Monday, January 13, 2024
7pm ET (NYC Time)
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This talk introduces concepts from the speaker's upcoming class Sensing the Supernatural Dead: Relic Veneration and Corpse Inspection from the Late Middle Ages to Modern America, beginning February 6; more here.

Join professor of death, technology, and religion Jamie L. Brummitt for a richly illustrated talk about the ways early Americans mourned the death of George Washington by visiting his grave at Mount Vernon and collecting his locks of hair, coffin fragments, and handwriting, all in the hopes of communicating with his heavenly soul. In early America, Washington’s relics functioned as religious and political objects. Many people assumed Washington’s relics had the supernatural power to transform the minds, bodies, souls, of Americans into virtuous and patriotic citizens. Through these religious and political mourning practices, Mount Vernon became the sacred center of the early American republic, even as these relic practices became entangled in debates over slavery.

When George Washington died in December 1799, his Protestant family and friends wept, inspected his corpse for signs of salvation, and collected locks of his hair to keep as relics. Like other wealthy Virginians, he was buried in a small tomb on his estate, Mount Vernon, so his family could visit the grave. In the days after his death, the U.S. Congress passed “mourning resolutions” that urged all Americans to mourn for Washington in specific religious ways. Members of Congress also expected Washington’s corpse to be reinterred under the U.S. Capitol, so the building would be infused with his virtuous presence and visitors from all over the country could experience the spiritual power of his earthly remains. Congress developed plans to mark Washington’s new grave with a grand public monument—something that would express his eternal glory and immortality. While the resolutions did not use the words “religion” or “Protestantism,” they upheld white Protestant mourning practices as normative political practices for all Americans.

After Congress failed to agree on plans to reinter Washington’s remains and the best type of monument to erect in his honor, people of all denominations started making pilgrimages to the small family tomb at his Mount Vernon estate. On these trips, they expected to visit Washington’s corpse, experience his heavenly presence, and collect relics from his tomb. Charged with religious enthusiasm, pilgrims found themselves at a disappointingly small brick tomb on a working slave labor plantation. Many began to ask difficult questions: how could the sacred center of the republic be so entangled with the national sin of slavery—and why wasn’t the spirit of Washington doing anything about it.

Jamie L. Brummitt is a professor of death, technology, and religion at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. She earned her PhD from Duke University. Her book Protestant Relics in Early America examines relic veneration, corpse inspection, and the art of mourning from the Protestant Reformation to the early United States. She also writes about death, mourning, and relics in the American Civil War. When not studying death, Jamie likes hunting for relics at thrift stores, preserving relics, and watching supernatural TV shows.

Image: Currier and Ives, The Spirit of the Union, 1860, hand-colored lithograph, image: 11 3⁄8 x 8 1⁄2 in. (29.0 x 21.7 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the family of C. B. Shafer, 1971.297.