Reparations

The disturbing truth is that, at this point, there is little surviving information about the woman named Milly who was known to have been enslaved by the Washington family at Mount Vernon. First enslaved by John Augustine Washington II and later his son, Washington III, Milly was hired out to Alexandria Theological Seminary (now Virginia Theological Seminary) in late December of 1858 at the age of 55. Washington entered into a transaction with Charles H. Bland, who represented the Seminary. Said transaction arranged for Milly to labor at the Seminary for some, as yet unknown, period of time. Who Milly called mother and father, who she loved and was loved by, and when she died are all as yet undiscovered.

* There is another woman named Milly that appears on the list of persons enslaved by John Augustine Washington III. She was born in 1850 and was only eight years old in 1858 making it less likely that she was the woman hired out to the Seminary in that year.