ng up a runaway. In 1766 he advertised rewards for the
capture of "Negro Tom," evidently the man he later sold in the West
Indies. The return of Henry in 1771 cost him L1.16. Several slaves were
carried away by the British during the Revolution and seem never to have
been recovered, though the treaty of peace provided for the return of
such slaves, and Washington made inquiries concerning them. In 1796,
apropos of a girl who had absconded to New England, he excused his
desire to recapture her on the ground that as long as slavery was in
existence it was hardly fair to allow some to escape and to hold others.

A rather peculiar situation arose in 1791 with regard to some of his
"People," His attorney general, Randolph, had taken some slaves to
Philadelphia, and the blacks took advantage of the fact that under
Pennsylvania law they could not be forced to leave the state against
their will. Fearing that some of his own servants might do likewise,
Washington directed Lear to get the slaves back to Mount Vernon and to
accomplish it "under pretext that may deceive both them and the Public,"
which goes to show that even George Washington had some of the guile of
the serpent.

During this period he was loath to bring the fact that he was a
slaveholder too prominently before the public, for he realized the
prejudice already existing against the institution in the North. When
one of his men absconded in 1795 he gave instructions not to let his
name appear in any advertisement of the runaway, at least not north
of Virginia.

His final judgment on slavery is expressed in his will. "Upon the
decease of my wife it is my will and desire," he wrote, "that all the
slaves which I hold _in my own right_ shall receive their freedom--To
emancipate them during her life, would tho earnestly wished by me, be
attended with such insuperable difficulties, on account of their
intermixture by marriages with the Dower negroes as to excite the most
painful sensations,--if not disagreeable consequences from the latter,
while both descriptions are in the occupancy of the same proprietor, it
not being in my power under the tenure by which the dower Negroes are
held to manumit them."

The number of his own slaves at the time of his death was one hundred
twenty-four. Of dower negroes there were one hundred fifty-three, and
besides he had forty leased from a Mrs. French.

He expressly forbade the sale of any slave or his transportation out of
Virgini