Patty Allen

Patty Allen (c. 1770 – after 1831), enslaved wife and mother, who labored as a cook for the Peter family of Tudor Place in Georgetown, D.C., was born about 1770, likely in New Kent County, Virginia. The names of Patty’s parents, and the origin of her surname, are unknown. The first record of Patty comes from a December 1771 list of enslaved people, compiled by George Washington, describing his and his stepson, John Parke Custis’s, enslaved holdings in York, New Kent and King William Counties, Virginia. Under Custis’s New Kent County “Old Quarter” list, Patty is named, aged one year. If Patty’s mother survived childbirth, she is likely also named on this list. Unfortunately, Patty’s mother was not explicitly identified on the final list forwarded to Washington, the future first president of the United States.

As a child born enslaved to John Parke Custis, Patty knew the inhumanity of the institution of slavery; in particular, that enslaved people were considered personal property and could be sold or moved at the will of their enslaver, or their enslaver’s heirs, upon his or her death. John Parke Custis (1754-1781) was Martha Washington’s only surviving son from her first marriage to Daniel Parke Custis (1711-1757), and when he came of age, John Parke Custis inherited nearly three hundred enslaved people and thousands of acres of land from his father’s estate. When he died intestate in November 1781, John Parke Custis’s own estate was exposed to a long process of liquidation. Part of the process involved inventorying each house and farm held by Custis, in order to make equal division of his land and personal property among his widow and four children. In the New Kent County inventory taken in April 1782, it is likely that Patty Allen is either “Patt” and “Little Patt,” both named under the “girls” heading. Patty was 11 years old.

While Custis’s estate was being resolved, Patty likely continued living and laboring in New Kent County at the “Old Quarter.” John Parke Custis’s four young children could not legally claim their inheritance, which included an equal division of the enslaved people, until they either married or reached the age of majority. This left the people enslaved to John Parke Custis in limbo for many years; up to twenty years, in some cases. It is important to acknowledge the fear and anxiety that Patty, as well as the hundreds of others enslaved to the Custis family, certainly felt during this period. Patty would have had no control over where she would be sent to live and work, or to whom of the Custis children she would be enslaved.

In 1795, fourteen years after John Parke Custis’s death, Patty was moved to the newly-formed District of Columbia as part of Martha Parke Custis’s patrimony upon her marriage to Thomas Peter (1760-1834) the same year. Martha Parke Custis (1777-1854) was John Parke Custis’s second daughter and the first to marry. The structure of Martha Peter’s 1795 patrimony list indicates that the enslaved were grouped together by families, with husbands, wives, and children; or, mothers and children. Following this track, Patty (age 25) was listed with her husband, Joe (age 27), and their sons, Tom (age 10), and Harry (age 7). While Patty was kept in the District of Columbia, her husband Joe was imported into Montgomery County, Maryland by Thomas Peter. The fates of Joe and Patty’s children, Tom and Harry, are unknown. In any event, Patty was separated from her family, likely forever.

After they married, the Peters lived at a rented townhouse on K Street in Georgetown, before moving to the property on which Tudor Place was built in 1805. It is presumed that Patty was enslaved to the Peters at both properties. According to Britannia Peter Kennon (1815-1911), daughter of Thomas and Martha Peter and owner of Tudor Place after her parents’ deaths, while enslaved by the Peters at Tudor Place, Patty lived with her free husband off the property. Britannia recalled that “every night, she [Patty] went home to her husband, who was free, and every morning—be the weather good or bad—she was in the kitchen at the crack of day.” For Patty to be permitted to live off Tudor Place property was an extraordinary arrangement. While free African American men could receive permission from their wives’ enslavers to visit periodically, enslaved women were typically not afforded the same courtesy. Contemporary records detailing this arrangement between Patty and her enslavers have not been found, but such documentation would be integral to understanding the Peters’ approach to the dynamics of slavery, particularly in an urban environment. 

Britannia Peter Kennon’s reminiscences, from which Patty’s living arrangement is recalled, offer little context to place Patty’s free husband in time and space. Unfortunately, his name and when they married is unknown. Separated from her family, and living in an unfamiliar place, Patty likely sought new relationships, such as her second marriage, to feel a sense of comfort and kinship ties in a new community.

Every day, Patty labored as the cook for the Peter family. A cook’s role required skill and experience, so it is likely that Patty learned these skills from a family member while in New Kent County, and as such, was prepared to take on the role of cook when moved to Tudor Place. Patty’s days began very early, as Britannia recalled, as she would not only have had to build the cooking fires, but also walk from her home elsewhere in Georgetown to Tudor Place. During Patty’s enslavement, the kitchen was separate from the main house, so in some ways, it became her domain. She kept logs on the “great open fireplace” which required a constant eye on the state of their burn. Patty used an “old Dutch oven, a crane and innumerable pots and kettles” to prepare meals at Tudor Place. With this cookware, Patty likely prepared meals such as bread puddings, soups and stews and roasted meats for the Peters and their guests.

Though Patty was forced to live as personal property of the Peters, she was part of a larger community of free and enslaved African Americans in Georgetown. Before 1831, “Patty Allen” appears on a list titled “Communicants of the Coloured People” at Christ Church, Georgetown, along with another woman enslaved by the Peters, Eliza Gray. Patty was about 60 years old, and this record serves as the only source for her surname. It is also the last known record for Patty, whose death date is unknown. Patty’s attendance at Christ Church, Georgetown, late in her life, revealed her own part of the unique and resilient culture of the enslaved and emancipated people living in Georgetown. In some ways, Patty existed in both worlds of the enslaved and the free, straddling them as necessitated by her legal status as an enslaved woman, yet somewhat independent of the severe restrictions placed on her contemporaries.