Mr Costin, Gent
In 1842, a respected Washington, DC, resident, a Black man, died in his sleep at 62. Peers described him as “upright” and “honorable”. His obituary said he possessed “unflinching integrity” and portrait shows a genteel, serious figure in a top hat and fine clothes gazing at the viewer through spectacles. That man, William Costin, was listed in the 1820 census as “colored.” He was also quite likely Martha Washington’s grandson - the child of her son from her first marriage, John “Jacky” Parke Custis, and an enslaved woman.