Bowden Family Reunion - George Washington Birthplace Virginia

Bowden Family Descendants to gather at George Washington Birthplace National Monument on June 19, 2010.  For those who do not know, June 19th is Juneteenth. That is the day when two years after the end of the Civil War, slaves in Texas got word that they were free. 

Mary (born February 20, 1730), and Patty (born 1750), were mother and daughter Indentured Servants at what is now George Washington Birthplace. Mary Bowden was the daughter of Mary Monroe (born 1710), who was the daughter of Lydia Hilliard (born about 1690), a white woman, and a Negro man.  In Colonial Virginia Mulattoes were required to serve Indentures (twenty years for males, thirty years for females). Mary Bowden was taken to the Washington Plantation when she was seven years old (1737), and her daughter Patty was born there.

This is our second family reunion at George Washington Birthplace in over ten years. George Washington Birthplace is now under the supervision of the National Park Services. The first reunion took place in October of 1999.