care for Ford amid his declining health. He died on July 20, 1863, at the mansion house during the , at approximately age 79. His obituary in the Alexandria Gazette the following day described him as "an aged colored man, who has lived on the estate the greater portion of his life," noting his death "yesterday at the Mansion House." Ford's burial occurred at , likely in the estate's cemetery reserved for enslaved and free individuals, where dozens of such graves exist without markers. Descendants and family tradition assert that his remains were initially placed in the old vault—once used for George Washington's body—before any relocation, but no contemporary records, estate documents, or archaeological evidence corroborate this claim. archives confirm the absence of such documentation, attributing the tradition to unverified rather than verifiable fact. The precise grave location remains unknown and unmarked, consistent with practices for many laborers at the .

Paternity Controversy with George Washington

Origins of the Family Tradition

The Ford family's asserting 's paternity of West Ford traces its roots to accounts West Ford shared directly with his descendants in the early . West Ford informed his grandson, George Washington Ford, that the first U.S. president was his biological father, a claim embedded in family narratives emphasizing Washington's personal involvement with West and his mother, . This transmission occurred amid West Ford's lifetime at , where he lived from approximately 1802 until his death in 1863, providing a firsthand basis for the story within the immediate family. The tradition incorporates details that Venus, an enslaved woman held at Bushfield Plantation, identified Washington as the father during a period when he visited the property owned by his brother, John Augustine Washington. Family lore describes Washington arranging for Venus's care and West's eventual transfer to Mount Vernon under Bushrod Washington, framing these actions as paternal benevolence rather than mere benevolence toward enslaved individuals. Passed orally across generations, the narrative persisted through at least two branches descending from West Ford's sons, William and John, with consistent elements like Washington's alleged picnics with West and Venus reinforcing its continuity despite the absence of written records from West's era. By the mid-20th century, descendants began documenting the tradition publicly, with scattered references emerging in the late amid broader interest in presidential lineages and racial histories. Genealogists among the Ford line, such as Linda Allen Bryant, compiled these accounts into written form, attributing the origin to West Ford's explicit disclosures rather than later embellishments. The tradition's endurance reflects reliance on familial testimony in the absence of contemporaneous documentation, a common mechanism for preserving enslaved or mixed-race heritage prior to widespread literacy and record-keeping among such communities.

Documentary Evidence and Historical Context

West Ford was born between March 1783 and June 1784 at Bushfield Plantation in , a property owned by , George Washington's younger brother, and his wife Hannah Bushrod Washington. As the son of an enslaved woman named , who served as a housemaid at Bushfield, Ford's birth was not formally recorded, consistent with the general practice of not documenting the births of enslaved individuals during this era. A slave inventory dated March 1783 lists among the property at Bushfield but makes no reference to her pregnancy or the father of any child. George Washington's personal records, including diaries and correspondence, provide detailed accounts of his activities but contain no mention of , West Ford, or any interactions at Bushfield during the period of Ford's likely conception. Washington was absent from between November 1781 and December 24, 1783, primarily engaged in military duties in the northern states, and upon his return to , approximately 50 miles from Bushfield, no documented visits to his brother's align with the timeframe for Ford's conception in early to mid-1784. Correspondence between Washington and John Augustine Washington in 1783 and 1784, such as a letter from the latter dated , 1784, originated from Bushfield but does not indicate Washington's presence there. Historical context underscores the prevalence of coerced sexual relations between enslavers and enslaved women on plantations, often resulting in children of undocumented paternity, yet Washington's childlessness with and his documented infertility issues—stemming from and other illnesses—add layers to claims of extramarital offspring, though no primary sources link him directly to or Bushfield's enslaved community beyond familial ties to the estate's owners. Ford's subsequent transfer to in 1802, following John Augustine's death in 1787 and the inheritance of Bushfield by their nephew , positioned him within the extended network, where he received preferential treatment, including around 1805 per Hannah's 1801 will and training in a . These privileges, unusual for enslaved individuals, are noted in estate records but attributed by historians to connections with Bushfield's proprietors rather than specifically, whose will of 1799 freed his own slaves only after 's death without referencing Ford.

Scholarly Skepticism and Lack of Corroboration

Historians have consistently expressed skepticism regarding the family tradition claiming as West Ford's father, citing the absence of any contemporary to support it. Primary sources, including Washington's meticulously kept diaries, letters, and financial records, contain no mention of , West Ford's mother, or any interactions suggesting paternity. The Ladies' Association, after extensive review of archival materials, has concluded that no such documentation exists to corroborate the . A critical chronological discrepancy further undermines the claim: West Ford was born at Bushfield Plantation between March 3, 1783, and June 22, 1784, requiring conception in mid- to late 1782 or early 1783. However, was absent from —and thus from Bushfield, located in Westmoreland County—between November 1781 and his return to on December 24, 1783, due to his military duties during the Revolutionary War. No records indicate subsequent visits to Bushfield until after John Augustine Washington's death in January 1787, well after Ford's birth. historian Mary V. Thompson has emphasized that Washington's detailed travel logs from 1783 onward show he was never in proximity to Bushfield during the relevant period for conception. Scholars also point to Washington's apparent , evidenced by his childless marriage to and lack of acknowledged , as well as his preoccupation with personal reputation, which would likely have deterred public acknowledgment of such a liaison. Biographer has described the paternity claim as "highly doubtful" on these grounds. Alternative explanations attribute Ford's favored status—such as early around 1805 and privileged roles at —to kinship with the extended , possibly John Augustine Washington or his sons, rather than George himself. Historian Henry Wiencek argues that anecdotes of Washington taking Ford riding or to church are credible only if Ford was not his biological , as Washington would avoid drawing attention to any indiscretion. While oral histories from Ford's descendants warrant respect, experts like stress the necessity of corroborative evidence, which remains unavailable absent viable DNA testing—impossible due to Washington's lack of direct descendants.

References

  1. https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/west-ford
  2. https://www.mountvernon.org/george-washington/slavery/from-slavery-to-freedom
  3. https://www.mountvernon.org/george-washington/slavery/paternity-of-west-ford
  4. https://magazine.mountvernon.org/2020/Fall/featured-photo.html
  5. https://www.westfordlegacy.com/content/west-ford-bio-project-copyedited-6-07
  6. https://www.nytimes.com/1999/07/07/us/descendants-of-slave-s-son-contend-that-his-father-was-george-washington.html
  7. https://www.westfordlegacy.com/article/394
  8. https://www.westfordlegacy.com/article/20
  9. https://allthingsliberty.com/2016/03/the-alleged-amorous-affairs-of-washington/
  10. https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/west-ford/
  11. https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=233789
  12. https://archives.mountvernon.org/agents/people/197
  13. https://catalog.mountvernon.org/digital/collection/p16829coll22/id/5011/
  14. http://bushrod.washingtonpapers.org/node/836
  15. https://encyclopediavirginia.org/9661hpr-3850933b64104c8/
  16. https://gumspringsmuseum.org/west-ford-1
  17. https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/planning-development/sites/planning-development/files/Assets/Documents/historic/gum-springs/history-gum-springs.pdf
  18. https://gumspringsmuseum.org/
  19. https://www.fxva.com/blog/post/gumsprings/
  20. https://www.westfordlegacy.com/article/23
  21. https://www.westfordlegacy.com/term/184
  22. https://www.fxva.com/listing/gum-springs-historical-society-and-museum/218/
  23. http://www.novahistory.org/FreedmenEducation/FreedmenEducation.htm
  24. https://www.nytimes.com/1985/11/08/us/a-place-in-virginia-called-gum-springs.html
  25. https://thezebra.org/2020/02/07/preserving-african-american-heritage-gum-springs/
  26. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/168745080/west-ford
  27. https://ancestors.familysearch.org/en/K2LY-63R/west-ford-1784-1863
  28. https://www.westfordlegacy.com/term/21
  29. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/03/14/did-george-washington-have-an-enslaved-son
  30. https://www.westfordlegacy.com/article/30
  31. https://www.lahollis.com/interview/CannotTellALie
  32. https://multiracial.com/index.php/2001/08/01/west-ford-was-in-the-house/
  33. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/jefferson/video/report1t.html
  34. https://boston1775.blogspot.com/2022/03/west-ford-and-washingtons.html
  35. https://www.historynewsnetwork.org/article/george-washingtons-slave-child
  36. https://www.westfordlegacy.com/image/220
  37. https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Washington/04-01-02-0195
Add your contribution
Related Hubs
User Avatar
No comments yet.