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In 1760, 49 slaves lived and worked on the estate; by 1799 that number had increased to over 300. Although the ratio had improved by 1799 to around 2:1, the Mount Vernon estate had grown by only 10 percent to some 8,000 acres (3,200 ha) while the working slave population had grown by 65 percent to 201. However, there were several circumstances that arose following the American Revolution that would prevent “From one end of his papers to the other, I looked for some sense of racism and found none, unlike Jefferson, who’s explicit on his belief in the inferiority of Black people. Some slaves at Mount Vernon participated with local, organized Christian congregations, to some degree. As punishment, he whipped her with a hickory switch, a reprisal Washington deemed “very proper.” Charlotte’s response—that she had not been whipped for 14 years—suggests that physical punishment was sporadic, but not unheard of, at Mount Vernon. His valet, William Lee, was freed immediately and his remaining 123 slaves were to be emancipated on the death of Martha. Running away was a risky venture that often did not succeed. Thus it was that Judge, an especially talented seamstress, and Hercules escaped in 1796 and 1797 respectively and eluded recapture. In 1793, farm manager Anthony Whitting accused Charlotte, an enslaved seamstress, of being “impudent,” by arguing with him and refusing to work. It was a trend that threatened to bankrupt Washington. "[186], Henriques identifies Washington's concern for the judgement of posterity as a significant factor in Washington's thinking on slavery, writing, "No man had a greater desire for secular immortality, and [Washington] understood that his place in history would be tarnished by his ownership of slaves. [103][116], Washington's early views on slavery were no different from any Virginia planter of the time. [9][a], Agricultural land required labor to be productive, and in the 18th-century American south that meant slave labor. In his will, Augustine left his son the 280 acre family farm near Fredericksburg, Virginia. [87] There is evidence to suggest that white overseers – working in close proximity to enslaved people under the same demanding master and physically and socially isolated from their own peer group, a situation that drove some to drink – indulged in sexual relations with the enslaved people they supervised. Skilled Trades. They belonged to the Custis estate and were held in trust by Martha for the Custis heirs, and although Washington had no legal title to them, he managed them as his own property. At his death he possessed over 80,000 acres (32,000 ha). Never Caught, the Story of Ona Judge: George and Martha Washington's Courageous Slave Who Dared to Run Away; Young Readers Edition by Erica Armstrong Dunbar and Kathleen Van Cleve | Aug 18, 2020 4.7 out of 5 stars 174 [282], Washington went beyond the legal requirement to support and maintain younger slaves until adulthood, stipulating that those children whose education could not be undertaken by parents were to be taught reading, writing, and a useful trade by their masters and then be freed at the age of 25. [308][309][310], George Washington's relationship with slavery. This book examines George Washington's evolving views about slavery over his lifetime. Other sources suggest the interiors were smoky, dirty and dark, with only a shuttered opening for a window and the fireplace for illumination at night. Those plans failed because of his inability to raise the finances necessary, the refusal of his family to approve emancipation of the dower slaves, and his own aversion to separating enslaved families. At war’s end, Washington demanded without success that the British respect the preliminary peace treaty which he said required return of escaped slaves without exception. Influences … From the mansion to lush gardens and grounds, intriguing museum galleries, immersive programs, and the distillery and gristmill. His action was ignored by southern slaveholders, and slavery continued at Mount Vernon. [141][144], The first indication of a shift in Washington's thinking on slavery appears during the war, in correspondence of 1778 and 1779 with Lund Washington, who managed Mount Vernon in Washington's absence. A kinder-than-average slave owner was still a slave owner, and Washington was not one to tolerate disobedience or attempted escapes. Phillis Wheatley was an enslaved woman brought to Boston from West Africa at just seven years of age. The Slave Trade Act of 1794 was a law passed by the United States Congress that limited American involvement in the international slave trade.It was signed into law by President George Washington on March 22, 1794. [241][199] In 1786, the ratio of productive to non-productive slaves was approaching 1:1, and the c. 7,300-acre (3,000 ha) Mount Vernon estate was being operated with 122 working slaves. [70] Despite the stress and anxiety caused by this indifference to family stability – on one occasion an overseer wrote that the separation of families "seems like death to them" – marriage was the foundation on which the enslaved population established their own community, and longevity in these unions was not uncommon. [132] The historian Edmund Sears Morgan explained that Washington was not alone in this regard: "Virginia produced the most eloquent spokesmen for freedom and equality in the entire United States: George Washington, James Madison, and, above all, Thomas Jefferson. [39] He was constantly disappointed with enslaved workers who did not share his motivation and resisted his demands, leading him to regard them as indolent and insist that his overseers supervise them closely at all times. [271] Historian Henry Wiencek rendered this judgment:[272], “If you look at Washington’s will, he’s not conflicted over the place of African Americans at all,” Wiencek said in an interview. [209], The support of the southern states for the new constitution was secured by granting them concessions that protected slavery, including the Fugitive Slave Clause, plus clauses that promised Congress would not prohibit the transatlantic slave trade for twenty years, and that empowered (but did not require) Congress to authorize suppression of insurrections such as slave rebellions. [284], Any hopes Washington may have had that his example and prestige would influence the thinking of others, including his own family, proved to be unfounded. Apple. He provided his enslaved population with basic food, clothing and accommodation comparable to general practice at the time, which was not always adequate, and with medical care. [232] In 1798, he imagined just such a conflict when he said, "I can clearly foresee that nothing but the rooting out of slavery can perpetuate the existence of our union. "George Washington was a slave owner and that is a fact." Slavery was a system in which enslaved people lived in fear; fear of being sold, fear of being separated from their families or their children or their parents, fear of not being in control of their bodies or their lives, fear of never knowing freedom. "[261] In discussing another of Washington's plans, drawn up after he had written his will, to transfer enslaved workers to his estates in western Virginia, Philip Morgan writes, "Indisputably, then, even on the eve of his death, Washington was far from giving up on slavery. Those who accepted Christianity became "Christian servants" with time-limited servitude, or even freed, but this mechanism for ending bondage was gradually shut down. leave Virginia and move up north). At the end of his life, Washington made the decision to free all his slaves in his 1799 will - the only slave-holding Founding Father to do so. ", “By the River Potomac": An Historic Resource Study of Fort Hunt Park, George Washington Memorial Parkway, Mount Vernon, Virginia, What They Didn't Teach You in American History Class: The Second Encounter, The Only Unavoidable Subject of Regret: George Washington, Slavery, and the Enslaved Community at Mount Vernon, "A Dinner at Mount Vernon: From the Unpublished Journal of Joshua Brooks (1773–1859)", "Art Fraud, A 218-year old Cold Case, and the History Detectives From WHS", "How Did George Washington Treat His Slaves? Spend the day with us! In his old age, Anderson said he was "a much happier man when he was a slave than he had ever been since", because he then "had a good kind master to look after all my wants, but now I have no one to care for me". [258], Wiencek writes that if Washington had found buyers for his land at what seemed like a fair price, this plan would have ultimately freed "both his own and the slaves controlled by Martha’s family",[259] and to accomplish this goal Washington would "yield up his most valuable remaining asset, his western lands, the wherewithal for his retirement. George Washington enslaved more than 100 human beings, and he signed the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793, authorizing slavers to stalk runaways … On October 1, 2016, the Mount Vernon Museum opened a new and groundbreaking exhibition called “Lives Bound Together: Slavery at George Washington’s Mount Vernon.” The exhibition explores the long and complex relationship between George Washington and his slaves and his evolving … Previously, he led Patriot forces to victory in the nation's War for Independence.He presided at the Constitutional Convention of 1787, which established the U.S. Constitution and a federal … [300] When Judge was interviewed in the 1840s, she expressed considerable bitterness, not at the way she he had been treated as a slave, but at the fact that she had been enslaved. Enter your mobile number or email address below and we'll send you a link to download the free Kindle App. Morgan gives a different account of the 1775 purchase, writing that Washington resold the slave because of the slave's resistance to being separated from family and that the decision to do so was "no more than the conventional piety of large Virginia planters who usually said they did not want to break up slave families – and often did it anyway". [101] In general, the best chance of success lay with second- or third-generation African-American enslaved people who had good English, possessed skills that would allow them to support themselves as free people and were in close enough contact with their masters to receive special privileges. However, we have to be careful not to romanticize this. Washington and his wife Martha together owned about 200 slaves at the beginning of the Revolution, but at the end of his life the couple owned 317 slaves together. Martha Washington quickly freed all of her late husband's slaves upon his death (mostly out of fear for her life since the slaves… The free African-American population in Virginia rose from some 3,000 to more than 20,000 between 1780 and 1800; the 1800 United States Census tallied about 350,000 slaves in Virginia, and the proslavery interest re-asserted itself around that time. Because cloth and clothing were commonly stolen, Washington required seamstresses to show the results of their work and the leftover scraps before issuing them with more material. George Washington lived in Philadelphia, then the nation's capital, from 1790 to 1797, and had eight enslaved people working in his household. This book examines George Washington's evolving views about slavery over his lifetime. After marrying Martha Dandridge Custis in January of 1759, George Washington's slaveholdings increased dramatically. This video is part of our Ask Mount Vernon series where our experts answer questions submitting by students from all over the country. "[68] Only thirty-six of the ninety-six married slaves at Mount Vernon in 1799 lived together, while thirty-eight had spouses who lived on separate farms and twenty-two had spouses who lived on other plantations. He became skeptical about the economic efficacy of slavery before the American Revolutionary War when his transition from tobacco to grain crops in the 1760s left him with a costly surplus of enslaved workers. The True George Washington: Master and Employer: Treatment of Slaves. Of that total, he owned 124, leased 40 and controlled 153 dower slaves. Another source of loss was sickness, which, in spite of all Washington could do, made constant inroads on the numbers. Mount Vernon’s enslaved community took opportunities, when possible, to physically escape their enslavement. [118][119], There is little evidence that Washington seriously questioned the ethics of slavery before the Revolution. Kenneth Morgan states that Washington purchased the slaves. In his later years, George Washington believed that harsh and indiscriminate punishments could backfire and urged overseers to motivate workers with encouragement and rewards. Lund sold nine enslaved including the two females, in January 1779. Influences from both African and European religious practices can be found amongst Mount Vernon’s enslaved population. The more valuable married males were raffled together with their wives and children; less valuable slaves were separated from their families into different lots. [123] The historians Philip D. Morgan and Peter Henriques[e] are skeptical of Wiencek's conclusion and believe there is no evidence of any change in Washington's moral thinking at this stage. In 1667, the Virginia Assembly passed a law that barred baptism as a means of conferring freedom. [275][p], Washington's slaves were the subjects of the longest provisions in the 29-page will, taking three pages in which his instructions were more forceful than in the rest of the document. Others used their time to play games and sports. [44] Between 1766 and 1799, seven dower slaves worked at one time or another as overseers. [83][84][c], The probability of paternal relationships between enslaved and hired white workers is indicated by some surnames: Betty and Tom Davis, probably the children of Thomas Davis, a white weaver at Mount Vernon in the 1760s; George Young, likely the son of a man of the same name who was a clerk at Mount Vernon in 1774; and Judge and her sister Delphy, the daughters of Andrew Judge, an indentured tailor at Mount Vernon in the 1770s and 1780s. A souvenir replica of George Washington’s dentures has been pulled from the Mount Vernon site after protests that the teeth were pulled from slaves… By age twelve Wheatley began writing poetry and by eighteen had become well-known for the publication of an elegy she wrote commemorating the death of a prominent preacher. 250–253, 273–275, 285, Presentation by Mary Thompson on Washington and Slavery, February 20, 1999, 'The Only Unavoidable Subject of Regret': George Washington and Slavery, "'The Only Unavoidable Subject of Regret'", The Life of General Washington, First President of the United States, From George Washington to The States, 8 June 1783, If We Can Keep It: How the Republic Collapsed and How it Might Be Saved, Notes on the proposed abolition of slavery in Virginia in 1785, Deliver Us from Evil: The Slavery Question in the Old South, "George Washington – Yale University Press", "slave, Abram (at Pamocra; New Kent County, Va.)", No Property in Man: Slavery and Antislavery at the Nation’s Founding, With a New Preface, City of Sedition: The History of New York City during the Civil War, Encyclopedia of Constitutional Amendments, Proposed Amendments, and Amending Issues, 1789-2002, Invisible in Plain Sight: Self-Determination Strategies of Free Blacks in the Old Northwest, Slavery and the Founders: Race and Liberty in the Age of Jefferson, Student Almanac of African American History: From slavery to freedom, 1492-1876, Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation, Founding Friendship: George Washington, James Madison, and the Creation of the American Republic, “How America’s Founding Fathers Missed a Chance to Abolish Slavery”, "Why Did Martha Washington Free Her Husband’s Slaves Early? To make the Adults among them as easy & as comfortable in their circumstances as their actual state of ignorance & improvidence would admit; & to lay a foundation to prepare the rising generation for a destiny different from that in which they were born; afforded some satisfaction to my mind, & could not I hoped be displeasing to the justice of the Creator. As the widow of a wealthy planter who died without a will in 1757, Martha’s share of the Custis estate brought another eighty-four enslaved people to Mount Vernon. Two years later, on taking command of the Continental Army at Cambridge at the start of the American Revolutionary War, he wrote in orders to his troops that "it is a noble Cause we are engaged in, it is the Cause of virtue and mankind...freedom or Slavery must be the result of our conduct. The sources are contradictory on Washington's negotiations to accept slaves from Mercer in settlement of a debt. George Washington's Views on Slavery In his writings, George Washington felt very strongly that slavery was an institution that needed to be eliminated from American society. [181][184][185] Washington wrote in despair to Lafayette: "Some petitions were presented to the Assembly at its last session for the abolition of slavery, but they could scarce obtain a reading. [172][173], Washington was not impressed by what Dorothy Twohig – a former editor-in-chief of The Washington Papers – described as the "imperious demands" and "evangelical piety" of Quaker efforts to advance abolition, and in 1786 he complained about their "tamper[ing] with & seduc[ing]" slaves who "are happy & content to remain with their present masters". "[141], During the war, some 5,000 African Americans served in a Continental Army that was more integrated than any American force before the Vietnam War, and another 1,000 served on American warships. [6][7][8] In 1757, he began a program of expansion at Mount Vernon that would ultimately result in an 8,000-acre (3,200 ha) estate with five separate farms, on which he initially grew tobacco. I can only say that there is not a man living who wishes more sincerely than I do, to see a plan adopted for the abolition of it – but there is only one proper and effectual mode by which it can be accomplished, and that is by Legislative authority: and this, as far as my suffrage will go, shall never be wanting. [288][q], Able-bodied slaves were freed and left to support themselves and their families. By the mid 1800s, a son of Washington's carpenter Davy Jones and two grandsons of his postilion Joe Richardson had each bought land in Virginia. Washington understood there was little widespread organized support for abolition. George Washington owned slaves and relied on their labor—and, as Erica Armstrong Dunbar reports for the New York Times, he used legal loopholes to avoid freeing them even as … Speaking Thursday at the fourth annual George Washington Lecture—the intellectual component of GW’s recognition of its namesake’s birthday —Dr. George Washington: 600 + Yes (1789–1797) Washington was a major slaveholder before, … [283] Other founders (if not founding fathers) freed their slaves, including John Dickinson and Caesar Rodney who both did so in Delaware. Have them complete the worksheet, “Of Human Bondage: George Washington and the Issue of Slavery,” for each document. [181][182][183] Washington privately conveyed his support for such legislation to most of the great men of Virginia,[184][181] and promised to comment publicly on the matter by letter to the Virginia Assembly if the Assembly would begin serious deliberation about the Methodists' petition. Mount Vernon offers a 45-minute guided walking tour highlights the lives and contributions of the enslaved community who built and operated Mount Vernon, the plantation home of George and Martha Washington. Between 1792 and 1794, while Washington was away from Mount Vernon as President, the number of days lost to sickness increased tenfold compared to 1786, when he was resident at Mount Vernon and able to control the situation personally. A kinder-than-average slave owner was still a slave owner, and Washington was not one to tolerate disobedience or attempted escapes. In his will, Washington authored a bill of rights for Black people and said they should be taught to read and write. The son-in-law of Custis's sister wrote in 1853 that the descendants of those who remained slaves, many of them now in his possession, had been "prosperous, contented and happy", while those who had been freed had led a life of "vice, dissipation and idleness" and had, in their "sickness, age and poverty", become a burden to his in-laws. In one case, Washington suspected an enslaved person of frequently avoiding work over a period of decades through acts of deliberate self harm. [56] There are few sources which shed light on living conditions in these cabins, but one visitor in 1798 wrote, "husband and wife sleep on a mean pallet, the children on the ground; a very bad fireplace, some utensils for cooking, but in the middle of this poverty some cups and a teapot". In return, he expected them to work diligently from sunrise to sunset over the six-day working week that was standard at the time. [55] The cabins were often poorly constructed, daubed with mud for draft- and water-proofing, with dirt floors. [90], Although some of the enslaved population at Mount Vernon came to feel a loyalty toward Washington, the resistance displayed by a significant percentage of them is indicated by the frequent comments Washington made about "rogueries" and "old tricks". [128][119] Washington was a signatory to that entire document, and thus publicly endorsed clause 17 "declaring our earnest wishes to see an entire stop forever put to such wicked, cruel, and unnatural trade. It is demonstrably clear that on this Estate I have more working Negroes by a full moiety, than can be employed to any advantage in the farming system; and I shall never turn to Planter thereon...To sell the surplus I cannot, because I am principled against this kind of traffic in the human species... Washington's residence was at Mansion House Farm, where fruit, vegetables and herbs were grown for his table, plus flowers and exotic plants. George Washington’s Biracial Family Is Getting New Recognition The National Park Service is finally acknowledging the first president’s biracial family A … In the winter of 1775, Wheatley sent Washington a letter containing an ode to the newly appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army. Status of the Enslaved in Washington’s Will. Persistently poor crop yields due to pestilence and poor weather, the cost of renovations at his Mount Vernon residence, the expense of entertaining a constant stream of visitors, the failure of Lund to collect rent from Washington's tenant farmers and wartime depreciation all helped to make Washington cash poor. Lives Bound Together explores the personal stories of the people enslaved at Mount Vernon while providing insight into George Washington’s evolving opposition to slavery. "I never mean (unless some particular circumstance should compel me to it) to possess another slave by purchase; it being among my first wishes to see some plan adopted, by which slavery in this country may be abolished by slow, sure and imperceptible degrees. Philip Morgan speculates that, had the plan proved profitable, Washington might have changed his will and retracted the manumission of his slaves. Mount Vernon’s enslaved people endured a range of punishments depending on the alleged offense. Federal outlawing of importation of slaves to the United States was enacted in 1807. © 2020 Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association. George Washington was the first President of the United States and one of the founding fathers, but he was also a slave owner. They built their own community around marriage and family, though because Washington allocated the enslaved to farms according to the demands of the business generally without regard for their relationships, many husbands lived separately from their wives and children during the work week. Because General Washington—the universally acknowledged hero of the Revolutionary War—in the postwar period uniquely combined the moral authority, personal prestige, and political power to influence significantly the course and the outcome of the slavery debate, his opinions on the subject of slaves and slavery are of crucial importance to understanding how racism succeeded in becoming an integral and … Over the years Washington became increasingly skeptical about absenteeism due to sickness among his enslaved population and concerned about the diligence or ability of his overseers in recognizing genuine cases. Washington wrote his will several months before his death in December 1799. Let’s start with their names. He thinks hard of all, is despotic in every respect, he mistrusts every man, thinks every man a rogue and nothing but severity will do. Moral doubt about the institution first appeared in 1778 when Washington expressed reluctance to sell some of his enslaved workers at a public venue or split their families. ", "George Washington And The Politics of Slavery", Mount Vernon website page on the evolution of Washington's views on slavery, Slavery at the President's House in Philadelphia, 1788–89 United States presidential election, Samuel Osgood House (First Presidential Mansion), Alexander Macomb House (Second Presidential Mansion), General George Washington Resigning His Commission, Washington and Jefferson National Forests, Washington–Rochambeau Revolutionary Route, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=George_Washington_and_slavery&oldid=995491132, Presidents of the United States and slavery, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 21 December 2020, at 09:08. The institution was rooted in race with the Virginia Slave Codes of 1705, and from around 1710 the growth in the enslaved population was fueled by natural increase. [306], There is tension between Washington's stance on slavery, and his broader historical role as a proponent of liberty. They were all slaveholders and remained so throughout their lives. The key values in which he is home-schooled are restraint, reserve and dignity. From his childhood he always ruled and ruled severely. [285][286] Already from 1795, dower slaves were being transferred to Martha's three granddaughters as the Custis heirs married. Five freedwomen were listed as remaining: an unmarried mother of two children; two women, one of them with three children, married to Washington slaves too old to work; and two women who were married to dower slaves. Professor Emeritus Peter Henriques talked about George Washington's slaves. [210][211] The Constitution also included the Three-Fifths Compromise which cut both ways: for purposes of taxation and representation, three out of every five slaves would be counted, which meant that each slave state would have to pay less taxes but would also have less representation in Congress than if every slave was counted. [25][26] The paternalist in him saw his relationship with his enslaved people as one of mutual obligations; he provided for them and they in return served him, a relationship in which the enslaved were able to approach Washington with their concerns and grievances. Let’s start with their names. Graffiti covers the more than 100 year old George Washington statue on the Southside. These individuals included Washington’s personal assistant Christopher Sheels, whose plan to escape with his fiancée was thwarted; the family cook Hercules; and Martha Washington’s personal maid Ona Judge, both of whom escaped successfully. "[233][173] But there is no indication Washington ever favored an immediate rather than gradual end to slavery. Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association. He received the first enslaved workers of his own when his father died in 1743. Mount Vernon is owned and maintained in trust for the people of the United States by the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union, a private, non-profit organization. When he was just 11 years old, George Washington inherited 10 slaves from his father’s estate. This was the first of several anti-slavery trade-acts of Congress. Haworth 1925, p. 192, cited in Hirschfeld 1997, p. 12, Furstenberg 2011, pp. The Constitution allowed but did not require the preservation of slavery, and it deliberately avoided use of the word "slave" which could have been interpreted as authorizing the treatment of human beings as property throughout the country. The proportion of slaves in the population as a whole rose throughout the century; by the end of the American Revolution, over 40% of the people living in Fairfax County were slaves. The remaining non-dower enslaved at Mount Vernon did not have to wait for Martha Washington’s death to receive their freedom. She freed them in 1801, a year before her own death, but she had no option to free the dower slaves, who were inherited by her grandchildren. [185][183] The historian Lacy Ford writes that Washington may have dissembled: "In all likelihood, Washington was honest about his general desire for gradual emancipation but dissembled about his willingness to speak publicly on its behalf; the Mount Vernon master almost certainly reasoned that the legislature would table the petition immediately and thus release him from any obligation to comment publicly on the matter." This was replaced in 1792 by brick-built accommodation wings either side of the greenhouse comprising four rooms in total, each some 600 square feet (56 m2). The enslaved slept and worked in their clothes, leaving them to spend many months in garments that were worn, ripped and tattered. [98] Tools were regularly lost or damaged, thus stopping work, and Washington despaired of employing innovations that might improve efficiency because he believed enslaved workers were too clumsy to operate the new machinery involved. As a young adult, Washington purchased at least eight more slaves, including a carpenter named Kitt. For example, she said in 1795 that, "The Blacks are so bad in their nature that they have not the least grat[i]tude for the kindness that may be shewed to them." [119] In the 1760s he often participated in tavern lotteries, events in which defaulters' debts were settled by raffling off their assets to a high-spirited crowd. Washington used both reward and punishment to manage his enslaved population, but was constantly disappointed when they failed to meet his exacting standards. [16] Washington's search for a new chef to replace Hercules in 1797 is the last known instance in which he considered buying a slave, despite his resolve "never to become the Master of another Slave by purchase"; in the end he chose to hire a white chef. [63], Washington often tipped enslaved people on his visits to other estates, and it is likely that his own enslaved workers were similarly rewarded by visitors to Mount Vernon. However, they needed labor to work their lands and acquired slaves, including Mary, George's mother. [115] Threats of demotion to fieldwork, corporal punishment and being shipped to the West Indies were part of the system by which he controlled his enslaved population. Of the 317 enslaved people at Mount Vernon in 1799, 123 of the individuals were owned by George Washington and were eligible to be freed as per the terms of the will. However, there were several circumstances that arose following the American Revolution that would prevent Washington from actively pursuing the elimination of slavery during his lifetime. Updated February 28, 2017 | Infoplease Staff. [176][234] Indeed, the dying out of slavery remained possible, until Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin in 1793 which led within five years to a vastly greater demand for slave labor. [246] In December 1793, he sought the aid of the British agriculturalist Arthur Young in finding farmers to whom he would lease all but one of his farms, on which his slaves would then be employed as laborers. [160] At his death, Washington's extensive library included at least seventeen publications on slavery. The couple had nine daughters ranging in age from six to twenty-seven in 1799, and the marriages of four of those daughters had extended the family to other farms within and outside the Mount Vernon estate and produced three grandchildren. By 1799, 153 of the people enslaved at Mount Vernon were part of this dower property. He displayed elements of both patriarchy and paternalism in his attitudes to the slaves he controlled. The dower slaves had already begun to be transferred to Martha's granddaughters as the Custis heirs married. At 11 years of age, upon the death of his father in 1743, Washington inherited his first ten slaves. We don't accept government funding and rely upon private contributions to help preserve George Washington's home and legacy. Henriques is Professor of History Emeritus at George Mason University and member of the Mount Vernon committee of George Washington Scholars. [102] Washington took seriously the recapture of fugitives, and in three cases enslaved people who had escaped were sold off in the West Indies after recapture, effectively a death sentence in the severe conditions the enslaved had to endure there. The Mount Vernon Ladies Association has been maintaining the Mount Vernon Estate since they acquired it from the Washington family in 1858. [99], The most emphatic act of resistance was to run away, and between 1760 and 1799 at least forty-seven enslaved people under Washington's control did so. The Farmer, lithograph, 1853, portrays George Washington, offering a sentimentalized view of slaves working at Mount Vernon. In 1789, Washington became the first president of the United States, a planter president who used and sanctioned black slavery. [57], Washington provided his enslaved people with a blanket each fall at most, which they used for their own bedding and which they were required to use to gather leaves for livestock bedding. [113][d] Contemporaries generally described Washington as having a calm demeanor, but there are several reports from those who knew him privately that mention his temper. [145] In the exchange of letters, a conflicted Washington expressed a desire "to get quit of Negroes", but made clear his reluctance to sell them at a public venue and his wish that "husband and wife, and Parents and children are not separated from each other". [51][52], At Mansion House Farm, most of the enslaved people were housed in a two-story frame building known as the "Quarters for Families". Our Digital Encyclopedia has all of the answers students and teachers need. The poem concluded: "Proceed, great chief, with virtue on thy side, / Thy ev’ry action let the goddess guide. "George Washington was a slave owner and that is a fact." [60], Washington desired his enslaved workers to be fed adequately but no more. Horses and mules were bred in stables there, and tropical plants were grown in a greenhouse. [225][226][227], On the anti-slavery side of the ledger, in 1789 he signed a reenactment of the Northwest Ordinance which freed any new slaves brought after 1787 into a vast expanse of federal territory, except for slaves escaping from slave states. The transition left Washington with a surplus of slaves and revealed to him the inefficiencies of the slave labor system. [46] Domestic slaves started early, worked into the evenings and did not necessarily have Sundays and holidays free. [236][249] It is the first clear indication that Washington's thinking had shifted from selling his slaves to freeing them. Some crops were grown at this farm, but the main agricultural business was conducted at the four outlying farms located in a radius of between one and a half miles (2.4 km) and three miles (4.8 km) from the mansion: Dogue Run Farm, Muddy Hole Farm, Union Farm (formed from the earlier Ferry Farm and French's Farm) and River Farm. Moses and Susan Carver, his owners, reputedly opposed slavery. [62] The basic ration was supplemented by enslaved people's own efforts hunting (for which some were allowed guns) and trapping game. However, we have to be careful not to romanticize this. [230] Moreover, according to Washington biographer James Thomas Flexner, Washington as President weakened slavery by favoring Hamilton's economic plans over Jefferson's agrarian economics. They supplemented their diet by hunting, trapping, and growing vegetables in their free time, and bought extra rations, clothing and housewares with income from the sale of game and produce. The disruption to the labor market and the care of the elderly and infirm would have created enormous problems. George and Martha Washington enslaved 300 people. Not only would Washington have been deprived of their services if they were freed, most of the slaves he took with him to Philadelphia were dower slaves, which meant that he would have had to compensate the Custis estate for the loss. An infant remained with its mother at her place of work. Open 365 days a year, Mount Vernon is located just 15 miles south of Washington DC. Assign each group one of the three sides of George Washington listed below. [157][158][159] The historian Kenneth Morgan writes, "...the revolutionary war was the crucial turning-point in [Washington's] thinking about slavery. "[131][132] As if answering Johnson, Washington wrote to a friend in August 1774, "The crisis is arrived when we must assert our rights, or submit to every imposition that can be heaped upon us, till custom and use shall make us tame and abject slaves, as the blacks we rule over with such arbitrary sway. Most of Washington’s human property lived, worked, and died at Mount Vernon. Washington was born into a Virginia planter family. Android. [136][137][f] In 1780, he suggested to one of his commanders the integration of African-American recruits "to abolish the name and appearance of a Black Corps. Politically, Washington felt that the divisive issue of American slavery threatened national cohesion, and he never spoke publicly about it. Both Hercules and Judge eluded capture. This plan would have involved breaking up slave families, but it was designed with an end goal of raising enough finances to fund their eventual emancipation (a detail Washington kept secret) and prevent the Custis heirs from permanently splitting up families by sale. [217][218][126][n], Washington took up the presidency at a time when revolutionary sentiment against slavery was giving way to a resurgence of proslavery interests. George Washington lived in Philadelphia, then the nation's capital, from 1790 to 1797, and had eight enslaved people working in his household. [291] William Lee remained at Mount Vernon, where he worked as a shoemaker. The history of George Washington and slavery reflects Washington's changing attitude toward enslavement. An Inventory of the … He was left eleven slaves by his father’s will; a portion of his half brother Lawrence Washington’s slaves, about a dozen in all, were willed to him after the death of Lawrence’s infant daughter and his widow; and Washington purchased from time to time slaves for himself, mostly before the Revolution. At Easter and Whitsunday were no different from any Virginia planter of the answers students and teachers.! The Fairfax Resolves his enslaved workers labored in the document terms, more than slaves! Used and sanctioned black slavery free the Custis estate on his marriage to Martha 's granddaughters as Custis! States to ratify the document cook, to physically escape their enslavement Association has been maintaining Mount! 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