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Housing of the Mount Vernon Slaves NOT to BE REPRODUCED "A Mean Pallet:" Housing of the Mount Vernon Slaves NOT TO BE REPRODUCED WITHOUT THE PERMISSION OF THE AUTHOR AND THE MOUNT VERNON LADIES' ASSOCIATION Like so many other guests at Mount Vernon, both during and after George Washington's lifetime, Jedidiah Morse took the time to record certain details about his visit to the home of this most prominent American. He seems to have been fascinated with the layout of the plantation and found that the "toute ensemble" or "the whole assemblage" of the mansion with its surrounding outbuildings "bears a resemblance to a rural village." I While Morse was speaking of the visual impression of the Mansion House Farm, from the viewpoint of its • population, the Mount Vernon estate was in many ways several small African- American villages, presided over by an Anglo-American ruling class. At the time of Washington's death in 1799, African-Americans made up roughly 90% of the plantation's population, with a bit more than 300 slaves and roughly 20 to 30 whites living on the five farms comprising Mount Vernon. The largest "village" was at the Mansion House Farm, where about 90 slaves resided; the others ranged in size from Dogue Run Farm with 45 slave residents on 650 acres of land to 57 at River Farm, containing 1,207 acres of arable land, 41 slaves I Jedidiah Morse, The American Geography; or, A View of the Present Situation of the United States of America ... • (London: Printed for John Stockdale, 1792),381. 1 at Muddy Hole Farm which had 476 acres, and 76 at 928-acre Union Farm, 40 of whom were rented from a neighbor.i This essay will explore the different housing arrangements provided for slaves on the estate over the years, comparing • the homes of the house servants and skilled slaves at the Mansion House Farm with those of the field workers on Washington's four outlying farms. Structures From surviving documentary sources, there appear to have been three basic types of housing used on the Mount Vernon estate, which varied considerably in their style, quality of construction, and degree of privacy. The majority of house servants and skilled workers on the Mansion House Farm were assigned quarters which were considerably better in terms of the first two elements--style and quality-than were slaves on the outlying farms. From considerations of privacy, however, field workers on the four other farms had an • advantage, both because of the configuration of their quarters, the largest of which probably housed no more than two families, and because these quarters were a greater distance from their master's supervision. As on other plantations throughout the south, the most substantial buildings used for slave housing were certainly the "Big House quarters" at George Washington's Mansion House Farm. For approximately thirty years, 2 George Washington to Arthur Young, 12/12/1793, "NEGROES Belonging to George Washington in his own right and by Marriage," [June 1799], and "A List of Negroes Hired From Mrs. French," [7/15/1799], The Writings a/George Washington from the Original Manuscript Sources, 1745-1799, 39 volumes, edited by John C. Fitzpatrick (Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office, 1931-1944), 33: 177-178, 37:256-268, 308-309. 2 • beginning about the 1760s, the principal slave dwelling there seems to have been • a two-story frame building, constructed on a brick foundation, with two chimneys, one on each end, and glazed windows, which was known as the "Quarters [or House] for Families.,,3 Located on the service lane north of the Mansion, roughly in the area of the present Museum, it was first depicted in a map drawn by English visitor Samuel Vaughan in 1787 and later appeared in a 1792 painting showing the east elevation (back) of the Mansion (see Figures 1-3). While little is known about the configuration of dwelling spaces within this building, much of our knowledge of the material life of the Mount Vernon slaves results from the excavation of a cellar on this site in the 1980s. These old quarters were eventually torn down in the 1790s and the building materials--scantling, • boards, shingles, and nails--saved for reuse." Although they were not constructed until 1792, George Washington appears to have planned a different sort of quarter almost 20 years before, as either an addition to, or substitute for, the House for Families. The early months of his absence from home during the Revolution were a time of considerable activity at Mount Vernon, when improvements were made to the Mansion House itself, many of the surviving outbuildings were constructed, and alterations were made to the gardens. His cousin, Lund Washington, managed the estate in his 3 Dennis J. Pogue, "The Archaeology of Plantation Life: Another Perspective on George Washington's Mount Vernon," Virginia Cavalcade (Autumn 1991,74-83),75 & 79. 4 George Washington, "Memorandum of Carpentry Work to be Done," [June 1791], The Writings a/George • Washington, 31:308 . 3 absence and kept him apprised of the many changes underway through a series of detailed letters. In the fall of 1775, Lund asked for some direction on building a slave quarter, seemingly very much like that which was eventually put up at the • Greenhouse: "I suppose there is a wall to be Built in the new Garden next the Quarter[.] I think I have heard you say you designd [sic] to have a House Built the whole length for Negroes perhaps you may direct that to be first done[.] [I]f so be particular in the Wall that there may be no difficulty in joining other walls to it so as to make out the House Divisions &tc. ,,5 Construction of the new quarter at the Greenhouse seems to have been well underway by the spring of 1792. At that time, George Washington's farm manager, then his nephew, George Augustine Washington, wrote that he thought the new quarter would adequately house "all the Negroes that You would wish or find necessary to be kept at the Mansion House." He went on to suggest that this • new structure was necessary for maintaining discipline and order, "for until they are all brought together and under proper regulation it is in vain to attempt at least to protect improvements. ,,6 Late in 1792 or early the following year, the inhabitants of the House for Families were moved into the new adjoining building, near the Upper Garden. From that time until George Washington's death in 1799, most of the slaves at the Mansion House Farm probably lived in 'Lund Washington to George Washington, 11/12/1775, ThePapers of George Washington, Revolutionary War Series, Volume 2, edited by Philander D. Chase (Charlottesville, Virginia: University Press of Virginia, 1987),356. 6 George Augustine Washington to George Washington, 4/8/1792 (photostat, PS-9, Mount Vernon Ladies' Association; typescript, Mount Vernon Ladies' Association). • 4 the brick wings flanking the Greenhouse, in four large rectangular rooms, each 33 • feet 9 inches by 17 feet 9 inches, having a total living space of about 600 square feet. Each of the rooms had a fireplace on one of its shorter walls and the luxury of glazed windows.' Slaves made their homes in the Greenhouse complex until December of 1835, when a tremendous fire destroyed the roughly forty-year old structure. It was rebuilt in the 1950s using what little physical and documentary evidence had survived8 Probably the most striking and controversial feature of these reconstructed quarters was the arrangement of bunks on the east and south sides ofthe room, creating a barracks-like atmosphere, which, to some critics, seemed to fly in the face of Washington's concern for maintaining the family life of his • slaves (see Figure 4). Ideas about privacy were quite different in the 18th century from what they are now, two hundred years later. Children today frequently have trouble sharing rooms with their siblings, while in the 18th century they often slept in the same bed. Unlike their ancestors, many modern Americans would probably have difficulty sharing a bed with a total stranger, or strangers, at an inn or might be uncomfortable using a chamberpot in a room where others were present. No one has yet looked into the question of what family life meant to 7 "The West Quarter," Annual Report /962 (Mount Vernon, Virginia: The Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union, 1963, 22-25), 24; Pogue, "The Archaeology of Plantation Life," 79. 8 "Greenhouse-Quarters Reconstruction," Annual Reparl/951 (Mount Vernon, Virginia: The Mount Vernon Ladies' • Association of the Union, 1952,34-40) . 5 George Washington and so there is no way, at present, to know what valuation Washington might have placed on the need for privacy within a family. • A reexamination of the documentary evidence only contributed to the controversy over the appearance of the interior space. For example, during the week of April 7th of 1792, a hired carpenter and slave spent six days each on "putting up the births in new Qu[arte]r" and "planing plank for the Qur Births," while one of the bricklayers was "laying brick foundation for the Sills of the births new Qur". The following week, one of the hired carpenters was occupied another five days "putting up the berths.,,9 "Berth" seems to have been a naval term, used in the 18th century to mean either a room where a group of sailors lived or a sleeping space, similar to a box or shelf, for a person to sleep on. Certain historians felt that Washington's familiarity with bunks in military barracks would have led him to use a similar arrangement for housing large • numbers of people at Mount Vernon.IO Others, criticizing the construction of such features in the Quarters, believed that the room was probably divided length- wise down the middle, up to about three-quarters of the room's length.
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