The Widow Washington: The Life of Mary Washington by Martha Saxton

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Widow Washington: The Life of Mary Washington by Martha Saxton Kimberly Nath The Widow Washington: The Life of Mary Washington. By Martha Saxton. (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2019. Pp. xx, 360. $28.00, ISBN 978-0-8090-9701-2.) In The Widow Washington: The Life of Mary Washington, historian Martha Saxton reconstructs the life of Mary Washington, the mother of George Washington. Saxton notes that previous historians have neglected to tell the story of Mary Washington fairly and to write about her independently of her son. In her introduction Saxton states that Mary Washington has "clearly suffered from egregiously unfair treatment," and the author seeks to right this wrong by writing a book exclusively on her life (p. x). In addition to sidelining Mary's life story as a mere anecdote in George Washington's legacy, previous scholarship, Saxton argues, has cast Mary in a negative light by highlighting her slave ownership and her perceived aggression. The Widow Washington proceeds chronologically, beginning with Mary's childhood in the Chesapeake in the Ball household. Born Mary Ball, she had a difficult childhood marred by the death of her father when she was three years old and her mother when she was about twelve. Mary therefore inherited slaves at a young age, shaping her future life as a plantation mistress. Saxton's task is particularly ambitious as she notes that Mary did not leave a diary behind, and letters are scant. Saxton succeeds in combining the slim historical record left by Mary with a rich historiography. As Saxton progresses in telling Mary's life story, she provides the exhaustive details of daily life, including illness, financial challenges, and the need to marry well. For example, in chapters 5 and 6 we learn about Mary's life as a plantation mistress after she wed the widower Augustine Washington. She took on the responsibilities of the household and had children, five of whom survived childhood. One of the more striking sections of the book is the discussion of the hardships Mary faced after the death of her husband in 1743. Now "The Widow Washington," Mary had to not only manage her children and her household but also behave accordingly as a plantation mistress in charge of the daily affairs. Mary took over the running of the plantation and had to rule authoritatively. Saxton writes that historians have previously mischaracterized Mary's behavior as aggressive: "The judgment against Mary comes, of course, from ideas about [End Page 906] how women should behave, not the ugly realities of slave or worker management" (p. 159). In subsequent chapters, Saxton contextualizes Mary's actions within her precarious position as single mother and plantation overseer, one that required a firm hand that discomfited past historians because it did not conform to traditional femininity. In the final chapters of the book, the narrative follows the events of her children, including, of course, George Washington. The Seven Years' War and the American Revolution notably altered the lives of all members of the Washington family, though Mary's record of the events is scant. Saxton writes that "Mary never commented—at least in any document that has survived—on the events leading up to the Revolution or on the war itself except as it affected her crops and ability to feed her slaves and herself" (p. 227). Saxton largely relies on the historiography of the American Revolution and the timeline of events to construct this final portion of the book, although she does include a letter from Mary at the war's end and her reunion with George Washington on February 21, 1784. The book concludes with Mary's death at seventy-nine years old. Saxton succeeds in providing a fair analysis of Mary Washington and finally gives her a book of her own. Kimberly Nath University of Wisconsin–Whitewater Copyright © 2020 Southern Historical Association