a, and made provision for the care of the aged, the young and
the infirm. He gave immediate freedom to his mulatto man, calling
himself William Lee, or if he should prefer it, being physically
incapacitated, he might remain in slavery. In either case he was to have
an annuity of thirty dollars and the "victuals and cloaths he has been
accustomed to receive." "This I give him as a testimony of my sense of
his attachment to me and for his faithful services during the
revolutionary War."

As a matter of fact, Mrs. Washington preferred to free her own and the
General's negroes as soon as possible and it was accordingly done before
her death, which occurred in 1802.

One of the servants thus freed, by name Cary, lived to the alleged age
of one hundred fourteen years and finally died in Washington City. He
was a personage of considerable importance among the colored population
of the Capital, and on Fourth of July and other parades would always
appear in an old military coat, cocked hat and huge cockade presented by
his Master. His funeral was largely attended even by white persons.

CHAPTER XIII

THE FARMER'S WIFE

Martha Dandridge's first husband was a man much older than herself and
her second was almost a year younger. Before she embarked upon her
second matrimonial venture she had been the mother of four children, and
having lost two of these, her husband, her father and mother, she had
known, though only twenty-seven, most of the vital experiences that life
can give. Perhaps it was well, for thereby she was better fitted to be
the mate of a man sober and sedate in disposition and created by Nature
to bear heavy burdens of responsibility.

In view of the important places her husband filled, it is astonishing
how little we really know of her. Washington occasionally refers to her
in his letters and diaries, but usually in an impersonal way that gives
us little insight into her character or activities. She purposely
destroyed almost all the correspondence that passed between her and her
husband and very little else remains that she wrote. From the few
letters that do survive it is apparent that her education was slender,
though no more so than that of most women of her day even in the upper
class. She had a fondness for phonetic spelling, and her verbs and
subjects often indulged in family wrangles. She seems to have been
conscious of her deficiencies in this direction or at least to have
disliked writing, f