Washington Duke
| Washington Duke | |
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Statue of Washington Duke at Duke University's East Campus
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| Born |
George Washington Duke December 18, 1820 Orange County, North Carolina |
| Died | May 8, 1905 (aged 84) |
| Spouse(s) | Mary Caroline Clinton (1825–1847) m. 1842–1847 Artelia Roney (1829–1858) m. 1852 |
| Children | Sidney Taylor Duke (1844–1858) Brodie Leonidas Duke (1846–1919) Mary Elizabeth Duke (1853–1899) Benjamin Newton Duke James Buchanan Duke |
| Parent(s) | Taylor Duke (c1770–1830) Dicey Jones (born c1780) |
George Washington Duke (December 18, 1820 – May 8, 1905) was an American tobacco industrialist and philanthropist who fought in the American Civil War.
Washington Duke was born on December 18, 1820 in eastern Orange County, North Carolina, in what is today the township of Bahama. The eighth of ten children of Taylor Duke and Dicey Jones, Washington worked as a tenant farmer until he married Mary Caroline Clinton in 1842. At the time of their marriage, his father-in-law gave the couple 72 acres of land located in what is today Durham County. It was on this land that he began his career as a subsistence farmer. The couple had two sons: Sidney Taylor Duke, and Brodie Leonidas Duke. Mary Duke died in 1847 at the age of 22.
In 1852, Duke built a homestead for his second wife, Artelia Roney, who was from Alamance County, North Carolina. It still exists. Artelia gave birth to three children between 1853 and 1856: daughter, Mary Elizabeth Duke, and sons, Benjamin Newton Duke, and James Buchanan Duke (more commonly known as "Buck"). In 1858, oldest son Sidney caught typhoid fever and died. Artelia, who had been caring for Sidney, also succumbed to the illness ten days later.
Very little is known about Duke's antebellum views on politics. However, a majority of people in the Piedmont region of North Carolina leaned towards the Unionist position. Furthermore, the region's views on the issue of slavery was more of ambivalence, rather than strong feelings in favor or in opposition to slavery, and "while substantial numbers of white in the piedmont were not directly connected to the institution [of slavery], they nonetheless mostly accepted its presence without thinking." It is known that Duke owned one enslaved person, named Caroline, whom he purchased for $601, and had hired out the labor of an enslaved person from his neighbors to work on his farm.
At the outbreak of the American Civil War, Duke was 40 years old, too old for the initial conscription into service for the Confederacy. However, the second Confederate Conscription Act passed in September 1862 increased the draft-eligible age to 45. Duke, aware that he would soon be called into military service, held a sale at his home on October 20, 1863, to sell the entirety of his farm equipment. He enlisted in the Confederate navy, and served in Charleston, SC, and Richmond, VA, until his capture by Union forces in April 1865. After a brief stint in a Federal prison, he was paroled and was sent by ship to New Bern, and from there, walked 134 miles back to his homestead.
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