Episode 6: Leaving

Episode 6: “Leaving”

Nancy Carter Quander was just a child when George Washington died in December 1799, but his death changed her life forever. Washington’s decision to emancipate his enslaved people in his will had consequences for Mount Vernon’s enslaved community and their descendants that persist into our own time. In this episode, we look at the meaning of freedom for a community intertwined through marriage and kinship, its continued evolution after Martha Washington’s own death in 1802, and how members of the descendent community are recovering their family histories.

Featuring:

• Jessie MacLeod, Associate Curator, George Washington’s Mount Vernon
• Mary V. Thompson, Research Historian, Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington
• Dr. Cassandra Good, Assistant Professor of History, Marymount University
• Dr. Bruce Ragsdale, former Director of the Federal Judicial History Office
• Dr. Lynn Price Robbins, historian of George and Martha Washington and Early America
• Judge Rohulamin Quander, President and Founder, Quander Historical and Educational Society
• William Norwood Holland, Jr., J.D., retired, National Labor Relations Board
• Ann Louise Chinn, Founder, The Middle Passages Ceremonies and Port Markers Project
• Stephen Hammond, Syphax Family Historian and Scientist Emeritus, The United States Geological Survey
• Dr. Scott Casper, President, The American Antiquarian Society

Full transcripts, show notes, and bibliographies available at www.georgewashingtonpodcast.com.