Did George Washington have a biracial child or was he impotent?

by Tensionppp

A classmate told me that her step-dad was related to George Washington because he raped his slaves. Now, I'm willing to believe that George Washington was a violent rapist and all, but what I don't understand is HOW he had a biracial slave child when practically every biography said he had no BIOLOGICAL children. I thought he was impotent, but after hearing from this classmate, it does seem possible for George Washington to have a kid. But at the very least, he should have a white kid too. So my questions are:

  1. Did George Washington rape his slaves?
  2. Did George Washington father a biracial child with his slaves?
  3. Was George Washington impotent?
  4. Was the classmate most likely referring to George Washington Parke Curtis?
RTarcher

This response draws heavily from Phil Morgan, "'To Get Quit of Negroes'; George Washington and Slavery", Journal of American Studies, (2005) pp. 403-429.

  1. There is no strong evidence that George Washington raped his slaves. Interracial sex likely occurred at Mount Vernon, but it was likely between white servants and overseers with the slaves, rather than GW personally.
  2. There is a rumor that George Washington had a biracial child named West Ford, who was the son of Venus, an enslaved women owned by GW's brother John Augustine Washington. The Mount Vernon website states that "Many of [Ford's] descendants believe him to be the son of George Washington and an enslaved house servant at Bushfield Plantation, named Venus." While it is impossible to disprove this claim, it is extremely unlikely that Washington was the father of Ford. First, Ford was born sometime between 1784 and 1785. Based on roughly 37-40 week term of pregnancy for Venus, GW was either still commanding the continental army or at Mount Vernon. There were only two short periods when Venus may have been at Mount Vernon, but there is nothing to indicate that she met and had sex with GW during one of these abbreviated visits. Venus may not have even been with John A. Washington or his family during the two visits to Mount Vernon. GW also never visited his brother's plantations between 1783 and 1784. Further, GW had enough political enemies that if there had been any hint during his lifetime that he had fathered an illegitimate child with a slave (as Thomas Jefferson was), some contemporary would have made the suggestion or accusation. Contemporaries are noticeably silent on this issue. Lastly, (and this comments on #3 as well) GW was in all likelihood sterile. He contracted smallpox while visiting Barbados in 1751, and many historians think that the disease left him sterile. Martha Washington had four children before her marriage to GW, indicating she was fertile. It's possible that GW was fertile and Martha became infertile later in life, that would not change the fact that GW in all likelihood did not have sex with Venus. There is a more general agreement that West Ford was the son or grandson of John A. Washington, rather than GW.
  3. We have no indication that GW was impotent. The argument is that he was simply sterile. According to Chernow, Washington did not believe he was sterile and instead blamed his barren marriage on Martha. There is no conclusive evidence on this.
  4. It's possible that this was who your classmate was referring to, but it is more likely that he meant GW, the President. Again, there is a rumor that GW fathered illegitimate children, but there is a sparse amount of evidence to demonstrate such a claim.

To recap:

GW was not in the right places at the right time to father West Ford
GW was, by almost accounts, sterile, and therefore incapable of having children
There were no contemporary accusations that GW had illegitimate children; something that would have been brought up sometime between 1785 and 1799
There is no evidence that Venus and GW ever even met, let alone had sex
There is no mention of West Ford or his mother Venus in Washington's papers