Reference
- Martha WashingtonAs the first first lady of the United States (although the term was not coined until after her death), Martha Washington became a role model and example for all the nation's first ladies who followed her.
The oldest of the eight children of John and Frances Dandridge, she was born and raised on a Virginia plantation. Like most well-to-do girls of the time, she received an education that would prepare her to manage a household. At nineteen, she married Daniel Parke Custis, a plantation owner twenty years older than his bride. The couple had four children, two of whom died in infancy. Daniel Custis died in 1757, leaving the twenty-six-yearold Martha a very wealthy woman with an eighteen-thousand-acre estate to manage.
In 1758, George Washington, then a thirty-sixyear-old colonel and commander of the Virginia militia, began courting her. In 1759, they were married at her home. The couple, together with Martha's son and daughter, went to live at Washington's plantation, Mount Vernon. There, Martha looked after the large household, oversaw the dairy and smokehouse, and supervised the estate's spinning and weaving operation.
When Washington was named commander-inchief of the Continental Army in 1775, Martha joined him at his headquarters near Boston. From that time until the end of the Revolutionary War, she spent winters with her husband at the Army's encampments. Her calm, steady, and cheerful spirit was a great comfort to her husband, especially at Valley Forge during the harsh winter of 1778, when it seemed that the war would be lost. She nursed sick and wounded soldiers, mended their clothes, made shirts, and knitted socks for them. She also encouraged other officers’ wives to join her.
In 1789, George Washington became the first president of the United States, and Martha and two of her four grandchildren accompanied him to the new nation's first capital in New York City. Debate occurred over what to call her. Most people addressed her as “Lady Washington,” but she preferred plain “Mrs. Washington.” She gave formal dinner parties at the presidential home, appeared with the president at ceremonial occasions, and hosted weekly Friday evening receptions with Abigail Adams, the wife of Vice President John Adams. Martha has been credited with creating an elegant atmosphere surrounding the president, and her friendly but dignified manner made her a popular public figure.
After Washington's two terms in office, he and his wife retired to Mount Vernon. After George Washington's death in 1799, Martha Washington lived quietly at Mount Vernon for the next two years, dying there at the age of seventy-one. The first U.S. postage stamp honoring an American woman depicted Martha Washington, issued in 1902. She is also the only woman (other than allegorical figures such as Justice and Liberty) depicted on the face of a U.S. banknote: on the $1 silver certificate of 1886 and 1891.
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Resources
- FIRST FAMILIES: Martha Dandridge Custis WashingtonThis White House informational series about the First Families tells her story succinctly.
- Martha Washington : George Washington's Mount VernonThe Mount Vernon website has a wealth of information about Martha's life in her Virginia home, as well as general biographical information.
Martha Washington
Interview with John Ferling, Professor of History, University of Georgia
John Ferling is interviewed about land ownership as power, George Washington as a young man, his marriage to Martha, Washington as a slave owner in Virginia, Washington's attitudes towards slaves, Washington's growing displeasure with the British, Washington as commander of the Continental Army, African Americans' desires to participate in the Revolutionary War, Dunmore's Proclamation, Washington's changing view of slavery, Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, life at Mount Vernon.
All The Presidents' Wives
This documentary, produced by Martin Gillam, features the first ladies of US Presidents, including Martha Washington.
Perspectives
Founding Mothers
Cokie Roberts's number one New York Times bestseller, We Are Our Mothers' Daughters, examined the nature of women's roles throughout history and led USA Today to praise her as a "custodian of time-honored values." Her second bestseller, From This Day Forward, written with her husband, Steve Roberts, described American marriages throughout history, including the romance of John and Abigail Adams. Now Roberts returns with Founding Mothers, an intimate and illuminating look at the fervently patriotic and passionate women whose tireless pursuits on behalf of their families -- and their country -- proved just as crucial to the forging of a new nation as the rebellion that established it. While much has been written about the men who signed the Declaration of Independence, battled the British, and framed the Constitution, the wives, mothers, sisters, and daughters they left behind have been little noticed by history. Roberts brings us the women who fought the Revolution as valiantly as the men, often defending their very doorsteps. While the men went off to war or to Congress, the women managed their businesses, raised their children, provided them with political advice, and made it possible for the men to do what they did. The behind-the-scenes influence of these women -- and their sometimes very public activities -- was intelligent and pervasive. Drawing upon personal correspondence, private journals, and even favored recipes, Roberts reveals the often surprising stories of these fascinating women, bringing to life the everyday trials and extraordinary triumphs of individuals like Abigail Adams, Mercy Otis Warren, Deborah Read Franklin, Eliza Pinckney, Catherine Littlefield Green, Esther DeBerdt Reed, and Martha Washington -- proving that without our exemplary women, the new country might never have survived. Social history at its best, Founding Mothers unveils the drive, determination, creative insight, and passion of the other patriots, the women who raised our nation. Roberts proves beyond a doubt that like every generation of American women that has followed, the founding mothers used the unique gifts of their gender -- courage, pluck, sadness, joy, energy, grace, sensitivity, and humor -- to do what women do best, put one foot in front of the other in remarkable circumstances and carry on.
The President's Kitchen Cabinet
An NAACP Image Award Finalist for Outstanding Literary Work--Non Fiction James Beard award-winning author Adrian Miller vividly tells the stories of the African Americans who worked in the presidential food service as chefs, personal cooks, butlers, stewards, and servers for every First Family since George and Martha Washington. Miller brings together the names and words of more than 150 black men and women who played remarkable roles in unforgettable events in the nation's history. Daisy McAfee Bonner, for example, FDR's cook at his Warm Springs retreat, described the president's final day on earth in 1945, when he was struck down just as his lunchtime cheese souffle emerged from the oven. Sorrowfully, but with a cook's pride, she recalled, "He never ate that souffle, but it never fell until the minute he died." A treasury of information about cooking techniques and equipment, the book includes twenty recipes for which black chefs were celebrated. From Samuel Fraunces's "onions done in the Brazilian way" for George Washington to Zephyr Wright's popovers, beloved by LBJ's family, Miller highlights African Americans' contributions to our shared American foodways. Surveying the labor of enslaved people during the antebellum period and the gradual opening of employment after Emancipation, Miller highlights how food-related work slowly became professionalized and the important part African Americans played in that process. His chronicle of the daily table in the White House proclaims a fascinating new American story.
The Washingtons : George and Martha, "Join'd by Friendship, Crown'd by Love"
A full-scale portrait of the marriage of the father and mother of our country--and of the struggle for independence that he led The Washingtons' long union begins in colonial Virginia in 1759, when George Washington woos and weds Martha Dandridge Parke Custis, a pretty, charming, and very rich young widow. The calm early years of their marriage as plantation owners at Mount Vernon and as parents to Martha's two children, Jacky and Patsy--both of whom present difficult challenges--yield to harsher times. Washington has been prominent among Virginians in opposing British government measures, and at the outbreak of fighting in 1775 he is elected commander-in-chief of the Continental army. The war sees Martha resolutely supporting her husband, sharing in the hardships at Valley Forge and other wretched winter headquarters. Essential to George's personal well-being, she is known as "Lady Washington"--a redoubtable and vastly admired figure in her own right. Flora Fraser provides us with a brilliant account of the public Washington and of the war he waged, and gives us, as well, the domestic Washingtons, whether at Mount Vernon before and during the war or in New York and Philadelphia during his presidency. Even in wartime, Martha manages to scour Philadelphia to find a doll for her newest granddaughter and keeps careful control of her Virginia inheritance. George grapples with a formidable enemy, without proper troops and often without basic supplies--his soldiers frequently lack rations, blankets, even shoes--while always fearful for his wife's welfare and safety, given the constant worry that the British might descend on Mount Vernon. Even so, a true Virginian, he manages to dance for more than three hours with Alexander Hamilton's pretty young wife at a makeshift ball. With victory and the arrival of peace in 1783, the Washingtons hope to remain at home, a hope dashed when, in 1789, George is elected our first president and Martha becomes a faultless first First Lady. During the presidency, they together negotiate the many pitfalls of establishing republican entertainment--the weekly "Congress dinner," lev#65533;es, and drawing rooms--before, finally free of official responsibilities after Washington's second term, they are at last able to retreat to their beloved Mount Vernon. This is a remarkable story of a remarkable pair as well as a gripping narrative of the birth of a nation--a major, and vastly appealing, contribution to the literature of our founding fathers . . . and founding mother.
Never Caught
A startling and eye-opening look into America's First Family, Never Caught is the powerful story about a daring woman of "extraordinary grit" (The Philadelphia Inquirer). When George Washington was elected president, he reluctantly left behind his beloved Mount Vernon to serve in Philadelphia, the temporary seat of the nation's capital. In setting up his household he brought along nine slaves, including Ona Judge. As the President grew accustomed to Northern ways, there was one change he couldn't abide: Pennsylvania law required enslaved people be set free after six months of residency in the state. Rather than comply, Washington decided to circumvent the law. Every six months he sent the slaves back down south just as the clock was about to expire. Though Ona Judge lived a life of relative comfort, she was denied freedom. So, when the opportunity presented itself one clear and pleasant spring day in Philadelphia, Judge left everything she knew to escape to New England. Yet freedom would not come without its costs. At just twenty-two-years-old, Ona became the subject of an intense manhunt led by George Washington, who used his political and personal contacts to recapture his property. "A crisp and compulsively readable feat of research and storytelling" (USA TODAY), historian and National Book Award finalist Erica Armstrong Dunbar weaves a powerful tale and offers fascinating new scholarship on how one young woman risked everything to gain freedom from the famous founding father and most powerful man in the United States at the time.
First Ladies: The Ever Changing Role, from Martha Washington to Melania Trump
Betty Boyd Caroli's engrossing and informative First Ladies is both a captivating read and an essential resource for anyone interested in the role of America's First Ladies. Caroli observes the role as it has shifted and evolved from ceremonial backdrop to substantive world figure. Thisexpanded and updated fifth edition presents Caroli's keen political analysis and astute observations of recent developments in First Lady history, including Melania Trump's reluctance to take on the mantle and former First Lady Hilary Clinton's recent run for president. Caroli here contributes a newpreface and updated chapters.Covering all forty-five women from Martha Washington to Melania and Ivanka Trump and including the daughters, daughters-in-law, and sisters of presidents who served as First Ladies, Caroli explores each woman's background, marriage, and accomplishments and failures in office. This remarkable lotincluded Abigail Adams, whose "remember the ladies" became a twentieth-century feminist refrain; Jane Pierce, who prayed her husband would lose the election; Helen Taft, who insisted on living in the White House, although her husband would have preferred a judgeship; Eleanor Roosevelt, whoepitomized the politically involved First Lady; and Pat Nixon, who perfected what some have called "the robot image." They ranged in age from early 20s to late 60s; some received superb educations for their time, while others had little or no schooling. Including the courageous and adventurous, theambitious, and the reserved, these women often did not fit the traditional expectations of a presidential helpmate.First Ladies is an engaging portrait of how each First Lady changed the role and how the role changed in response to American culture. These women left remarkably complete records, and their stories offer us a window through which to view not only this particular sorority of women, but also the roleof American woman in general.
The Martha Washington Cook Book
Martha Washington kept and used her personal one-of-a-kind family cookbook for over fifty years. In 1799, she presented the book to her granddaughter, Eleanor Parke Custis as a wedding gift when she married Lawrence Lewis. The cookbook was handed down from mother to daughter until 1892 when the Lewis family presented it to The Historical Society of Pennsylvania where it still resides today.
In 1940, the Society gave special permission to historian Marie Kimball to study the manuscript and prepare a cookbook entitled, "The Martha Washington Cook Book." Mrs. Kimball fully adapted Marthas cookbook to practical, modern use. All the recipes were proportioned to our current practice of a formula for serving six people. Each recipe was tested. It is not only correct, but tastes great!