“A Poem on the Death of General Washington,” 1800
Detail of The Apotheosis of George Washington from the US Capitol
In this passage from his elegy for his hero and mentor, Humphreys praises George Washington for treating his slaves kindly and making plans for their manumission.
Excerpt from David Humphreys’s “A Poem on the Death of General Washington,” 1800
. . . Where that foul stain of manhood, slavery, flow’d
Through Afric’s sons transmitted in the blood;
Hereditary slaves his kindness shar’d,
For manumission by degrees prepar’d:
Return’d from war, I saw them round him press,*
And all their speechless glee by artless signs express.
* [Humphreys’s note:] General Washington, by his will, liberated all his negroes, making an ample provision for the support of the old, and the education of the young. The interesting scene of his return home, at which the author was present, is described exactly as it existed.
Source: David Humphreys, “A Poem on the Death of General Washington,” 1800, in The Miscellaneous Works of David Humphreys (New York, 1804), p. 180.
David Humphreys’s “A Poem on the Death of General Washington,” 1800
. . . Where that foul stain of manhood, slavery, flow’d
Through Afric’s sons transmitted in the blood;
Hereditary slaves his kindness shar’d,
For manumission by degrees prepar’d:
Return’d from war, I saw them round him press,*
And all their speechless glee by artless signs express.
*[Humphreys’s note:] General Washington, by his will, liberated all his negroes, making an ample provision for the support of the old, and the education of the young. The interesting scene of his return home, at which the author was present, is described exactly as it existed.
Source: David Humphreys, “A Poem on the Death of General Washington” (1800), in The Miscellaneous Works of David Humphreys (New York, 1804), p. 180.
manumission – freeing from slavery
Background
In this passage from his elegy for his hero and mentor, Humphreys praises George Washington for treating his slaves kindly and making plans for their manumission.
Transcript
Excerpt from David Humphreys’s “A Poem on the Death of General Washington,” 1800
. . . Where that foul stain of manhood, slavery, flow’d
Through Afric’s sons transmitted in the blood;
Hereditary slaves his kindness shar’d,
For manumission by degrees prepar’d:
Return’d from war, I saw them round him press,*
And all their speechless glee by artless signs express.
* [Humphreys’s note:] General Washington, by his will, liberated all his negroes, making an ample provision for the support of the old, and the education of the young. The interesting scene of his return home, at which the author was present, is described exactly as it existed.
Source: David Humphreys, “A Poem on the Death of General Washington,” 1800, in The Miscellaneous Works of David Humphreys (New York, 1804), p. 180.
Excerpt
David Humphreys’s “A Poem on the Death of General Washington,” 1800
. . . Where that foul stain of manhood, slavery, flow’d
Through Afric’s sons transmitted in the blood;
Hereditary slaves his kindness shar’d,
For manumission by degrees prepar’d:
Return’d from war, I saw them round him press,*
And all their speechless glee by artless signs express.
*[Humphreys’s note:] General Washington, by his will, liberated all his negroes, making an ample provision for the support of the old, and the education of the young. The interesting scene of his return home, at which the author was present, is described exactly as it existed.
Source: David Humphreys, “A Poem on the Death of General Washington” (1800), in The Miscellaneous Works of David Humphreys (New York, 1804), p. 180.
manumission – freeing from slavery
