Born June 2, 1732 (New Kent County, Virginia)
Died May 22, 1802 (Mount Vernon, Virginia)

First lady

The lives of prominent eighteenth-century women were rarely recorded in any detail. Yet women played as vital a role as men in early America. Women managed the household duties, including food preparation and storage, sewing, giving birth to and caring for numerous children, and over-seeing the health of the entire family. Martha Washington performed all these duties but on a grander scale than most women. She was a member of the wealthy planter class, which meant she had to oversee the household operations of large plantations. Her first husband, Daniel Parke Custis (1711–1757), was the richest man in Virginia. After his death, she remarried military hero and large landowner George Washington (1732–1799; see entry in volume 2). The wealth she brought to her second marriage ensured the success of Washington's plantation, Mount Vernon.

Washington became the...