Documented national history states that the nation's first president had no children. But the oral history of the descendants of this African American family tells a different story.
the controversy
Many people will believe the story of George Washington fathering a slave son. Others will find it difficult, if not impossible, to believe that Washington had an intimate relationship with a slave named Venus. Their fateful union during the era of antebellum slavery produced a son, West Ford.
the secret
As time and space distanced the Ford family from its beginnings at Mount Vernon, each generation continued to walk a precarious line, bearing the weight of their heritage and battling issues of skin color, status, and identity. Linda Allen Bryant, a descendant of West Ford, pens her family's narrative history in I Cannot Tell a Lie. Their genealogy is rich in adventure, love, tragedy, sacrifice and courage-a story that will haunt you long after you turn the last page.
