Correcting Identities

This image and information was sourced from our friends Royall House & Slave Quarters, as they also do the work of providing access to American and Black history in truth.
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"The man is NOT chef James Hemings, enslaved to Thomas Jefferson. And he is NOT chef Hercules Posey, enslaved to George Washington. (In fact, he's also NOT wearing a chef's hat!)

Google will tell you otherwise, but please trust us: Google can be wrong!
@IrememberOurHistory®
The man's identity is unknown, but the latest scholarship suggests the sitter may be Dominican, based on his "extraordinary lace-topped linen or silk cap and elegant clothing."

Read more from George Washington's Mount Vernon: https://www.mountvernon.org/.../slavery/mistaken-identity...

There is No known image of Jefferson's enslaved chef and Sally's brother James Hemings, nor of Washington's enslaved chef Hercules Posey.

Nineteenth-century French chef Marie-Antoine Carême is credited with creating the tall white toque we think of as a chef's hat c. 1820, after both Hemings and Posey were dead. "
@IrememberOurHistory®
Image description:
Circle of Sir Joshua Reynolds (?)
Portrait of a Man from the Island of Dominica (?)
ca. 1770 - 1780
Oil on canvas. 76 x 63.5 cm
Inv. no. 383 (1983.37)
Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid