Tudor Place staff continue to research the full stories of those the Peters enslaved here; most of the information comes from property records of the Custis, Peter and Washington families.

Thomas and Martha Peter, like many property owners in early 19th century Georgetown, exploited the knowledge, labor and bodies of African Americans by participating in the system of slavery. As one of Martha Washington’s granddaughters, Martha Custis Peter inherited almost 100 enslaved individuals in two groups from the Custis estate; they are known as Custis Dower slaves.

Though people are not property, these individuals held in bondage were legally enslaved by Martha Washington’s first husband, Daniel Parke Custis (1711-1757), who died without a will. As both of his surviving children later died (daughter Patsy in 1773 and son John Parke “Jacky” Custis in 1781), these enslaved individuals became the property of Daniel Parke Custis’ grandchildren—Martha Custis Peter and her three siblings, Eliza Custis Law, Nelly Custis Lewis and George Washington Parke Custis.

Enslaved individuals were shared among the Custis, Peter and Washington families during different life events. Many of the Custis Dower slaves came from Hope Park, the Fairfax County plantation of Martha Custis Peter’s mother and stepfather. Martha Washington enslaved other individuals at Mount Vernon; many of these people married and had children with those who were legally enslaved by George Washington. A 17th century Virginia law declared that a child assumed the same status as its mother. Therefore, any child born to a woman with Custis Dower slave status also became a Custis Dower slave, regardless of the status of the father.

Upon her marriage, Martha Peter inherited a group of enslaved individuals from the Custis Dower slave lineage. A 1799 Mount Vernon census by George Washington listed 153 Custis Dower slaves. Upon the death of Martha Washington in 1802, those individuals were divided equally among Martha’s grandchildren, with Thomas and Martha Peter receiving 43 enslaved people. Although George Washington gave instructions in his will that, following Martha’s death, those he held in bondage should be emancipated, he was not able to manumit (voluntarily free) any Custis Dower slaves because he did not own them.

While some enslaved individuals were held in bondage at Tudor Place, most of them were forced to live and work on Thomas Peter’s other agricultural properties in Montgomery County, Maryland and Northeast DC. In 1820, the U.S. Census revealed that there were three adult men, three adult women and eight children enslaved on the Tudor Place property.  A family tradition holds that a small frame building located on the northeast corner of the Tudor Place property was used as a dwelling for some of these people. This portion of the property was sold in 1854 when the estate was reduced in size.

The writings of Thomas and Martha Peter’s daughter Britannia W. Peter Kennon provide valuable information about the individuals the Peters enslaved, including several enslaved laborers who “lived out” — meaning they resided off the Tudor Place property. Additional research funded by the D.C. Humanities Council shed light on human ownership and trade by the Peter family. It also maps Georgetown sites central to African-American community life. Learn more here.

Though enslaved individuals had personal lives separate and entirely unknown to their enslavers, labor records are often the only information left.  To learn more about how gaps in archival records contribute to the dehumanization of all enslaved peoples, click here.

Learn what archaeology revealed about possible slave dwellings at Tudor Place here and about home life here.

Prior to the emancipation of slavery, slave auctions were common in the District of Columbia. Abolitionists decried the occurrence of this practice in the nation’s capital. The Compromise of 1850 abolished active slave trading within the District of Columbia but both Maryland and Virginia maintained active trades.

Slavery was legal in the District of Columbia until April 16, 1862 when President Lincoln signed the D.C. Emancipation Act (12 Stat. 376). The act provided for immediate emancipation and the compensation to loyal Unionist enslavers of up to $300 per slave and included voluntary colonization if the emancipated individual desired it. Enslavers who wanted to claim compensation had to file the necessary paperwork and swear an oath to the Union by July 15, 1862. Britannia Kennon, then owner of Tudor Place, was an ardent southerner so it is unsurprising that her name does not appear in the records of those slave owners who took the loyalty oath and received compensation.

President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. It declared that “that all persons held as slaves” within the rebellious states “are, and henceforward shall be free.” However, this proclamation only applied to those enslaved individuals living in Confederate states. Slavery was finally abolished in the entire United States, except as punishment for a convicted crime, on December 6, 1865 when the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution passed.

To learn more about emancipation in the District of Columbia, click here.