George and Martha Washington never had biological children, but they raised several children together who would become fierce protectors and promoters of Washington's legacy, as historian Cassandra A. Good (Founding Friendships) reveals in her enlightening and entertaining First Family. The children of Martha Washington's son by her first marriage take center stage: Eliza, Patty, Nelly, and Wash Custis were "four proud but profoundly flawed people" clinging to the celebrity of their illustrious step-grandfather, George Washington. Raised in the glare of the public eye, the Custis grandchildren would be the ones remembered as "George Washington's family," while blood-related nieces and nephews sank into obscurity.
Good charts the development of the Custises in tandem with the events that shaped them: the deaths of George and Martha, the War of 1812, the Mexican-American War, slavery, and the rise of abolitionism. The ruptures and political divisions of the young republic were clearly discerned within the Custis family itself, as Good reveals through rich primary source material. Anti-Federalist Eliza clashed often with her siblings, particularly the ardent Federalist and Anglophile Patty, while all publicly positioned themselves as "the standard-bearers of George Washington's legacy." Good effectively explores the Custis clan's troubled views and actions regarding slavery, and argues that their decision to "hold most of their enslaved people in bondage was not inevitable; it was a choice." First Family is an illuminating study of one eminent family's rise and demise in a nation struggling to live up to the ideals of its most celebrated founder. --Peggy Kurkowski, book reviewer and copywriter in Denver