There's a remarkable little story in today's Washington Post Magazine about Yarrow Mamout, a former African slave beloved of the prominent Georgetown families and tradesmen in early 19th century Washington. James H. Johnston's conversational style draws the reader into the life of a man all but forgotten except to a few local historians. He's more than a local curiosity, however. From African slave to well-to-do Georgetown local, Yarrow's life expresses the worst and best of early American culture.
At the core of the story are two portraits of the man. One portrait in particular shows great skill and sympathy. Charles Willson Peale (whose sons would out shine him among early American artists) not only painted him, but sought out the acquaintance after reading about him in a local report. It's a rare portrait of an African American, and a muslim.
Of the meeting and subsequent portrait, Johnston quotes from Peale's diary:
"I spend [spent] the whole day & not only painted a good likeness of him, but also the drapery & background." The next morning, Peale went back to Yarrow's house to touch up the painting and to investigate further. His diary continues:
"Yarrow owns a House & lotts and is known by most of the Inhabitants of Georgetown & particularly by the Boys who are often teazing him which he takes in good humour. It appears to me that the good temper of the [m]an has contributed considerably to longevity. Yarrow has been noted for sobriety & a chearfull conduct, he professes to be a mahometan, and is often seen & heard in the Streets singing Praises to God -- and conversing with him he said man is no good unless his religion comes from the heart . . . The acquaintance of him often banter him about eating Bacon and drinking Whiskey -- but Yarrow says it is no good to eat Hog -- & drink whiskey is very bad. I retouched his Portrait the morning after his first setting to mark what rinkles & lines to characterise better his Portrait."
Johnston does a fantastic job piecing together disparate sources of information: maps, wills, obituaries, court and bank documents, contemporary newspapers, and local oral tradition. It's classic analytical "dot-connecting" that doesn't end with Yarrow's passing. It's a fascinating look into life of a little old muslim man who lived through extreme depravation yet prospered in early America:
He was about 83 when Peale painted him, and died four years later, on January 19, 1823. This last was documented in an obituary in the Gettysburg Compiler of February 12, 1823. The obituary's wording is so similar to Peale's diary entry that Peale himself may have written it:
"Died -- at Georgetown, on the 19th ultimo, negro Yarrow, aged (according to his account) 136 years. He was interred in the corner of his garden, the spot where he usually resorted to pray . . . it is known to all that knew him, that he was industrious, honest, and moral -- in the early part of his life he met with several losses by loaning money, which he never got, but he persevered in industry and economy, and accumulated some Bank stock and a house and lot, on which he lived comfortably in his old age -- Yarrow was never known to eat of swine, nor drink ardent spirits."
