George Washington's Step Grandson-in-Law

I recently finished reading You Never Forget Your First by Alexis Coe, a biography of George Washington. It was pretty good; I gave it 3 ½ out of 5 stars on Goodreads.com (follow me to share book recommendations and reviews). I learned a few new things, but what peaked my interest most, and caused me to look up further info, was this sentence here:

Betsy, their eldest granddaughter, had “Suprize[d]” them with an engagement...he (Washington) hoped that Thomas Law, a British citizen who had arrived from India with two of his three children, who were half-Indian, would be “fixed in America.”

Elizabeth Parke Custis (I wouldn’t want to run into her in a hemp field.)

George Washington’s granddaughter married a man who had three half-Indian children! It’s been suggested that Washington-maybe even Elizabeth- did not know that Law would be accompanied by his children (Wikipedia referencing (2)) but I could not find mention of that.  

How did Thomas Law get from India to the U.S.? How did he and Elizabeth Parke Custis hook up? What were the implications of him having biracial kids? What did others think of this? Did it affect his social standing? How and why did he end up bringing them across the world? Where was their mother? Who was their mother? What happened to Thomas and his boys?

With the small amount of research (Googling) I’ve done so far, it looks like Thomas Law was a man I would admire. He was handsome, worldly, enterprising, compassionate, and a humanitarian.

He rose through the ranks of the East India Company and was a reformer of British policy in India, formulating the basis for land tenure and taxation policy for natives during British rule. (1)

Law formed a long-term relationship with an Indian woman and they had three sons together. Due to his health and wanting more opportunities for his sons, Law left India for England. England proved to be problematic as well, and to escape the prejudice of “complexion,” (2) Law left with his two older sons for the U.S. colonies. 

I can’t find anything on how Eliza and Thomas met (he was twice her age), but being the headstrong girl she was, at 19, she engaged herself to him. She seems to have cared for his boys as her own, even after they had their own daughter together. (2) 

Thomas and Eliza seem to have never actually lived together. Eliza was certainly petulant and spoiled as a child (4), which presumably carried over as ill-tempered or peevish as an adult. Perhaps both she and Thomas were “prickly” sorts and just could not get along together. Law was definitely busy with his business ventures, as well as his philanthropic pet projects. The couple separated after eight years of marriage, divorcing six years later (an unusual occurrence for  the time). 

The two did not have an amicable post-marital relationship, but Eliza continued to keep in touch with her stepsons, and Thomas had custody of their daughter and paid an allowance to Eliza for the rest of her life. (1-4:)

Thomas survived his ex-wife and all of his children. He was involved in the arts as well as the political, social and economic life of D.C. He supported the abolition of slavery, as well as the colonization of free blacks outside the U.S. He wrote poetry and moral philosophy and eventually became an agriculturalist. I find Thomas Law’s life no less interesting a story than that of Alexander Hamilton: maybe Lin-Manuel Miranda can make a musical about him! 

Resources:

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Parke_Custis_Law

2. India in the American Imaginary, 1780s-1880s edited by Anupama Arora, Rajender Kaur

3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Law_(1756%E2%80%931834)

4. http://www.brightpathtours.com/WordPress/2017/05/martha-washingtons-grandchildren-part-i/

Shameless Erratic-a

It’s been a while... {Updated}

I didn't know what to write, even though there’s been a lot on my mind.

I read a book on the justice system and how it works against the poor and blacks (not to mention immigrants).

I read a book of sci-fi short stories and wondered a lot about quantum physics and why I just can’t seem to get some of the concepts, even when it’s allegorized for me. Am I missing that part of my brain?

I read an early draft of an adult fantasy novel for a fellow writer and am in awe of her determination to finish it and then follow through. 

There’s a lot to worry about right now... 

And I’m worrying about all of it. 

Americans seem to have a deathwish: healthcare, guns, our lunatic president, and now, showing indifference to or forgetting it’s Covid-19 time. Did you know there are actual Covid parties, where people gather with someone infected??  

My writer’s brain worries that this is the beginning of the end. Not an end to the world, but an end to the most. My writer’s brain wonders: will the virus kill off the older, making way for the younger, the ones who can change the world for the better, at a time when many troubling issues are coming to a head? will state borders close, civil war ensue between states that live strictly but more safely, and those that value freedom over all else (not to mention the underlying political and social reasons that have divided certain states’ sentiments all along). My writer’s brain marvels that it will not be a quick ending, like in the movies, but a long, drawn-out one. 

My mama brain worries about everything it always did, but it now has to worry about the kids getting sick or carrying, about them having enough social contact, and physical distance from those contacts. And of course, going back to school; there’s no good solution to that. 

We were recently self-isolating…

Someone we had contact with tested positive. We had to make calls to people we were hoping to see and worse, people we had seen. Even when two more tests revealed the person was actually negative, we were practically ostracized for the full two-week period. I can’t blame people (I'm freaked out about it too), but it’s a sucky feeling, especially happening to your kids.   

On the other hand, friends were very sweet and generous, offering to grocery shop for us, dropping goodies off and checking in with us.

But this is what life is going to look like from here on out for the foreseeable future. Be prepared to self-isolate. We are all going to come in contact with someone who either feels like they have it, or someone who tests positive, and you’re going to get that phone call too. You'll have to decide if you are going to do the right thing and tell people, or do the easy thing and hide it.

To bring some joy and distraction (complication) into all this…

We finally said yes to getting a dog. Which turns out to be a puppy, because in all the surrounding states, I could not find a “hypoallergenic” rescue. She has certainly been a distraction (and okay, some joy too), but I imagine it’s kind of like deciding to have a baby during wartime; there is an element of hope in the act, but too late, you wonder why you are bringing another life into this mad, mad, world.