Washington’s family tree is biracial

[struggle4progress]

BY THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
September 18, 2016 1:49 pm

... At the time, George Washington Parke Custis was 16 and attending Princeton, one of several schools he bounced in and out of. Before long, he was back home at Mount Vernon, where he would be accused of fathering children with slaves.

Two centuries later, the National Park Service and the nonprofit that runs Washington’s Mount Vernon estate are concluding that the rumors were true: In separate exhibits, they show that the first family’s family tree has been biracial from its earliest branches.

“There is no more pushing this history to the side,” said Matthew Penrod, a National Park Service ranger and programs manager at Arlington House, where the lives of the Washingtons, their slaves and Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee all converged.

President George Washington had no direct descendants, and his wife Martha Custis was a widow when they married, but he adopted Martha’s grandchildren — “Wash” and his sister “Nellie” — and raised them on his Mount Vernon estate ...

http://www.aurorasentinel.com/news/historic-recognition-washingtons-family-tree-biracial/

[wcast]

1. Very interesting article.

I remember reading about Jefferson's family trying to deny Sally Hemming's children until it was proven years later with DNA testing. People need to know that this is also the real history of the US. I heard in an interview, right before the play Hamilton blew up, with Lin-Manuel Miranda in which he stated he wrote Hamilton to show that the founding fathers were young rebels, not the old staid people we see on money or hear about in history books.

Kudos to Mt. Vernon!