Syphax, Maria Carter, 1804-1886

Shortly after Charles and Maria married, Custis made arrangements to free Maria. He also gave her a 17-acre plot on his Arlington plantation, where she and her family lived as free people. The Syphaxes would go on to have 10 children, many of whom became leaders in the local community. Their son William Syphax served as Chief Messenger for the U.S. Department of the Interior. Through William’s efforts, his mother was able to retain the rights to her Arlington property when the U.S. government confiscated Custis’s estate after the Civil War.

The National Park Service staff at Arlington House now present Syphax’s lineage as definitive. Custis freed Maria and her children in 1845. (Slave Manumissions in Alexandria Land Records, 1790-1863, Alexandria Hustings Court deed books, E-3:425, transcribed at http://www.freedmenscemetery.org/resources/documents/manumissions.shtml). He also gave her a seventeen acre plot of land, her claim to which was recognized by the federal government via an act of Congress (Statutes at Large, 39th Congress, 1st Session, p. 589, Chapter 121 – An Act for the Relief of Maria Syphax, June 12, 1866). She told a newspaper reporter in 1888 “I am General Custis’ daughter. He told me so face to face” (“Lovely Arlington,” Morning Star (Rockford, IL), September 4, 1888). Further research is pending on whether Custis fathered other children with enslaved women, as contemporary accounts and descendants’ oral histories suggest.

Maria Carter Custis Syphax
BIRTH 1804
Arlington County, Virginia, USA
DEATH 1886 (aged 81–82)
Arlington, Arlington County, Virginia, USA
BURIAL
Lincoln Memorial Cemetery
Suitland, Prince George's County, Maryland, USA
PLOT Section E, Lot 251, Site 2
MEMORIAL ID 81502491 · View Source

Charles Syphax married another enslaved person, Maria Carter. Both had been enslaved at Mount Vernon where they had worked as household servants. Maria Carter Syphax was the daughter of Arianna Carter, an enslaved maid of George and Martha Washington and later George Washington Parke Custis. In 1826, Mr. Custis gave Maria Carter Syphax and her children their freedom and a seventeen-acre plot within the Arlington plantation. The Syphaxes had ten children who lived as free persons on the estate. According to Syphax family tradition, George Washington Parke Custis was the father of Maria Carter Syphax.