Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, September 18, 1994                   TAG: 9409200065
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: D-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: MOUNT VERNON                                LENGTH: Medium

DESCENDANTS PAY THEIR RESPECTS TO GEORGE WASHINGTON'S SLAVES

``You can feel the slaves around here for some reason. You can feel their aura,'' said Quander-Smedley, of Hyattsville, Md., one of about 500 people who gathered Saturday for the annual wreath-laying ceremony at the Mount Vernon slave memorial. ``You can hear the songs they used to sing while they worked, and the cries when they were beaten.''

The oval granite memorial, erected in 1983, is in a wooded grove where Washington's slaves were buried in unmarked graves more than 200 years ago.

Every year, the ceremony provides an opportunity for many black residents to reflect on their often-painful history and the progress that has been made since slavery was ended.

``Slavery was an abomination in this nation, it was a cancer in the belly, it was a sickness in the mind,'' said Parren J. Mitchell, who was the first black member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Maryland, serving from 1970 to 1987.

``Before I'll be a slave, I will be buried in my grave and go home to my Lord and be free,'' Mitchell added, quoting a song sung by slaves.

Several speakers at the ceremony - held on a grassy hill overlooking the Potomac River, next to Washington's former home - suggested that the Mount Vernon memorial is in some ways the black community's own Holocaust museum, forcing younger generations to remember past struggles.

The ceremony also emphasized the connection between black Americans and their African heritage, as many in the crowd wore kente cloth. A drumbeat sounded as each of the names of the 317 slaves that Washington owned at the time of his death were read.

``Here, at this very place, many people suffered,'' said Alfredo Lopes Cabral, the ambassador from Guinea-Bissau. ``I am not here to complain. I am not here to cry. I am here to get inspiration. These people who died paved the way for us.''

Quander-Smedley attended the ceremony with about 15 family members. Nancy Quander, their ancestor, was a spinner on Washington's 8,000-acre plantation. She worked at the plantation's River Farm and was 13 when Washington died in 1799.

``When the black people who worked so hard for so long here died, they were just dumped into a grave,'' said Rohulamin Quander, a Washington lawyer and the family historian who also attended the ceremony. ``They had a hope for a better tomorrow. They had a strong faith in God. We are here to show them our love and respect, even if it is belated.''

Nancy Quander did not die a slave. In accordance with Washington's will, Quander and the rest of his slaves were freed when he died. She and her family settled nearby, and today there are more than 1,300 Quanders across the country, more than 220 of whom gathered in Northern Virginia three weeks ago for a family reunion.

English boxwood twigs, grown from a Mount Vernon garden presumably planted by slaves in 1798, were passed out at the end of the ceremony and then laid at the foot of the memorial as those in the crowd passed by.