The shadow over Mount Vernon

Sunny skies, a light breeze, temperatures rising into the low 80's: it was a beautiful day for a drive out of DC and down along the Potomac to Mt. Vernon--or "George Washington's Mt. Vernon," as the home of the first president is called on its website.

We got there just after noon--just as a bunch of school groups were leaving, and we didn't have many crowds to contend with on the spacious, 500-acre estate. So in we walked and soon came to this stunning vista of the mansion.

The home is original, and many of the outbuildings are, too. And the landscaping around the mansion is similar to what it would have been then. How did the Father of Our Country keep his lawn looking so beautiful in the pre-riding-mower days? I wondered aloud to Bruce. And then I saw the sign.

I wish I'd taken a photo of the sign near the vista of the mansion. It pointed out that the lawn was cared for by enslaved workers who scythed the grass and rolled it with a heavy stone roller. They were not paid and they were not free to leave the estate.

The Father of Our Country, George Washington, was a slaveowner.

Although his estate is beautiful--well worth the 30-minute trip from DC (and the $18 tickets)--the shadow of slavery hovered over the entire day from the moment I saw that sign.

When we turned from that labor-intensive front lawn, we saw a vegetable garden.

The early plantings were in: cabbage, potatoes, and peas were already up. The large gardens were also surrounded by fruit and nut trees, and bramble (raspberries?), tied up high to posts--a good idea to keep the ants off.

But what was that brick building in the background, we wondered. According to my map, it was the "Greenhouse Slave Quarters."

Only some of the enslaved people lived here in this brick building at the center of the estate: the ones who worked in the mansion or on the grounds of the estate. The others lived in crude log buildings nearer the fields.

This is the women's bunkroom in the Greenhouse Slave Quarters building.

The men's quarters were similar. Husbands and wives were separated.

The greenhouse itself was cleverly designed, the signs pointed out: heat from a wood fire was sent underneath the greenhouse to keep it warm during winter: George Washington could have lemons any time--a luxury in those times!

But who kept that fire going, chopping wood, stoking the fire, cleaning the ashes? Yes, you guessed it: enslaved people.  It was hard to escape that shadow at Mt. Vernon.

At 1:30, we got our mansion tour. Tour guides were stationed in different parts of the large home, explaining how each room was used, how much it cost to decorate, and what the Washingtons did there.

This beautiful room could be used as a dining room or, with tables moved away, a ballroom.

They entertained hundreds of guests each year. That's what you do when you're wealthy and a politician. So there were several beautiful guest bedrooms.

People came and stayed for a couple days, a couple weeks, a couple months . . . 

In an aside, the upstairs room guide told us who readied the rooms for the guests: Enslaved women.

George Washington was a wealthy man. By some accounts, and adjusting for inflation, he was the wealthiest president we've had (not including the current one, whose wealth is unclear--we haven't seen his tax forms). The guides reiterated that he was a self-made man--George Washington didn't inherit his wealth.

Except for 10 enslaved persons, whom he inherited when he was 11.

"George Washington's Mount Vernon" is very proud of the Father of our Country. And he was a remarkable person: with little formal education, he learned surveying, served in the military and rose to the highest rank of General, leading the Revolutionary forces in a prolonged war; he oversaw the work of several farms, and came up with new technologies, like the heated greenhouse, to make them move profitable; he stepped up to serve our country as president, and then--remarkably!--stepped DOWN after his second term, allowing for a peaceful transition of power.

But the shadow of slavery hangs over Mount Vernon, and over George Washington, too. Curation at the site emphasized that he disliked the "peculiar institution." But he also never made a public statement against it.

More than 300 enslaved people worked on the estate or on Washington's other properties nearby.

They worked on the farms, they kept the greenhouse warm, they chopped wood, they worked in the kitchens, they smoked the meat, shod the horses, did the laundry, spun flax and hemp and wool. . .

In the museum at Mount Vernon, there's a special exhibit exploring the lives of the enslaved people who lived at the estate. It was pretty empty of tourists compared with the other exhibits.

The exhibit shared information about some particular slaves, whose names we know from the property registers, including names of people in their families and what their work was like. Here's some information about a few people.

• Billy Lee--George Washington's personal valet, the only slave he freed upon his own death. Lee stood behind Washington at the Second Continental Congress. We found out at the museum that Lee had two bad knees: imagine him standing for hours while Washington sat listening to debates
• Nancy Quander--a spinner and farm hand  who was a member of one of the oldest African families in North America.
• Oney Judge--(pictured in the silhouette above) escaped slavery at Mount Vernon when in Philadelphia with Martha Washington--but she had to leave family behind to become free herself.

I was so glad to see this exhibit that brought to light the lives of people like Lee, Quander, and Judge.

It's one thing to hear that our country was built on the backs of enslaved people. It's another thing to see the evidence in the landscape and ledgers. That evidence is scant in Iowa, a Northern state where slavery wasn't our "peculiar institution."

But here in DC--or in the Virginian estate of our First President, that shadow is long and dark, and falls across the beautiful grounds of Mount Vernon. It is good to be reminded of that shadow, and to consider what it means for our lives--and the future of our country--today.

View of the Potomac from the Washingtons' porch.