Growing up, and still reading books today, the story goes that George Washington (his views evolving on slavery) freed his many slaves in his will. From what I've read this isn't really accurate and only one slave was actually freed.
I am wondering if Washington's wishes to free his slaves in his will was news at the time it happened, and if he intended for that action to be some type of political statement on abolition. Was this legend retroactively added to Washington's resume after slavery became taboo?
George Washington addressed the issue of slavery in his will when he ordered that all but one of the enslaved people he owned be freed at his wife’s death. William Lee was freed immediately upon Washington's death in December of 1799. The other approximately 122 people were to be freed when Martha Washington died. Fearing for her safety, she ordered those individuals freed on January 1, 1801. Unfortunately, Washington's will applied to fewer than half of the people in bondage at Mount Vernon, Washington's plantation. Those owned by the Custis estate (from Martha Washington's first marriage) were inherited by Martha Washington’s grandchildren after her death, neither she or George Washington had to legal authority to free these people.