Students examine George Washington’s 1799 Slave Census to discover Washington as a meticulous businessman and slave owner and to gain information about the institution of slavery in the 18th century.

1. George Washington and Slavery:
The 1799 Census of Slaves
Intended Grade Level: Middle School
Lesson Purpose: This lesson will use George Washington’s 1799 Slave Census to reveal
Washington as a meticulous businessman and slave owner and provide information
about the institution of slavery in the 18th century.
Lesson Objectives:
• To learn how historians and archaeologists use primary documents to
gain a deeper understanding of slave life at Mount Vernon.
• To gain knowledge about the slave community at Mount Vernon.
National Standards:
NSS-USH.5-12.2 ERA 2: COLONIZATION AND SETTLEMENT (1585-1763)
• Understands why the Americas attracted Europeans, why they brought enslaved Africans to
their colonies, and how Europeans struggled for control of North America and the Caribbean
• Understands how political, religious, and social institutions emerged in the English colonies
• Understands how the values and institutions of European economic life took root in the colonies,
and how slavery reshaped European and African life in the Americas
NL-ENG.K-12.3 EVALUATION STRATEGIES
Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They
draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word
meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual
features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).
Timeframe: Approximately one class session
Background:

2. African-American slaves comprised ninety percent of the total population of Mount
Vernon by 1799. By that time, the slave population consisted mainly of second- and
third-generation individuals. Very few were natives of Africa. Few primary documents
exist that deal directly with the lives of the enslaved population. Although it was not
the intended purpose of this document, a great deal of information about the lives of the
Mount Vernon slave community can be gathered from the 1799 census. By 1799, Mount
Vernon was home to over 300 enslaved African Americans. In preparation for writing
his will, Washington made a list of those slaves on the estate who belonged either to
him or were “dower” slaves of Martha Washington. The dower slaves belonged to the
estate of Mrs. Washington’s first husband, Daniel Parke Custis. She received a life
interest in his estate when he died and, upon her marriage to Washington in 1759,
brought many of the slaves to Mount Vernon. Although Washington made plans to
free his slaves in his will he knew, by law, Martha Washington’s dower slaves would go
back to the Custis family heirs at the time of her death.
The census enumerates the individual slaves, their jobs, their ages, family relationships,
where they lived and to whom they belonged. Although marriage between slaves was
not recognized by Virginia law, Washington encouraged marriage. Families were often
separated because slaves lived where they worked. A husband and wife may have
worked on different farms at Mount Vernon, which was comprised of the Mansion
House farm and four outlying farms. Slaves at Mount Vernon worked six days a week,
with Sunday off. Slaves living on different farms could be with their families on
Saturday night and Sunday, as well as on other holidays (four days at Christmas, the
Monday after Easter and Pentecost, and the occasional feast day).
George Washington stopped buying and selling slaves by the mid-1770s; however, over
the years, Washington and “dower” slaves had formed a community at Mount Vernon.
They had inter-married and had children, making for a potentially complicated and
heartbreaking situation. By Virginia law, the condition of the child followed that of the
mother. If the mother was a slave, then, by law, her children were slaves. If the mother
was a free woman, then her children were free.
Before beginning the activity, as a class, discuss why so few 18th-century documents
exist that were created by slaves. What other types of documents or primary sources
can they identify that help historians learn about slavery in the 18th century?
Note: George Washington’s attitudes towards slavery changed over his lifetime. After
the Revolutionary War, where Washington had seen black soldiers fight side by side
with whites, and had also seen an economic system in the north that did not rely on

3. slave labor, he began to express the belief that slavery should be abolished by legislative
measure. For further information about Washington’s views on slavery, see the lesson
plan “George Washington Stood Here… On the Issue of Slavery.”
Procedure:
1. Divide students into small groups and distribute a copy of the Slave Census
(included below) to each group. Explain that they will be taking on the role of
historians researching the slave community at Mount Vernon. As they read the
Slave Census, have them answer the questions on the Slave Census Worksheet
(included below). Use the Answer Key to review answers with students as a
class and ask students to point to examples on their census that answer each
question.
Note: Only the first two of eight pages of the Slave Census are included below
because they list the skilled craftsmen and Mansion House Farm workers, while
the last six pages are lists of unskilled farm labor.
2. Assign each student a name on the census. Ask each student to determine as
much information as possible about that slave from the information found on the
census. Then ask them to write a brief first-person essay about the slave’s life at
Mount Vernon. If they are not familiar with the job of the slave, assign them to
research the job. The elementary lesson plan, “A Day at Mount Vernon”
provides slave stories that may be useful as an example for your students.
3. Extension Activity: Ask students to locate the slave “Sambo” on the Census.
Explain that he is one of the few slaves for which there exists information about
his life after he was freed. Sambo was married to a dower slave, and both his
wife and children remained enslaved after he gained his freedom. Sambo settled
near Mount Vernon and earned a living providing meat and game to local
taverns. He eventually earned enough money to purchase the freedom of two of
his relatives, believed to have been his grandchildren.
Have your students find a biography, interview, or story about a freed slave and
share it with the class. Discuss the challenges slaves faced when freed.

4. Examining George Washington’s 1799 Slave Census
1. How many different jobs can you identify on the census? Do these jobs appear to
be farm jobs or skilled craftsmen?
2. What is the relationship between the gender of the slave and the job that they
performed?
3. What are tools that would be necessary to do these jobs? Where on the Mount
Vernon estate and farms would these jobs be performed?
4. Is there any evidence that children worked at Mount Vernon?
5. Can you determine how many of the slaves belonged to George Washington?
Who else owned slaves that worked on George Washington’s estate?
6. Is there evidence of marriage and family units? Do the families live together?

5. Examining George Washington’s 1799 Slave Census: Answer Key
1. How many different jobs can you identify on the census? Do these jobs appear to be farm
jobs or skilled craftsmen?
Examples are cook, carpenter, smith, spinner, miller, gardener, distillery worker.
These jobs appear to be skilled craftsmen.
2. What is the relationship between the gender of the slave and the job that they performed?
Male slaves were often trained as skilled craftsmen, while women performed
jobs at the Mansion House such as cooking, laundry, and spinning, or performed
manual labor on Washington’s outlying farms.
3. What are tools that would be necessary to do these jobs? Where on the Mount Vernon
estate and farms would these jobs be performed?
Archaeological excavations at Mount Vernon have revealed tools such as
pitchforks, horseshoes, nails, hammers, hoes, and chisels. Further information
and images of these artifacts is available on the Mount Vernon website. The
Mansion House farm includes outbuildings such as a kitchen, dairy, spinning
house, wash house, blacksmith shop, and smokehouse. The distillery is also
listed on the census.
Note: The lesson plan “Revealing Mount Vernon’s Past through Archaeology”
provides the 1787 Vaughn map of the estate and further information on
archaeology at Mount Vernon.
4. Is there any evidence that children worked at Mount Vernon?
Children began working at Mount Vernon around the age of eleven. On the
Census, only children under eleven appear to be listed under “Children,” while
anyone over that age, such as 17 year old Eve and 14 year old Delia, listed under
the Mansion House slaves as sisters, are listed with the adult slaves.
5. Can you determine how many of the slaves belonged to George Washington? Who else
owned slaves that worked on George Washington’s estate?

6. Only 27 of the tradesmen and Mansion House slaves belonged to George
Washington. The Dower slaves were owned by the estate of Martha Washington
and as seen on the second page of the Census, 40 slaves were rented from a
neighbor, Mrs. French.
6. Is there evidence of marriage and family units? Do the families live together?
Washington encouraged the marriage of his slaves, even though these marriages
were not recognized by Virginia law. Washington also allowed his slaves to
marry slaves from other estates: Dundee has a wife at Mr. Lear’s; Chriss has a
wife at Major West’s and Simms has a wife at French’s. Slaves lived where they
worked, so many families did not live together, such as Isaac, on the second page
of the Census, whose wife lived at Muddy Hole Farm. In a practice called
“nightwalking,” slaves would often walk all night on Saturday to visit with their
families on Sunday, then walk through the night on Sunday night to return to
work at dawn on Monday.