The only unavoidable subject of regret : George Washington, slavery, and the enslaved community at Mount Vernon / Mary V. Thompson.

Includes bibliographies and index.

"American historians began producing in-depth studies of slavery and slave life shortly after World War II, but it was not until the early 1980s that the country's museums took the first tentative steps to interpret those same controversial topics. Perhaps because of the tremendous amount of primary material related to George Washington, almost no one looked into the lives of Mount Vernon's enslaved population. Incorporating the results of detailed digging, of both the archaeological and archival varieties, the number of chapters grew as further questions arose. While a few scholars outside Mount Vernon turned their attention to Washington's changing ideas about slavery, they largely overlooked the daily lives of those who were enslaved on the estate, a subject about which visitors expressed a desire to know more. The resulting book makes use of a wide range of sources, including letters, financial ledgers, work reports, travel diaries kept by visitors to Mount Vernon, the reminiscences of family members, former slaves, and neighbors, reports by archaeologists, and surviving artifacts to flesh out the lives of a people who left few written records, but made up 90 percent of the estate's population. The book begins with a look at George and Martha Washington as slaveowners, before turning to various facets of slave life ranging from work, to family life, housing, foodways, private enterprise, and resistance. Along the way, readers will see a relationship between Washington's military career and his style of plantation management, learn of the many ways slaves rebelled against their condition, and get to know many of the enslaved people who made Mount Vernon their home"--

"I Never See That Man Laugh to Show His Teeth" : George Washington and Martha Washington as Slave Owners -- "A Plant of Rapid Growth" : New Ideas and a Change of Heart -- "To Remain Constantly with the People" : Hired, Indentured, and Enslaved Supervisors -- "So Exact and So Strict" : Labor and the Mount Vernon Slaves -- "They Appear to Live Comfortable Together" : Family Life in the Mount Vernon Slave Community -- "A Mean Pallet" : The Slave Quarters at Mount Vernon -- "And Procure for Themselves a Few Amenities" : Recreation and Private Enterprise in the Enslaved Community -- "Better ... Fed Than Negroes Generally Are" : Diet of the Mount Vernon Slaves -- "An Idle Set of Rascals" : Control and Resistance among the Mount Vernon Slaves -- Conclusion. More than a Father.

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