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Jahmond Quander, the Founder of Arrived Hospitality Inc., 1799 Prime Steak & Seafood, & 1799 Prime Kitchen shares his family ancestry & connection to President George Washington. In a full-circle moment in his life, Jahmond returned to George Washington’s Mount Vernon, as the Director of Food & Beverage.

Documented from the 1670s, the Quander Family is one of the oldest documented African American Families that have come from African ancestry to present day America. Historians have not found records of any other African American Family whose ancestry has been consistently kept and published from that date and early period.

In researching the family lineage, records showed that the majority of the Quander family resides in Virginia, Maryland & Washington DC. The family can trace their lineage almost 350 years into the 1670’s in Colonial Maryland. A branch of the family eventually was placed at Mount Vernon in Virginia as the enslaved servants of President George Washington.

The Quanders originated from the Fanti tribe in Ghana, West Africa. A man by the name of Egya Amkwandoh was kidnapped during the African slave trade in the late 17th century and was apparently transported to the Maryland colony. It is thought that when slave owners asked for his name, the reply “Amkwandoh,” was misinterpreted as “I am Quando.” The next few generations of Quanders went by the name Quando rather than Quander. Other variations used included Quandoe and Kwando. The name became recognized as the present-day pronunciation “Quander” during the early 19th century.

It is believed that Egya Amkwandoh had two sons, who were both taken away from him and split up. One son resided in Maryland and the other son resided in Virginia. The first known records of the “Quando” family existing as free people come from the Maryland side, specifically the family member of Henry Quando. Henry Adams, the enslaver, from Port Tobacco, Charles County, Maryland, provided for Quando’s freedom in his will of October 13, 1684. Further, the descendant Quandos/Quanders that currently reside in Virginia are widely believed to be related to George Washington. Nancy Carter Quander & her mother Sukey Bay were among the slaves who worked as spinners & cloth makers at River Farm, one of George Washington’s Five Farms that constituted the Mount Vernon Plantation & Estate.

Finally, the significance of naming of 1799 Prime Steak & Seafood is revealed. George Washington’s will provided for the manumission and freedom of his 123 enslaved people, but he postponed their release until Martha’s death. George Washington died on December 14, “1799.” On the first anniversary of George Washington’s death, Martha Washington signed a deed of manumission, which took effect on January 01,1801, fully freeing Washington’s enslaved people. On that date, Nancy Carter, who shortly thereafter married Charles Quander, a freed black man, was fully emancipated. Remaining in the Mount Vernon area, Nancy Quander was among the eleven freed people reported in the *Alexandria Gazette* in 1835, as attending the tombstone & landscape at Washington’s grave. To the reporter’s inquiry, the group noted that they were paying their respects & attributed their loyalty to George Washington, whom they claimed to have been like a father.

When I pondered the thought of naming my first restaurant “1799 Prime Steak & Seafood,” I reflected on my life’s goals & achievements. The longer I pondered, memories of my forefathers & their struggles to ensure a healthy lifestyle for their family came to mind. In order for my forefathers to achieve that healthy lifestyle, they needed guidance from others to direct their path. That pathway has led me to establish 1799 Prime Steak & Seafood.