There were fifty-seven enslaved people living on River Farm in 1799, and twenty-seven were enslaved by George Washington.1 The other thirty people were enslaved by Martha Washington. Nineteen of the individuals living at River Farm were children younger than eleven, and thirty-eight were "adults" older than eleven. Of those thirty-eight adults, nine had spouses living elsewhere, while five couples lived together at River Farm. Three of the family groups at River Farm in 1799 were comprised of the children of women who had passed away by the time of the list's composition. Because so many of those children were quite young, they were probably being raised by relatives, but their extended family members cannot be identified. By 1799, twenty-seven of the thirty-eight adults (71.05%) had been living at River Farm for at least thirteen years, since 1786.2
Notes:
1."Washington’s Slave List, June 1799," Founders Online, National Archives.
2. [Diary entry: 18 February 1786], Founders Online, National Archives.
Bibliography:
Thompson, Mary V. “The Only Unavoidable Subject of Regret”: George Washington, Slavery, and the Enslaved Community at Mount Vernon. Charlottesville and London: University of Virginia Press, 2019.
Schoelwer, Susan P., ed. Lives Bound Together: Slavery at George Washington's Mount Vernon. Mount Vernon, VA: Mount Vernon Ladies Association, 2016.
