"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"
Major George Ford
Photo of an older Maj. George Ford. George Ford was the youngest child born on the Mount Vernon Plantation to William and Priscella Ford in 1847. Major Ford was educated on the Mount Vernon plantation when it was against the law for blacks, free or slave to be educated. He became a tomb guard for George Washington's crypt along with his brothers. He also guided vistors around the plantation as a young boy. Major Ford had the privilege of knowing his grandfather, West Ford and his grandmother Venus. He married Harriet Bythewood and they had nine children: Noel, James Irvine, Bertram, George Jr., Vera, Ellise, Harriet, Cecil Bruce, and Donald. His life is detailed in I Cannot Tell a Lie starting in Chapter 16.
