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Buried lives : the enslaved people of George Washington's Mount Vernon
A look at the complex relationships between George Washington and the enslaved people of Mount Vernon, and the history still being uncovered there through archeological digs. Includes a foreword by a descendant of one of the enslaved people highlighted in the book.
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“To Get Quit of Negroes”: George Washington and Slavery
George Washington died much as he lived, stoic, dignified, controlled to the very end. True to form, his last moments, much like his life, saw him surrounded by slaves. At daybreak on the day he died – Saturday, 14 December 1799 – Caroline, a housemaid, bustled into his room to make a fire. Three other slaves fetched the physicians, who ministered to the dying General. Washington's body servant, twenty-four-year-old Christopher, otherwise known as Christopher Sheels, attended his master throughout the long day of his last illness. Indeed, in the afternoon Washington motioned Christopher to take a seat by his bedside as he had been standing throughout his vigil. At the moment of death, blacks outnumbered whites in the room. Caroline, Charlotte, a seamstress, and Molly, a domestic, were all standing near the door, and Christopher was by the bed, while only three whites – Dr. James Craik, his primary physician and old friend; Tobias Lear, his secretary; and Martha Washington, his wife – were present. At Martha's behest, Christopher aroused Lear from his grief by asking him to take care of the General's keys and other personal items which the body servant had taken out of the dead man's pockets. On the day after Washington's death, Frank Lee, the family's mulatto butler, Christopher, and Marcus, another house servant, received new shoes so that they would look presentable at the funeral.
Journal Article
Master George's people : George Washington, his slaves, and his revolutionary transformation
As the first President of the United States of America and the Commander in Chief who led a rebel army to victory in the Revolutionary War, George Washington was a legendary leader of men. He had high expectations of his soldiers, employees, and associates. At his Virginia plantation, Mount Vernon, his expectations of his workers were no different: \"I expect such labor as they ought to render,\" he wrote. Except there was a big difference. The workers who kept Mount Vernon operating were enslaved. And although Washington called them \"my people,\" by law they were his property. The Founders birthed a document celebrating \"Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness\" as unalienable rights at the same time people were being bought and sold. But the people of Mount Vernon were so much more, and they each have compelling stories to tell.
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George Washington and the Problem of Slavery
Slavery was not the most important issue for which George Washington
is remembered; nor were his views on the institution as revealing as those
of some of his fellow Founding Fathers. But Washington was a
slaveowner for all of his adult life and he lived in Virginia, which was
dominated by tobacco plantations based on slave labour. Slavery was
central to the socio-economic life of the Old Dominion: after 1750 40 per
cent of the North American slave population lived there and the first
United States census of 1790 showed 300,000 slaves in Virginia. The
tobacco they produced was the most valuable staple crop grown in North
America. At his home Mount Vernon, situated on the upper Potomac
river overlooking the Maryland shore, Washington created an estate,
based on the latest agricultural practice, that was also a set of plantation
farms centred around the work of enslaved Africans. Slavery, then, was
clearly a persistent part of Washington's life and career. Because of this
and his pre-eminent position in American public life, Washington's use of
slave labour and his views on an important paradox of American history
in the revolutionary era – the coexistence of slavery and liberty – deserve
close attention. One man's dilemma in dealing with the morality of his
own slaveholding was mirrored in the broader context of what the United
States could or would do about the problem of slavery.
Journal Article
\The only unavoidable subject of regret\ : George Washington, slavery, and the enslaved community at Mount Vernon
\"American historians began producing in-depth studies of slavery and slave life shortly after World War II, but it was not until the early 1980s that the country's museums took the first tentative steps to interpret those same controversial topics. Perhaps because of the tremendous amount of primary material related to George Washington, almost no one looked into the lives of Mount Vernon's enslaved population. Incorporating the results of detailed digging, of both the archaeological and archival varieties, the number of chapters grew as further questions arose. While a few scholars outside Mount Vernon turned their attention to Washington's changing ideas about slavery, they largely overlooked the daily lives of those who were enslaved on the estate, a subject about which visitors expressed a desire to know more. The resulting book makes use of a wide range of sources, including letters, financial ledgers, work reports, travel diaries kept by visitors to Mount Vernon, the reminiscences of family members, former slaves, and neighbors, reports by archaeologists, and surviving artifacts to flesh out the lives of a people who left few written records, but made up 90 percent of the estate's population. The book begins with a look at George and Martha Washington as slaveowners, before turning to various facets of slave life ranging from work, to family life, housing, foodways, private enterprise, and resistance. Along the way, readers will see a relationship between Washington's military career and his style of plantation management, learn of the many ways slaves rebelled against their condition, and get to know many of the enslaved people who made Mount Vernon their home\"-- Provided by publisher.
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Never caught, the story of Ona Judge : George and Martha Washington's courageous slave who dared to run away
\"Born into a life of slavery, Ona Judge eventually grew up to be George and Martha Washington's \"favored\" dower slave. When she was told that she was going to be given as a wedding gift to Martha Washington's granddaughter, Ona made the bold and brave decision to flee to the north, where she would be a fugitive. From her childhood, to her time with the Washingtons and living in the slave quarters, to her escape to New Hampshire, [this book] is an intimate glimpse into the life of a little-known, but powerful figure in history, and her brave journey as she fled the most powerful couple in the country\"-- Provided by publisher.
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