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PLANTATION LIFE at GEORGE WASHINGTON's MOUNT VERNON, 1754 to 1799 by Gwendolyn K. White a Dissertation

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PLANTATION LIFE at GEORGE WASHINGTON's MOUNT VERNON, 1754 to 1799 by Gwendolyn K. White a Dissertation COMMERCE AND COMMUNITY: PLANTATION LIFE AT GEORGE WASHINGTON’S MOUNT VERNON, 1754 TO 1799 by Gwendolyn K. White A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of George Mason University in Partial Fulfillment of The Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy History Committee: ___________________________________________ Director ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ ___________________________________________ __________________________________________ Department Chairperson ___________________________________________ Program Director ___________________________________________ Dean, College of Humanities and Social Sciences Date: _____________________________________ Spring Semester 2016 George Mason University Fairfax, VA Commerce and Community: Plantation Life at George Washington’s Mount Vernon, 1754 to 1799 A Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at George Mason University by Gwendolyn K. White Master of Architectural History University of Virginia 2003 Bachelor of Individualized Studies George Mason University, 2000 Director: Cynthia A. Kierner, Professor Department of History Spring Semester 2016 George Mason University Fairfax, VA This work is licensed under a creative commons attribution-noderivs 3.0 unported license. ii DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated in memory of my parents, Walter and Madelyn Berns, and my husband, Egon Verheyen. I wish you were here, but I feel your pride. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My first thanks have to go to my dissertation advisor Cynthia A. Kierner, who has been endlessly helpful, patient, and encouraging. Thank you also to my dissertation readers Rosemarie Zagarri, Zachary Schrag, and Dennis Pogue for their insightful comments. I have benefited from the support of the History and Art History Department at George Mason University throughout my doctoral studies in many ways. I am grateful to the Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington at Mount Vernon and the Mount Vernon Ladies Association for awarding me the inaugural James C. Rees Entrepreneurship Fellowship at the library. My time there was very valuable in allowing me to more fully explore the available literature on George Washington and his times and access to its knowledgeable staff. I have found the local history collections at several county libraries to be invaluable and their staffs most helpful including the Fairfax City Branch of the Fairfax County Library and Kate Waller Barrett Branch of Alexandria City Library. I would like to especially mention the staff at the Bull Run Branch of the Prince William County Library for always going above and beyond to help me in my research. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page List of Figures .................................................................................................................... vi Note on Quotations and Spelling ...................................................................................... vii Abstract ............................................................................................................................ viii Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1 From Planter to Farmer, 1754-1774: “Enquire about in the Neighborhood” . 19 Chapter 2 The Revolution, 1775-1783: “Alexandria is much alarm’d, and indeed the whole Neighborhood” ....................................................................................................... 71 Chapter 3 A First retirement, 1784 to 1789: “To Taste the Fruits of Freedom” ............ 123 Chapter 4 the presidency, April 1789 to March 1797: “The improvement and neatness of my farms” ........................................................................................................................ 174 Chapter 5 final Retirement, 1797-1799: “System in all things is the soul of business” . 225 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 271 Bibliography ................................................................................................................... 278 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page Figure 1. George Washington, A Plan of Alexandria, now Belhaven, 1749. Library of Congress ............................................................................................................................ 35 Figure 2. Frances Benjamin Johnston, Christ Church, Alexandria, Virginia, 1930, Library of Congress ....................................................................................................................... 38 Figure 3. Photo by Gwendolyn K. White, Store House .................................................. 136 Figure 4. Edward Savage, The Washington Family – George Washington, his lady, and her grandchildren by the name of Custis, 1798, Library of Congress ............................ 176 Figure 5. George Washington, map of Mount Vernon, 1793, Library of Congress ....... 182 Figure 6. Junius Stearns, Life of George Washington, the Farmer, 1853, Library of Congress .......................................................................................................................... 228 Figure 7. George Gilpin. Plan of the town of Alexandria in the District of Columbia, 1798, Library of Congress .............................................................................................. 232 vi NOTE ON QUOTATIONS AND SPELLING Spelling and punctuation within quotations have been corrected for ease of reading and understanding. vii ABSTRACT COMMERCE AND COMMUNITY: PLANTATION LIFE AT GEORGE WASHINGTON’S MOUNT VERNON, 1754 TO 1799 Gwendolyn K. White , PhD George Mason University, 2016 Dissertation Director: Dr. Cynthia A. Kierner This dissertation explores Mount Vernon as an example of a large Virginia plantation during the last half of the eighteenth century by examining the part it played in the local economy both before and after the American Revolution. It is a community study of the many people involved in the enterprise: George Washington, his family, his farm managers, both enslaved and white workers, and tenants and neighbors within the seasonal activities that dominated the operation of the plantation. Mount Vernon was a part of the northern Virginia Chesapeake region that was undergoing profound agricultural, economic, and cultural changes throughout the last half of the eighteenth century, which affected all levels of the population. The dissertation examines the impact of these changes on the physical landscape, regional economy, and social relations on Washington’s plantation and in the larger community as Virginia transitioned from a colony to a state of a sovereign nation. viii The research for this project rests primarily on Washington’s personal papers, which include a large number of farm records and account ledgers in addition to much of his correspondence and the diaries he kept throughout his life. Together they provide an almost day-by-day account of the community at Mount Vernon. The records reveal details about the labor of slaves and hired workers and the integral part they played in the local market as well as the national economy. They also show that for George Washington, Mount Vernon represented not only his home and livelihood, but also a passion that endured for the forty-five years he lived there. His letters and diaries reveal that the management and improvement of the farm was never far from his thoughts – not even during the years he was away during the Revolutionary War, his time at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, or his eight year tenure as the first president of the newly formed United States of America. The plantation was not just one facet of Washington’s life but was integrated into every part of his private life and his public identity. Although Washington was a skillful and innovative planter, the many people who lived and worked at Mount Vernon made possible the economic success that he enjoyed. Some individuals profited from being part of the community by earning wages and participating in the local economy. However, the stark contrasts between the lives of those at the upper and lower levels of the Mount Vernon community are evident in the bequests of George Washington’s will written shortly before his death at the end of 1799. Washington owned almost 60,000 acres of land in several states and territories and by almost any measure was a wealthy man. On the other hand, the housing, clothing and ix food of Washington’s three hundred slaves had not changed in any material way between 1754 and 1799. The will freed only the slaves owned by Washington outright. After Martha Washington’s death a few years later, much of the community that had lived and worked at Mount Vernon during Washington’s lifetime scattered. x INTRODUCTION Commerce and Community: Plantation Life at George Washington’s Mount Vernon, 1754 to 1799 Morris’s Plantation 22 Apl. Tuesday women all sewing carrot seed (in the morning) The men cleaning swamp, the women and men sewing Tuesday morning Wednesday and Thursday. Friday doing nothing. This day men employed mortising posts for rails. The women doing nothing. Three common and one drill plow going Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday – stock all well no increase or decrease. Weekly Reports of Managers, November 18, 1786 - April 28, 1787 This dissertation explores Mount
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