Father of His Country, Only

EVERYONE carries a picture of George Washington in his wallet, but he has just made the news, thanks to a slave he may never have met. West Ford (1784?—1863) was owned by one of George’s younger brothers, John Augustine Washington. Ford’s mother was another one of John Augustine’s slaves, named Venus. For several years, Ford’s descendants have been trying to publicize the claim that his father was the Father of His Country. On July 7 they hit the jackpot. The New York Times ran a story by Nicholas Wade that was courteous, thorough—and highly skeptical of their claim. The networks seized on the article and flew two sisters, Linda Bryant of Aurora, Colo., and Janet Allen of Peoria, Ill., into New York for the morning talk shows. I met them, and their literary agent, when we shared a segment on CBS. As a Washington biographer, I too was highly skeptical, though we all were polite.

Washington has been a projective screen for American fantasies for over 200 years. I have been told that he was gay, Catholic, a pot-smoker, and a hermaphrodite. One of the oldest fairy tales, dating back to the Revolution, is that he was a woman. Why the interest in this story now?

About the Author

Richard Brookhiser

Historian Richard Brookhiser is a senior editor of National Review and a senior fellow at the National Review Institute.

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EVERYONE carries a picture of George Washington in his wallet, but he has just made the news, thanks to a slave he may never have met. West Ford (1784?—1863) was owned by one of George’s younger brothers, John Augustine Washington. Ford’s mother was another one of John Augustine’s slaves, named Venus. For several years, Ford’s descendants have been trying to publicize the claim that his father was the Father of His Country. On July 7 they hit the jackpot. The New York Times ran a story by Nicholas Wade that was courteous, thorough—and highly skeptical of their claim. The networks seized on the article and flew two sisters, Linda Bryant of Aurora, Colo., and Janet Allen of Peoria, Ill., into New York for the morning talk shows. I met them, and their literary agent, when we shared a segment on CBS. As a Washington biographer, I too was highly skeptical, though we all were polite.

Washington has been a projective screen for American fantasies for over 200 years. I have been told that he was gay, Catholic, a pot-smoker, and a hermaphrodite. One of the oldest fairy tales, dating back to the Revolution, is that he was a woman. Why the interest in this story now?