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www.newsindiatimes.com – that’s all you need to know Dr. Sudhir M. Parikh Founder, Chairman & Publisher Ilayas Quraishi Chief Operating Officer Ela Dutt Editor T. Vishnudatta Jayaraman Washington D.C. Bureau Chief Archana Adalja Contributing Editor Arun Shah Ahmedabad Bureau Chief Peter Ferreira, Deval Parikh, Freelance Photographers Bhailal M. Patel Executive Vice President Chandrakant Koticha-Rajkot, India Executive Director Business Development Jim Gallentine Business Development Manager - U.S. Shahnaz Sheikh Senior Manager Advertising & Marketing Sonia Lalwani Advertising Manager Shailu Desai Advertising New York Muslima Shethwala Syed Sheeraz Mahmood Advertising Chicago Digant Sompura Consultant for Business Development Ahmedabad, India Hervender Singh Circulation Manager Main Office Editorial & Corporate Headquarters 1655 Oak Tree Toad, Suite 155 Edison, NJ 08820-2843 Tel. (212) 675-7515 Fax. 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Postmaster: Send address change to News India Times, 1655 Oak Tree Toad, Suite 155 Edison, NJ 08820-2843 Annual Subscription: United States: $28 Disclaimer: Parikh Worldwide Media assumes no liability for claims/ assumptions made in advertisements and advertorials. Special Report: July 4thHistory News India Times (July 6 - July 12, 2024) July 12, 2024 3 The Forgotten South Asian Boys In GeorgeWashington’s Family - Continued On Page 4 O n Jan. 6, 1796, GeorgeWashington, the sitting president in the temporary capital of Philadelphia, wrote a long letter to his teenage step-granddaughter with relation- ship advice. ThoughWashington never had biological children, he helped raise quite a few, including his stepchildren from his wife’s previous marriage, and his step- children’s children, like Eliza Custis. Don’t play too hard to get, he advised her, but don’t be too forward either. Try to pick a husband your own age, “for youth and old age, no more than winter & Summer, can be assimi- lated,” he wrote. It’s best to pick an American from a “known” family with “visible property” and stable wealth. You should feel some passion for the guy, he told her, but that will fade, so it’s more important he be a friend you have known for a while. Eliza, bless her heart, didn’t listen. Soon after, she an- nounced her engagement to a man more than twice her age, Thomas Law. He was a “nabob,” an Englishman who had lived in India. Though his wealth was significant, it was not stable, having been invested in risky land speculation. And the scandalous cherry on top? Law had three mixed- race sons from a previous relationship with a South Asian woman he hadn’t married. George, John and Edmund Law were among the first known people of South Asian descent in America, and by a twist of fate, they ended up joining one of its most prominent families. Their improbable and surprising lives are coming into focus thanks to new research by historian Rosemarie Zagarri, who is working on a book about them. “Partly because of their racial ambiguity as South Asians rather than Black, they were able to cross boundaries more easily,” Zagarri said. “But also because of their high social class, they gained a lot of acceptance.” When Law met Custis, he had been in America with two of his sons for about a year. Born into an aristocratic family near Cam- bridge, England, Law had joined the British East India Company as a teen, rising through the ranks, building a fortune and – like a lot of colonial officials, Zagarri said – maintaining a long-term relationship with a local woman. Historians have usually referred to her as a “mistress” or “concubine”; Zagarri uses the word “companion.” Her name is unknown – Law was careful never to mention it in his records – but she and Law were together long enough to produce three children between 1784 and 1791. When Law returned to England in 1791 after 18 years abroad, he took the boys with him, a move Zagarri said “was not un- heard of but was unusual.”What became of his companion is unclear. “This is part of the story of colonization, in that the mothers, the wives, the native women are erased,” Zagarri said. For decades, many of the mixed-race children of British colonial officials ended up in orphanages, while others were educated in England and returned to work for the East India Company. But in 1786, the company got a new boss, Lord Charles Cornwallis (fresh from defeat in the American Revolu- tion), who imposed rules limiting opportunities for mixed-race children. The clampdown may have been part of Law’s motiva- tion to emigrate, Zagarri said. “By coming to America,” Law wrote later, “one object was to settle my natural children where a variety of climate reconciles differences of complexion & where there are not such strong prejudices.” In port towns like Salem, Mass., which had ties to trade in Asia, seeing South Asian sailors would not have been out of the ordinary, Zagarri said. But these sailors were visitors, not immigrants, and outside of those areas, they were unheard of. Law brought two of his sons, George and John, with him across the Atlantic, leaving the youngest boy, Edmund, in Eng- land with an aunt. He set up temporarily in NewYork City, flush with cash and looking for property, and soon joined a group of investors buying up land in what would becomeWashington, D.C., on the bet that its value would skyrocket as the federal government took shape there. “He would go back and forth from NewYork to visit the na- scent nation’s capital, and he would stop in Philadelphia on the way, and that’s apparently where he met Eliza,” Zagarri said. Even before the engagement, Eliza – smart, moody and with a tendency to ride a horse around town in a military uniform – was a frequent subject of the rumor mill. Afterward, it hit a whole new level. John Adams gossiped about the mixed-race boys to his wife. Eliza’s stepfather, David Stuart, tried to get Law to abandon the boys before the wedding, Law later claimed. Vis- itors commented on the “olive” skin tone of Law’s “Asiatic” sons. MarthaWashington supported the pairing, though that might have been mostly because she hoped marriage would calm her granddaughter down. GeorgeWashington “wasn’t thrilled about it,” Zagarri said, though in letters, he seemed more concerned about the couple’s 21-year age difference. Still, the wedding took place, and at first, the eccentric couple’s future looked bright. They moved toWashington City, as the new capital was called, establishing themselves among its elite. Eliza embraced the boys, insisting they call her “Mother,” and soon gave birth to a daughter, also named Eliza. George Washington wrote about doting on the baby girl but never men- tioned the boys – “the silence probably says a lot,” Zagarri said – though all three probably visited his Mount Vernon plantation. The good times didn’t last. The oldest boy, George, died sud- denly, and Eliza chafed under the strictures of marriage. Law threw himself into work, becoming a sort of public intellectual, always advocating for some big idea: canal building, import- ing Indian goods, ending slavery. When he left for England on a business trip in 1802, he refused to take his wife with him, enraging her. Law returned nearly two years later with a couple of surprises in tow: his third son Edmund – of whom Eliza does not seem to have been aware – and a French mistress. The couple legally separated in 1804, a rare move at the time, and divorced in 1811. Eliza maintained a warm relationship with her stepsons, but her relatives (excluding George and MarthaWashington, who had died long before the separation) turned on Law and his male progeny. John and Edmund were sent to Harvard and Yale, respective- ly. They became naturalized American citizens – a reflection of their privilege since onlyWhite people were eligible at the time. Class trumping racial ambiguity happened more back then than we might assume today. For example, there’s compelling evidence that young GeorgeWashington’s best friend, George William Fairfax, had noticeable African ancestry via a mixed- race Caribbean mother. Fairfax’s sister Ann, who would have had the same African ancestry, marriedWashington’s older half brother, Lawrence, bringing with her a fortune and connections galore. The Fairfax siblings’ father, Col. William Fairfax, was one By Gillian Brockell Photo:Videograb,Facebook/TheWhite House President Joe Biden, First Lady Jill Biden, VP Kamala Harris and Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff for a Fourth of July celebration at the White House.