From the window of a second-floor bedroom at Tudor Place in Georgetown, you can almost see clear across the Potomac to Arlington. Two hundred years ago, the same view would have been unobstructed by the trees and buildings that now stand in the way. Enslaved women who worked and lived at Tudor Place would hang their petticoats from this window to signal to their enslaved relatives across the water at Arlington House. This small subversive act captures the efforts of these women to restore the kinship bonds of their fractured families. Ancestral Spaces: People of African Descent at Tudor Place, a special installation and guided tour, reimagines the historic house from the perspective of the enslaved and free Black people who lived and worked there. 

From 1805 to 1983, Tudor Place was home to six generations of the Peter family, descendants of Martha Washington, who made their fortune through tobacco cultivation and land sales. Members of the family were meticulous record-keepers of their own stories, but the only written records of the enslaved people at Tudor Place exist in ledgers and lists, reducing each person to property. In 1805, the Peter family sold several of the enslaved Black people they inherited and others were sent to work on different Peter properties in Maryland, tearing apart families and communities. It is impossible to tell the story of Tudor Place without acknowledging the complexities of the family’s legacy. 

Tudor Place curator Rob DeHart collaborated with descendants of some of the enslaved people who lived and worked at Tudor Place, along with other local institutions, to pay homage to the enslaved and free laborers there. The installation, which opened on Feb. 6 and runs through April, is part of a larger mission to acknowledge the history of oppression at the Georgetown mansion, including research efforts to fill the spaces and gaps in the Tudor Place historical archive. Among those efforts is an archaeological excavation in May 2022 that revealed evidence of a dwelling used by the enslaved people on the property grounds. The Peter family, in all their detailed records, never mentioned such dwellings. Artifacts found in the 2022 excavation, along with maps, photographs, and audio recordings, paint a picture of the personalities and lives of the enslaved people rather than solely focusing on their labor. The hope of Ancestral Spaces is to alter the power dynamics of the house by working together with the descendants to tell the stories of their enslaved ancestors, giving them “decision-making power over the interpretation,” according to the exhibit’s press release.

Each stop on the guided tour invites visitors to see the house through the eyes of the enslaved and free laborers who worked there. In the dining room, fragments of ceramic plates found during the 2022 excavation rest on lace doilies amid a traditional table setting—each representing the fragmented family lives of the enslaved people.

In the drawing room, where one would typically see portraits of the Peter family, photos of the enslaved and free laborers and their various descendants adorn the walls and tables, juxtaposed with the myriad objects from the Washington Collection of fine art, ceramic, and silver. Lisa Fager, executive director of the Black Georgetown Foundation and co-curator of Ancestral Spaces, says the pictures on display remind viewers that the lives of the enslaved people at Tudor Place did not end here. Their strength persists through generations of descendants who carry on their legacy. 

The artifacts serve as visual prompts for associated audio clips, which pass on oral history directly from the individuals via their descendants. Next to a window overlooking the garden, for example, various gardening tools rest on a table below a portrait of John Luckett, who self-emancipated during the Civil War and was hired by Britannia Peter Kennon to work as a gardener in 1862, just before slavery was outlawed in the District. Luckett tended to the gardens but also taught Britannia’s grandsons to hunt, fish, and garden. He maintained his independence by living with his family in Southwest D.C. and walking to work every day. Luckett worked at Tudor Place for 44 years until his death in 1906. 

But Luckett’s relatively upbeat story is not the only one on display. Barbara Cole Williams was the daughter of Barbary, one of the 48 individuals inherited by the Peter family from the Custis estate in 1802. Williams gave birth to twins, Hannah and Barbara, in 1829 (baby Barbara died in infancy). However, the tour guide notes that DNA evidence suggests Hannah’s biological father was a member of the Peter family, possibly a son of Thomas and Martha Peter. This quickly mentioned fact is a harrowing reminder of the mistreatment of enslaved women at the hands of their male enslavers. 

Telling these stories requires sensitivity and honesty about the sometimes brutal facts and gruesome details. Urban slavery differed from plantation slavery in the amount of freedom afforded to laborers, but that doesn’t mean the Peter family was particularly gracious in “allowing” their laborers to attend whatever church they wanted or to live off-site with family. The piecemeal nature of the installation emphasizes how unimportant the enslaved people of Tudor Place were to the Peter family and any indication otherwise undercuts the poignancy of the missing pieces.

Fager hopes that Ancestral Spaces will inspire White people to be transparent about their own histories and come forward with information about any records of enslaved labor their family might have. The Black Georgetown Foundation oversees the oldest Black cemeteries in D.C. and continues to help put together and preserve the stories of historic Georgetown—a neighborhood that once was predominately Black. Because Tudor Place represents just one piece of daily life for many enslaved laborers, Fager recommends visitors go beyond the home to see where these people lived, went to church, and, later, were laid to rest. 

Neville Waters, the president of Black Georgetown’s board, offers a bit of advice to owners and caretakers of other historic homes and institutions interested in telling holistic stories of their enslaved labors:

“Ask for help from people who have done the research or who are descendants and have the powerful benefit of oral history,” he says. “The worst thing to do is to act like it didn’t happen. Better to try and fail then not even make the effort and sweep their stories under the rug.” 

Ancestral Spaces is a first step in the right direction for Tudor Place toward acknowledging the history of oppression at the heart of America and one that hopefully inspires other historic homes to follow suit—and not just for Black History Month. 

Ancestral Spaces: People of African Descent at Tudor Place runs through April 21 at Tudor Place Historic Home. tudorplace.org. $5–$10.