Early in our tour of Mount Vernon, our guide Betty Brown made an important point. Those lives we would learn about today will be referred to as enslaved people, not slaves, “to help us all remember that first and foremost they were people who had slavery forced upon them.”
My wife, Carol, and I had come to Mount Vernon to participate in the “Enslaved People’s Tour,” at the Mansion House Farm, site of George Washington’s iconic home. At the time of his death in 1799, Washington owned several plantations all dependent on the labor of hundreds of enslaved people. What we know today about them comes from a mixture of archaeology, George Washington’s voluminous record keeping and oral tradition.
Standing at the circle in front of the mansion, Brown explained that George Washington designed his home, and designed the grounds, but it was the enslaved people who did the physical labor. He had a master builder, “but enslaved men built that house,” she said.
The house today looks as it did in 1799. Our view of the mansion was marred by scaffolding covering the western side as workers made repairs and repainted it in its original cream color. The rhythmic tapping of hammers played out as we watched a job that slaves once would have done.
On the day of our visit, the weather was unseasonably cold with a bitter wind. I asked how enslaved people working the fields would be dressed on such a day.
“They were provided with two sets a clothing — a winter set and a summer set,” Brown said.
The summer set was linen, including a shift for both sexes, a jacket and a pair of trousers for the men and skirt for the women. The winter garments were similar, but made of wool. They received one pair of shoes a year. Field slaves would soon find themselves clothed in tatters. It wasn’t hard to imagine how miserable those ill-clothed people must have been, especially on a day like today.
Household slaves were usually mixed race and wore better clothes than their counterparts. Many of the men wore Washington’s expensive red and white livery, while housemaids wore simple gowns.
None of the structures where slaves actually lived is still standing. Brown led us to the reconstructed slave barracks, flanking the greenhouse. The original barracks, built in the early 1790s, may have housed slave families, but today, each wing is interpreted as a women’s and as a men’s barracks. In the bunk room of the women’s barracks, where about a dozen women and children might have lived, we noted a fireplace, corn bread in a pan, a spinning wheel and bunk beds. Children most likely slept on the brick floor and engaged in work like hauling water or weeding gardens. Weekly rations consisted of cornmeal and fish, supplemented by small plots for growing vegetables and raising chickens and ducks.
Some of the inhabitants of the barracks had spouses working at Washington’s other plantations. This led to a practice of “night walking.” Brown told us about George and Nathan, enslaved blacksmiths at Mount Vernon, whose wives, Lucy and Lydia, were field hands on an outlying farm. At dusk on Saturday night, the two men would walk several miles to visit their wives, then get up in the dark on Monday morning to get back by dawn.
“George Washington did not like it because he thought they were too exhausted on Monday to really give a full day’s work,” Brown said.
Other enslaved people lived in cabins, simple one-room structures with wooden clapboards daubed with Virginia clay, dirt floors, and a fire place. Mount Vernon has a replica cabin, built on the Pioneer Farm, not far from the Mansion. Later, as we looked in at the cabin, we tried to imagine a family, or even an extended family living here. Poorly insulated and rudely constructed, these cabins housed ill-clothed people with barely a blanket to keep them warm.
Before the barracks were built, some enslaved people at Mount Vernon lived in the House for Families, a brick structure that once stood near the Washington’s mansion. Archaeological digs at this site have revealed remains of buttons, buckles,and other personal ornaments, purchased by enslaved people with money made by selling eggs, or chickens, or perhaps artifacts of their own making. Much of this produce was sold back to the Washingtons.
“They were individuals, they wished to express that individuality, and if they could have a fancy shoe buckle or sew a button on their clothing to express themselves, they were going to do that,” Brown said.”
We also visited the several original dependency buildings, where slaves worked at washing, spinning, curing, and salting.
Unlike many slave owners, George Washington recognized marriages between his enslaved people and typically avoided separating families. He provided medical care for them. Some male slaves were allowed to use guns for hunting to supplement diets for themselves and their families. And in his will, he provided for the emancipation of his slaves upon his death.
Yet, on several occasions, he sold “problem” slaves to the West Indies, a cruel fate where they faced early death laboring under horrendous conditions at the sugar plantations there.
Ultimately, to Washington, his slaves were economic units.
“He treated them as equipment that had a job to do, and he took care of them so that they could produce to their highest potential,” Brown said.
Our tour ended at the cemetery were the remains of many slaves are buried in unmarked graves. Brown handed out brief biographies of several enslaved persons at Mount Vernon, and asked that we read them each aloud. One in particular left several of our group in tears.
Kitty, a dairy maid and spinner, married to Isaac, a carpenter, who both worked at the Mansion House farm. They had nine daughters. When George Washington freed his slaves in his will, Isaac was emancipated. Because Kitty was owned by the family of Martha Washington’s first husband, the Custis family, according to the law, her daughters were, too. Kitty and her two youngest daughters were inherited by Martha Washington’s granddaughter, Eliza Parke Custis Law. The other children were dispersed among Martha Washington’s other grandchildren.
“It’s just very soul-searching to try to comprehend and understand the lives of these people … I want to learn more and be able to teach my grandchildren more information about what really happened,” said Gary Stuedemann of Beloit, Wisconsin, a member of our group.
Brown then told us the story of John Newton, the captain of a slave ship, who had an epiphany leading him to renounce slavery. He later became an Anglican clergyman and wrote the text to “Amazing Grace.” Brown recited the first lines:
Amazing Grace how sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me
I once was lost but now I am found
Was blind but now I see
“It is certainly our hope that you are able to see a little more clearly the high, high value of these enslaved people at Mount Vernon,” Brown said.
After our tour, we walked to the Donald W. Reynolds Museum to view “Lives Bound Together,” an exhibit examining the intertwined lives of the Washington family and the enslaved people on their property. Among the items on display are artifacts unearthed at the House of Families, including plates, pottery, and buttons, and George Washington’s will from 1799 in which he mentions his intention to free his slaves upon his death.
I asked Carol later her impressions of the tour. She said she couldn’t get that remark about treating slaves as equipment out of her mind.
Nor could I.
James F. Lee, jameslee@bucknell.edu
If you go
Mount Vernon
3200 Mount Vernon Memorial Highway, Mount Vernon, VA 22121
(703) 780-2000 www.mountvernon.org
Mount Vernon is approximately a three-hour drive from Hampton Roads.
The property is owned and operated by the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association of the Union, a private, nonprofit that receives no government funding. General admission ticket includes a tour of the mansion, also outbuildings (many original), the tombs of George and Martha Washington, the estate’s four gardens, and the slave memorial. The Donald W. Reynolds Museum and Education Center tells the story of Washington’s life through gallery displays, videos, exhibits, and an interactive movie. Also on display see Lives Bound Together: Slavery at George Washington’s Mount Vernon exhibit through Sept. 30, 2020.
Although admission to the Enslaved People Tour is free, tickets are required. Check website for dates and times. The tour lasts about 60 minutes.
Mount Vernon is open November through March, 9 a.m.-4 p.m. and April through October, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Admission, adults $20, youth (6-11) $12, and children younger than 5 free. Military discounts $6 off adult admission. Purple Heart Recipients free.
