George Washington, a man raised in the planting classes in Virginia, has lived in proximity to slavery his whole life. In 1759, at the age of twenty-seven, when he took the hand of the wealthy young widow, Martha Custis, in marriage, he gained ownership of her late husband’s land and property, including a total of eighty-five slaves. Over the next sixteen years, as Washington accumulated more wealth and land, he acquired several dozen more slaves.
