"The Only Unavoidable Subject of Regret": George Washington, Slavery, and the Enslaved Community at Mount Vernon by Mary V. Thompson

Abstract

Reviewed by: "The Only Unavoidable Subject of Regret": George Washington, Slavery, and the Enslaved Community at Mount Vernon by Mary V. Thompson Nicholas P. Wood "The Only Unavoidable Subject of Regret": George Washington, Slavery, and the Enslaved Community at Mount Vernon. By Mary V. Thompson. (Charlottesville and London: University of Virginia Press, 2019. Pp. xviii, 502. $29.95, ISBN 978-0-8139-4184-4.) About one million people from all over the world visit George Washington's Mount Vernon each year, and the estate is "uniquely situated to introduce the subject of slavery to an international audience" (pp. 1–2). But when Mary V. Thompson began working there four decades ago, guides did not mention the hundreds of enslaved people who labored for George and Martha Washington, aside from occasional references to "servants" (p. xiii). Much has changed since then, and Mount Vernon now includes exhibits and tours about the history of slavery. "The Only Unavoidable Subject of Regret": George Washington, Slavery, and the Enslaved Community at Mount Vernon demonstrates Thompson's vast knowledge based on years of research in the Papers of George Washington, archaeological studies, and other scholarship on slavery and reflects her effort to inform readers—academic historians as well as tourists in Mount Vernon's gift shop—about the lives of the Washingtons' enslaved people. Thompson begins with a chapter on George Washington's role as the manager of a large plantation with several hundred enslaved workers, demonstrating that he was a demanding taskmaster. Chapter 2 examines how Washington became more critical of slavery over time, with the American [End Page 692] Revolution playing a decisive role in this evolution. The next seven chapters—the bulk of the book—then focus on various aspects of the Mount Vernon slaves' lives, including family life, foodways, and forms of resistance. Thompson helps readers shift their perspective and realize that, "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" (p. 161). Thompson's lengthy conclusion returns to Washington's evolving antislavery sentiments and introduces his decision to free his enslaved people in his will; it also discusses the experiences of some of the Mount Vernon freedpeople and addresses some other aspects of Washington's relationship with slavery. Slaves at Mount Vernon, as elsewhere, generally labored from sunup to sundown, with about two hours off for meals. Overseers whipped disobedient slaves, and Washington punished some by selling them away from their friends and families, at times to the West Indies. The food Washington provided, consisting largely of cornmeal and dried fish, was probably calorically sufficient but nutritionally inadequate. The enslaved people supplemented their diet with vegetables, eggs, and poultry they raised, animals they hunted, and—at least occasionally—with bacon and booze they stole. Thompson observes, "While it is possible to see a good deal of oppression in the foodways of the Mount Vernon slaves … it is also in their foodways that we see evidence of the African American community at Mount Vernon asserting its own values and fighting back" (p. 245). Thompson also writes that the Washingtons' slaves "probably had more freedom over certain aspects of their lives than the average modern visitor—raised with visions of antebellum, deep South, cotton plantations as the norm—would suspect" (p. 219). On Sundays, some slaves walked three hours each way to Alexandria, Virginia, where they could market the eggs and produce they raised in small garden plots, as well as—according to Washington—the tools they pilfered. Enslaved people could also use the Sabbath to visit their spouses, most of whom lived on other farms within the Mount Vernon estate or even on separate plantations. Of course, these limited privileges did not make enslaved people content. Thompson recounts the now famous escapes by Hercules and Ona Judge, while noting that they were only two of at least forty-seven slaves who ran away from the Washingtons between 1760 and 1799. Other forms of resistance were even more common. Washington frequently expressed his belief that some slaves were feigning illness to avoid work and taking any opportunity to steal from him. Resistance continued after...