"I am an invisible man. No, I am not a spook like those who haunted Edgar Allan Poe; nor am I one of your Hollywood-movie ectoplasms. I am a man of substance, of flesh and bone, fiber and liquids--and I might even be said to possess a mind. I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me."

 - Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man"

Venus

Venus

Venus was a handmaid on the Bushfield Plantation.  Bushfield was owed by John Augustine Washington, a brother of George Washington.  As a child, Venus' mother, Jenny, was the playmate of George Washington at Mount Vernon before she was sent to Bushfield. In Ford Oral history, Venus and George are the parents of West Ford. Venus' name appears in both John Augustine Washington's  and Hannah Washington's (his wife) last will and testment.  Venus' tumultuous life is detailed in the book, "I Cannot Tell a Lie: The True Story of George Washington's African American Descendents."