Hercules (Chef), -1812

Hercules "Uncle Harkless" Posey (1748 – May 15, 1812) was an African American man enslaved by the Washington family, serving as the family's head chef for many years, first at the family's plantation at Mount Vernon in Virginia and later, after George Washington was elected president of the newly formed United States of America, in the country's then-capital city of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania at the President's House, working alongside Oney Judge. Sometime in 1797, Posey absconded and fled to New York, where he lived until his death in 1812. He was legally manumitted upon Washington's death in 1799, though his children remained enslaved by Washington's wife, Martha Washington.
Hercules was probably born around 1754, and was acquired by Washington as collateral for an unpaid loan given to his neighbor John Posey, Hercules' original owner. He first appears on tax records for Mount Vernon in 1771. He would have grown up on the plantation.

He chose Alice, one of Martha Washington's "dower" slaves, as his wife, and they had three children: Richmond (born 1777), Evey (born 1782), and Delia (born 1785). He, Alice, and the three children were listed in the February 1786 Mount Vernon Slave Census, which records him as one of two cooks in the Mansion House. Alice died in 1787. Following her death, he may have had another daughter (born c. 1791).
Hercules was one of nine enslaved Africans brought to Philadelphia in 1790 by Washington to work in the presidential household. The others were his son Richmond (then 13 years old), Oney Judge, Moll, Austin, Christopher Sheels, Giles, Paris, and Joe (Richardson).

In the memoirs of Martha Washington's grandson, G.W.P. Custis, Hercules was recalled as "a celebrated artiste ... as highly accomplished a proficient in the culinary art as could be found in the United States." The cook was given the privilege of selling the extra food from the Philadelphia kitchen which, by Custis's estimate, earned him nearly $200 a year, the annual salary of a hired cook. According to Custis, Hercules was a dapper dresser and was given freedom to walk about in the city.

Pennsylvania passed a gradual abolition law in 1780 which prohibited non-residents from holding slaves in the state longer than six months. If held beyond that period, the state's Gradual Abolition Act gave slaves the legal power to free themselves. Members of Congress were specifically exempted from the act. Officers of the executive and judicial branches of the federal government were not mentioned since those branches didn't exist until the U.S. Constitution was ratified in 1788.

When the national capital moved to Philadelphia in 1790, there was a question about whether the state law would apply to federal officials. Washington argued (privately) that he was a citizen of Virginia, that his presence in Pennsylvania was solely a consequence of Philadelphia's being the temporary national capital, and that the state law should not apply to him. Rather than challenging the state law in court, Washington took the advice of his attorney general, Edmund Randolph, and systematically rotated the President's House slaves in and out of the state to prevent their establishing a six-month continuous residency. This rotation was itself a violation of Pennsylvania law, but no one challenged the President's actions. The U.S. Supreme Court later found Pennsylvania's 1788 amendment to the Gradual Abolition Act to be unconstitutional in Prigg v. Pennsylvania.


Washington allowed Hercules' son Richmond to work alongside his father in the Philadelphia kitchen for about a year, before returning him to Virginia. In November 1796, Richmond was implicated in a theft of money at Mount Vernon. Washington had suspicions that the father and son were planning a joint escape.

Hercules, a member of the Mount Vernon enslaved community, became widely admired for his culinary skills displayed after George Washington's first retirement following the American Revolution. Washington appreciated Hercules' skills in the kitchen so much that he brought him from Mount Vernon to Philadelphia to live and work in the presidential household. Hercules, however, later ran away, one of the few instances of a member of Mount Vernon’s enslaved community successfully escaping during Washington's lifetime. Hercules first appears in the historic record for the Mount Vernon Estate in George Washington's list of tithables (persons for whom taxes had to be paid) in 1770. Previous to his arrival at Mount Vernon, Hercules worked as a ferryman for Washington’s neighbor John Posey. In 1767, Hercules was mortgaged to Washington and became the ferryman at the Mansion House Farm for the Washingtons. Since slaves were first listed in tithable lists at age sixteen, Hercules was likely born sometime in or around 1754. Hercules was married to Alice, a Custis family dower slave owned by Martha Washington. The couple had three children during their marriage: Richmond (1777), Evey (1782), and Delia (1785). Although it is not known exactly when Hercules started working as a cook at Mount Vernon, the 1786 Mount Vernon slave census lists him as the chief cook at the Mansion House.
Hercules was one of nine slaves brought by George Washington to Philadelphia in 1790 to work in the President's House. Hercules' cooking was very much loved in the Washington household, and was "familiarly termed Uncle Harkless," according to Washington's step-grandson George Washington Parke Custis. Custis described Hercules as "a celebrated artiste . . . as highly accomplished a proficient in the culinary art as could be found in the United States."

Due to his culinary prowess, Hercules was able to bring his son Richmond, to Philadelphia. He was also given other special privileges not entitled to most of Washington's slaves. According to Custis, Hercules accrued a salary of "one to two hundred dollars a year," by selling leftovers, known as slops, from the presidential kitchen. Hercules was a "celebrated dandy," in the words of Custis, and the chef kept an equally meticulous kitchen: "Under his iron discipline, wo[e] to his underlings if speck or spot could be discovered on the tables or dressers, or if the utensils did not shine like polished silver."

Different accounts provide varying reasons for Hercules' decision to escape to freedom. In The Private Affairs of George Washington, Stephen Decatur Jr., the American naval hero and a descendent of Washington's secretary Tobias Lear, described Hercules as being so enamored by Philadelphia that when Washington left to return to Mount Vernon in 1797, Hercules chose to run away. Decatur notes that "although diligent inquiries were made for him, he was never apprehended."
However, other records indicate that Hercules escaped in early 1797, soon after being made a regular laborer at Mount Vernon instead of his usual chef duties. The Washingtons often returned their slaves to Mount Vernon from Philadelphia to circumvent a Pennsylvania law that allowed slaves to claim freedom after residing in the state for a minimum of six months. Weekly reports from Mount Vernon indicated that Hercules and other male house servants were put to work with the bricklayers and gardeners in early 1797. Hercules was most likely not needed in the kitchen at the time, due to a lack of visitors to Mount Vernon while George and Martha Washington lived in Philadelphia.

Washington was angered and confused by the decision to run away, believing that Hercules lived a privileged life, having even received three bottles of rum from Martha to "bury his wife" in September of 1787. On March 10, 1797, Washington expressed to Tobias Lear that he wanted Hercules to be found and returned to Mount Vernon, as soon as possible.11 Washington was so distressed by the absence of the family chef that he even wrote to Major George Lewis on November 13, 1797, about buying a slave in Fredericksburg who was reputed to be an excellent chef. Washington stated that while he "had resolved never to become the master of another slave by purchase," because of Hercules' absence, "this resolution I fear I must break."

Washington's last will and testament, written in July 1799 before his death that December, provided for the eventual emancipation, care, and education of his slaves, following the death of Martha Washington. However, he had no legal control over whether the Custis family dower slaves would gain their freedom. As a result, Hercules' children remained enslaved, even after Martha Washington’s death in May 1802.