Census: Washington is 'blackest name' in America

In a puzzling twist, most of these people are black.

The 2000 U.S. Census counted 163,036 people with the surname Washington. Ninety percent of them were black, a far higher percentage than for any other common name.

The story of how Washington became the "blackest name" begins with slavery and takes a sharp turn after the Civil War, when all blacks were allowed the dignity of a surname.

Even before Emancipation, many enslaved black people chose their own surnames to establish their identities. Afterward, some historians theorize, large numbers of blacks chose the name Washington in the process of asserting their freedom.

Today there are black Washingtons, like this writer, who are often identified as black by people they've never met. There are white Washingtons who are sometimes misidentified and have felt discrimination. There are Washingtons of both races who view the name as a special - if complicated - gift.

And there remains the presence of George, born 279 years ago on Feb. 22, whose complex relationship with slavery echoes in the blackness of his name today.

Washington freed slaves

George Washington inherited land and 10 human beings from his father, and gained more of both as he grew older. But over the decades, as he recognized slavery's contradiction with the freedoms of the new nation, Washington grew opposed to human bondage.

Still, "slaves were the basis of his fortune," and he would not part with them, says Ron Chernow, author of the new biography "Washington: A Life."

By the standards of the time, Washington was not a harsh slaveowner. He recognized marriages and refused to sell off individual family members. But he also worked his slaves hard. As president, he shuttled them between his Philadelphia home and Virginia estate to evade a law that freed any slave residing in Pennsylvania for six months.

While in Philadelphia, Oney Judge, Martha Washington's maid, learned Martha was planning one day to give her to an ill-tempered granddaughter. Judge disappeared. According to Chernow's book, Washington abused his presidential powers and asked the Treasury Department to kidnap Judge from her new life in New Hampshire. The plot was unsuccessful.

In his final years on his Mount Vernon plantation, Washington said that "nothing but the rooting out of slavery can perpetuate the existence of our union."

This led to extraordinary instructions in his will that all 124 of his slaves should be freed after the death of his wife. Washington also ordered that the younger black people be educated or taught a trade, and he set aside money to care for the sick or aged.

Twelve American presidents were slaveowners. Washington is the only one who set all of his black people free.

Surnames unrecorded

It's a myth that most enslaved blacks bore the last name of their owner. Only a handful of George Washington's hundreds of slaves did, for example, and he recorded most as having just a first name, says Mary Thompson, the historian at Mount Vernon.

Still, many enslaved blacks had surnames that went unrecorded, says historian Henry Wiencek, author of "An Imperfect God: George Washington, His Slaves, and the Creation of America."

Last names also could have been plucked out of thin air.