Outdoor albumen CDV. Alexandria, Virginia: G.W. Roseberry. From a Mathew Brady negative, [1862?]. Photographer/Publisher's imprint to mount verso. Period pencil inscription verso reads: "The old Lady in front of the house was a servant of Mrs Washington's (80 year old) The house is hers at White house Landing Va."

A fascinating photograph taken by Mathew Brady showing four African American subjects seated in front of a small timber home and tent. Brady's original negative is held at the National Archives (NAID: 529309).

The man seated with his back directly against the wall of the building reads a newspaper and appears to wear a kepi. At far right, is an elderly woman, who is identified in this inscription as a "servant of Mrs Washington." Indeed, White House Plantation, at White House Landing along the Pamunkey River in Virginia, was the inherited home of Martha Custis Washington's first husband, Daniel Parke Custis (1711-1757). When he died unexpectedly, Martha inherited the home, and it was where she was courted by and married to George Washington. The house later passed to her grandson, George Washington Parke Custis, father of Mary Anna Custis Lee, the wife of Confederate General Robert E. Lee.

The African American woman pictured is not named and is described only as "Mrs. Washington's servant." Martha Washington did enslave many individuals as the matriarch of both the Custis and Washington families, though direct ownership was complex and often in the name of her husband or children. It is plausible that, if the woman pictured was a young woman in Martha's last years, she would indeed be about 80 years old by the time of the Civil War. Perhaps further research will reveal her exact identity.

This view was likely taken in 1862, when Union troops commanded by General George B. McClellan took White House Landing as a supply base during the 1862 Peninsula Campaign. The plantation and surrounding area was used to treat the sick and wounded until it was abandoned during the retreat from the Seven Days Battles, when the house was burned.

[Civil War, Union, Confederate, Historic Photography, Early Photography, CDV, Carte de Visite, Carte-de-Visite, Slavery, Abolition, Emancipation, Enslavement, African Americana, African American History, Black History, Contrabands]