Eleanor Parke Custis (Lewis) to Elizabeth Bordley (Gibson), Washington City, Feb. 7th, 1796. What does George Washington's granddaughter have to do with the invention of race in the early U.S. republic? Find out in this week's episode! Many thanks to Allison Robinson, a PhD. candidate at the University of Chicago and predoctoral fellow at the Smithsonian Institution for sharing her knowledge and being a lovely guest! Further Reading: The text of the letter is from "George Washington's beautiful Nelly : the letters of Eleanor Parke Custis Lewis to Elizabeth Bordley Gibson, 1794-1851," edited by Patricia Brady, University of South Carolina Press, 1991, pg. 23-25 This episode would not be possible without the INCREDIBLE RESEARCH of Rosemarie Zagarri of George Mason University. Her chapter "The Empire Comes Home: Thomas Law's Mixed Race Family in the Early Republic," pp. 75-108 in the book "India in the American Imaginary, 1780s-1880s", edited by A. Arora and R. Kaur, 2017, is where we got all of our information on Thomas Law. Eleanor Parke Custis: https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/eleanor-nelly-parke-custis/ Elizabeth Parke Custis: https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/elizabeth-parke-custis-law/ Japanning: https://www.britannica.com/art/japanning NARRATIVES/COUNTERNARRATIVES: TWO CENTURIES OF RACE, GENDER, AND CLASS IN AMERICAN MATERIAL CULTURE: https://voices.uchicago.edu/reproducingraceandgender/ John and Abigail Adams Letters: https://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/archive/doc?id=L17960223ja&hi=1&query=nabob&tag=text&archive=all&rec=1&start=0&numRecs=3 https://www.masshist.org/digitaladams/archive/doc?id=L17960305aa&rec=sheet&archive=all&hi=1&numRecs=3&query=nabob&queryid=&start=0&tag=text&num...