tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post7561737709948405877..comments2024-03-28T04:26:30.557-05:00Comments on Boston 1775: Probing Andrew Leavitt's Story of Gen. WashingtonUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post-71793945817915767992007-10-22T14:29:00.000-05:002007-10-22T14:29:00.000-05:00Ironically, I'm finding evidence that the path to ...Ironically, I'm finding evidence that the path to the root of the "Washington's Psalm" story goes through the Abolitionist movement. More to come.J. L. Bellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15405157000473731801noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post-43675705963337286632007-10-22T14:23:00.000-05:002007-10-22T14:23:00.000-05:00An additional factor influencing the story might h...An additional factor influencing the story might have been the vigorous 19th-century debate over Washington's religious beliefs. It wasn't all Parson Weems and the cherry tree even back then. There is an 1830s or 40s interview with Ona Judge, Washington's famous runaway slave who ended up in Portsmouth, in an abolitionist newspaper. A striking feature of the story is that the reporter seems to have asked her specifically about Washington's religious observances, and Judge replies that she never saw any. The reporter then trumpets that fact in what is clearly already an ongoing debate.<BR/><BR/>Here it is:<BR/><BR/>"She says that she never received the least mental or moral instruction, of any kind, while she remained in Washington's family. But, after she came to Portsmouth, she learned to read; and when Elias Smith first preached in Portsmouth, she professes to have been converted to Christianity.<BR/><BR/>She, and the woman with whom she lives, (who is nearly of her age,) appear to be, and have the reputation of being imbued with the real spirit of Christianity. She says that the stories told of Washington's piety and prayers, so far as she ever saw or heard while she was his slave, have no foundation. Card-playing and wine-drinking were the business at his parties, and he had more of such company Sundays than on any other day. I do not mention this as showing, in my estimation, his anti-Christian character, so much as the bare fact of being a slaveholder, and not a hundredth part so much as trying to kidnap this woman; but, in the minds of the community, it will weigh infinitely more."<BR/><BR/>http://www.ushistory.org/presidentshouse/slaves/oneyinterview.htmLarry Cebulahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16798046652983001155noreply@blogger.com