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Juneteenth and Other Lesser Known African-American Historical Culture

Khalid Elhassan June 15, 2020 34 min

Colonel Tye - American Revolutionary War — Colonel Tye as portrayed in a PBS documentary. PBS

16. Washington’s Slave

One of the black bondsmen who responded to Lord Dunmore’s promise of freedom for slaves who fled their rebel masters was Harry Washington. In 1776, he ran away from Mount Vernon, the plantation of the rebel armies’ commander in chief, and future first president of the United States, George Washington. Harry succeeded in evading pursuit, and made it to safety behind British lines, where he enlisted in the Ethiopian Regiment.

Harry had been born in the Gambia River region in West Africa, circa 1740. He was captured by slavers, and transported across the Atlantic, surviving the horrific Middle Passage to disembark in Virginia around 1760, where he was bought by a plantation owner. After his master’s death in 1763, Harry was bought by George Washington, who put him to work draining swamps in southeast Virginia.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.