"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"
Documents + Articles
This is a two-page list of slaves owned by John Augustine, the master of Venus. The document is dated March 1783. Venus was a housemaid on the Bushfield Plantation and her mother, Jenny,...
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Cover drawing from Harper's Weekly, 1884
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Venus and her mother (Jenny) names appear below. MLV put in the writing next to the names. Data from the MVLA.
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West Ford was willed 160 acres of land adjoining Mount Vernon in 1829, making him the richest black man in Virgina at that time. He later sold his land and purchased 214 acres adjacent to...
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Article stating that West Ford was known as the Negro son of George Washington.
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This page shows that West Ford death, who he was, and the burial grounds of the servants. The Ford family's oral history was that he was placed in the old tomb of George Washington....
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This page of burial records comes from 1929 minutes p. 46 about the graveyard which was used by General Washington for his slaves at Mount Vernon. It delves into how the markers were worn and...
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Title: From Mount Vernon to Springfield, Illinois Register, 1937.
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Description taken from records at Mount Veron that George Ford was there in 1929 when the slave memorial marker was place in slave cemetery. They stated that George Ford (son of William Ford...
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Major George Ford's Obituary. He died at the age of 91 in 1939 and was the last living member of the original 10th Calvary known as the Buffalo Soliders. His body was interred at Camp...
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Entry from Mount Vernon records on slave burials that George Ford visited the plantation in 1929 when two workers were placing the memorial tablet. The workers stated that Ford told them...
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This is a continuing entry from page 3. It states that George Ford told the two workers at the slave cemetery where the tablet was laid that the burying ground used to have a rail fence around...
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Form detailing the enlistment of Major George Ford. U.S., 10th Calvary, Returns from Regulary Army Calvary Regiments 1866-1916.
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Title: Tracing the Washington Blood, by Elizabeth Wagner, February 1967.
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Copy of Major Ford's enlistment contract when he joined the 10th Calvary.
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Title: Register of Freed Slaves Bares Fairfax County Roots, by Thomas Grubisich, Washington Post Staff Writer, February 8, 1977.
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Major George Ford did two tours with the 10th Calvary. This document shows his reinlistment on September 11, 1872.
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