Anti-slavery bugle. [volume] (New-Lisbon, Ohio) 1845-1861, 1853-10-01
WAsHINGToN's SLAVE.

WASHINGT0N's SLAVE
! We have noticed heretofore, the proposition to
exhibit ut the Worlds Fair, the old slave of Wash
ington who still survives at the age of nearly one
huHdycd and hre,fy gears To this exhibition,
however appropriate. the Shareholders object. OF
course therefore it will not come of. FUNTEMAH,
! This African namc) or SIMON WASHINGTON, as he
is now called, is however to be exhibited, to obtain
the means of supporting him in his poverty, and
has been advertised to appear at the State Fair in
Pittsburgh this week
Tho identity of the slave is proved preparatory
to this exhibition, by letter from John Shrccvc,
an aged and respectable gentleman of this vicinity
and divers affdayits sf others. We copy them as
record Of interest. 1t will be seen by them that
General Washington frequent trader in slaves,
buying, selling and swapping for land his busi-
ness interests dictated. 1t will be seen too, that
he gave his patronage as directly to the t6reig,,
h'dde as 10 The domestic lie did not like our mod
err worthless curse the and patronizc tho other
But Washington has gone. We will honor in his
| life the good, the noble But let his weaknesses
and his crimes be warning to posterity. We
have to do with those who have succeeded him as
slave holders and slave traders and who have cs-
pccal interest in pcrpctuating these crimes, and
l who for this purpose would seize upon the sanctity
which this people have thrown around his name
and cast it as Il mantle of honor over the foul idol
of their ycnerotion. For this purpose, moro than
for any other, they would build monuments to his
memory, and sing peans to his praise. 1t is no
that they love liberty hut that they may practies
I slavery. This history is therefore instructive.
c.o,, tba D;ttsburrI, H..
From tho Pennsylvania Democrat, April % 1852
Near SALEM, Quo, April 9th, 1852.
Respected Friend: am informed by my grand
son, w. r. Shreve, who understood that was the
; oldest man living that resided in the neghborhood
( of Washington's Bottom, in Fayette county, Pa.
that they thought could remember when Wash
ington built the first house and mill the aforesaid
bottom land, and other information respecting his
being there, &c. In order to lead on to that whicl
/, know respecting it, shall speak Of myself. Ii
the time Of the Revolution in 1875 and &c, my
, father took me when was in my minority int
his regiment whore 7 remained eight months
volunteer, and about five years II commissioned
officer. The year after the British moved off thci
f army, in tho year 1884, in company with relation
wishing to see the new country, passed over the
Allegheny Mountains, crossed the NOughiOghcnN
= river at Robbstown, and the Monongahala at Par
- kinsons Ferry now NilliamspOrt. We stAyct
one night with II farmer named Beckett, near th
ferry, where we were informed that General Wash
' ingtou had passed few days before to see hi
I land on the Ohio river bottom, below the mouth o
= Grave creek. lie had been to sec his land and mil
| in Faycttc county, and sold his slaves and othc
> property that he had there. We went ON l.
, Wheeling, which was the frontier settlement.
crossed over the Ohio river, that could say ha
been in the Indian ccuntry, now the State of Ohio
# returned in September Of that year to New JeI
:, sey, where | remained until the year l7SS-the
,x,.;f, ,,,I oh 40
u county, Pa, and purchased small farm of on
Is hundred acres of Levi Stephens. / soon becam
n acquainted with the old settlers. | will nam
4 some of them. Levi Stephens, Wm. Goe, jaime
y Purdy, Peter Nandoph, Col. Leonard Cook -
u Nanmeter, Moses Thompson, Samuel Burns, Der
, jamn Harris, - Blcakley, Nathan Brown, EleG
c ger Brown, Peter Patterson, - Reed, Richar
. Noble, and others.
The State of Virginia claimed all the land Yves
u of the Allegheny mountains to the Mississippi ri,
It er, and North to Lake Erie and the st. Lawrenc
L river. The inhabitants who settled ON the water
9 Of the Ohio, Monongahela, Allegheny and Yougl
- iogheny rivers before the close Of the Revolution
u airy war, settled under the Virginia caim-bu
when Mason and Dixon run the boundary line, q
l. the close of the war, between Pennsylvania an
y the States of Delaware, Maryland and Virginia
the most Of those settlements lay within Pennsy
vana. =,
Z About the year 1853, Governor ninwidie, Of VII
ginia being informed that the French from Canadi
and the Indians were making settlements on Ian
u supposed to belong to Virginia, he then appointc
s. Geo. Washington (then about twenty years Of age
Y, Colonel and sent him with about 400 men, to n
Is certain the truth of the report. On reaching III
first Indian settlement on the waters of the Nj
' nOngahela (who friendly, and not in the int
= rest of the French) he was informed that Ill
Il French and Indians were in great force at II
& junction of the Monongahela and Allegheny river
where they had fort, called Fort Duquesne bui
whore Pittsburgh now stands, and were preparin
Z to attack him. Washington took stand ON Laur,
mountain (abOut seven miles east of Uniontowr
n where he erected Stockade Fort calling it Fo
!, Necessity. The French and Indians came in gret
70 force, and demanded that Washington should ca,
itulate, surrender the Fort, and retire over I'll
r, mountain believe this was the scene of the fir
% military exploit of Washington, where tho citizen
a Of Uniontown and vicinity are talking of erectin
a monument TO his memory
g l was informed by the old settlers alluded Il
y that Gen. George Washington after Braddock
@ defeat, and after Fort Duquense was taken, an
the French and Indians driven out of that countr,
= and the settlement commenced Washington bein
= Surveyor, went into that country and made HI
g home awhile with Col Crawford, who was an Ii
)t dian trader, who located himself on the bottoi
10 land near New Haven, opposite Connellsvlle, o
- the fougmogheny river. Crawford purchase
le many improvement rights under the Virginia cail
te Of 400 acres each. He gave Washington the fou
to tracts or and containing about II hundred acre
i strict measure; and Washington gave him a fema
slave in return for the land When he commence
"a the improvement of the land do not know >
IN Thomas Brown, son of Eleazer Brown, nforme
io me last spring that his father, ard uncle Natha