George Washington and Slavery: The 1799 Census of Slaves Intended Grade Level: Middle School Lesson Purpose: This lesson will use George Washington s 1799 Slave Census to reveal Washington as a meticulous businessman and slave owner and provide information about the institution of slavery in the 18th century. Lesson Objectives: To learn how historians and archaeologists use primary documents to gain a deeper understanding of slave life at Mount Vernon. To gain knowledge about the slave community at Mount Vernon. National Standards: NSS-USH.5-12.2 ERA 2: COLONIZATION AND SETTLEMENT (1585-1763) Understands why the Americas attracted Europeans, why they brought enslaved Africans to their colonies, and how Europeans struggled for control of North America and the Caribbean Understands how political, religious, and social institutions emerged in the English colonies Understands how the values and institutions of European economic life took root in the colonies, and how slavery reshaped European and African life in the Americas NL-ENG.K-12.3 EVALUATION STRATEGIES Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics). Timeframe: Approximately one class session Background:
African-American slaves comprised ninety percent of the total population of Mount Vernon by 1799. By that time, the slave population consisted mainly of second- and third-generation individuals. Very few were natives of Africa. Few primary documents exist that deal directly with the lives of the enslaved population. Although it was not the intended purpose of this document, a great deal of information about the lives of the Mount Vernon slave community can be gathered from the 1799 census. By 1799, Mount Vernon was home to over 300 enslaved African Americans. In preparation for writing his will, Washington made a list of those slaves on the estate who belonged either to him or were dower slaves of Martha Washington. The dower slaves belonged to the estate of Mrs. Washington s first husband, Daniel Parke Custis. She received a life interest in his estate when he died and, upon her marriage to Washington in 1759, brought many of the slaves to Mount Vernon. Although Washington made plans to free his slaves in his will he knew, by law, Martha Washington s dower slaves would go back to the Custis family heirs at the time of her death. The census enumerates the individual slaves, their jobs, their ages, family relationships, where they lived and to whom they belonged. Although marriage between slaves was not recognized by Virginia law, Washington encouraged marriage. Families were often separated because slaves lived where they worked. A husband and wife may have worked on different farms at Mount Vernon, which was comprised of the Mansion House farm and four outlying farms. Slaves at Mount Vernon worked six days a week, with Sunday off. Slaves living on different farms could be with their families on Saturday night and Sunday, as well as on other holidays (four days at Christmas, the Monday after Easter and Pentecost, and the occasional feast day). George Washington stopped buying and selling slaves by the mid-1770s; however, over the years, Washington and dower slaves had formed a community at Mount Vernon. They had inter-married and had children, making for a potentially complicated and heartbreaking situation. By Virginia law, the condition of the child followed that of the mother. If the mother was a slave, then, by law, her children were slaves. If the mother was a free woman, then her children were free. Before beginning the activity, as a class, discuss why so few 18 th -century documents exist that were created by slaves. What other types of documents or primary sources can they identify that help historians learn about slavery in the 18 th century? Note: George Washington s attitudes towards slavery changed over his lifetime. After the Revolutionary War, where Washington had seen black soldiers fight side by side with whites, and had also seen an economic system in the north that did not rely on
slave labor, he began to express the belief that slavery should be abolished by legislative measure. For further information about Washington s views on slavery, see the lesson plan George Washington Stood Here On the Issue of Slavery. Procedure: 1. Divide students into small groups and distribute a copy of the Slave Census (included below) to each group. Explain that they will be taking on the role of historians researching the slave community at Mount Vernon. As they read the Slave Census, have them answer the questions on the Slave Census Worksheet (included below). Use the Answer Key to review answers with students as a class and ask students to point to examples on their census that answer each question. Note: Only the first two of eight pages of the Slave Census are included below because they list the skilled craftsmen and Mansion House Farm workers, while the last six pages are lists of unskilled farm labor. 2. Assign each student a name on the census. Ask each student to determine as much information as possible about that slave from the information found on the census. Then ask them to write a brief first-person essay about the slave s life at Mount Vernon. If they are not familiar with the job of the slave, assign them to research the job. The elementary lesson plan, A Day at Mount Vernon provides slave stories that may be useful as an example for your students. 3. Extension Activity: Ask students to locate the slave Sambo on the Census. Explain that he is one of the few slaves for which there exists information about his life after he was freed. Sambo was married to a dower slave, and both his wife and children remained enslaved after he gained his freedom. Sambo settled near Mount Vernon and earned a living providing meat and game to local taverns. He eventually earned enough money to purchase the freedom of two of his relatives, believed to have been his grandchildren. Have your students find a biography, interview, or story about a freed slave and share it with the class. Discuss the challenges slaves faced when freed.
Examining George Washington s 1799 Slave Census 1. How many different jobs can you identify on the census? Do these jobs appear to be farm jobs or skilled craftsmen? 2. What is the relationship between the gender of the slave and the job that they performed? 3. What are tools that would be necessary to do these jobs? Where on the Mount Vernon estate and farms would these jobs be performed? 4. Is there any evidence that children worked at Mount Vernon? 5. Can you determine how many of the slaves belonged to George Washington? Who else owned slaves that worked on George Washington s estate? 6. Is there evidence of marriage and family units? Do the families live together?
Examining George Washington s 1799 Slave Census: Answer Key 1. How many different jobs can you identify on the census? Do these jobs appear to be farm jobs or skilled craftsmen? Examples are cook, carpenter, smith, spinner, miller, gardener, distillery worker. These jobs appear to be skilled craftsmen. 2. What is the relationship between the gender of the slave and the job that they performed? Male slaves were often trained as skilled craftsmen, while women performed jobs at the Mansion House such as cooking, laundry, and spinning, or performed manual labor on Washington s outlying farms. 3. What are tools that would be necessary to do these jobs? Where on the Mount Vernon estate and farms would these jobs be performed? Archaeological excavations at Mount Vernon have revealed tools such as pitchforks, horseshoes, nails, hammers, hoes, and chisels. Further information and images of these artifacts is available on the Mount Vernon website. The Mansion House farm includes outbuildings such as a kitchen, dairy, spinning house, wash house, blacksmith shop, and smokehouse. The distillery is also listed on the census. Note: The lesson plan Revealing Mount Vernon s Past through Archaeology provides the 1787 Vaughn map of the estate and further information on archaeology at Mount Vernon. 4. Is there any evidence that children worked at Mount Vernon? Children began working at Mount Vernon around the age of eleven. On the Census, only children under eleven appear to be listed under Children, while anyone over that age, such as 17 year old Eve and 14 year old Delia, listed under the Mansion House slaves as sisters, are listed with the adult slaves. 5. Can you determine how many of the slaves belonged to George Washington? Who else owned slaves that worked on George Washington s estate?
Only 27 of the tradesmen and Mansion House slaves belonged to George Washington. The Dower slaves were owned by the estate of Martha Washington and as seen on the second page of the Census, 40 slaves were rented from a neighbor, Mrs. French. 6. Is there evidence of marriage and family units? Do the families live together? Washington encouraged the marriage of his slaves, even though these marriages were not recognized by Virginia law. Washington also allowed his slaves to marry slaves from other estates: Dundee has a wife at Mr. Lear s; Chriss has a wife at Major West s and Simms has a wife at French s. Slaves lived where they worked, so many families did not live together, such as Isaac, on the second page of the Census, whose wife lived at Muddy Hole Farm. In a practice called nightwalking, slaves would often walk all night on Saturday to visit with their families on Sunday, then walk through the night on Sunday night to return to work at dawn on Monday.