There were forty-two enslaved people living at Muddy Hole Farm in 1799, including thirty-six people enslaved by George Washington, five who were enslaved by Martha Washington, and one man who was rented from Mrs. French, one of the Washington's neighbors.1 This group twenty-four "adults" (considered to be anyone over eleven years old) and eighteen children under eleven years of age. Eleven of the adults were married, however only two couples lived together at this farm, with their spouses living on other farms at Mount Vernon. Of the eight family groups at the farm, six were headed by women. By 1799, nineteen of the twenty-four adults (79.17%) at Muddy Hole had been living there for at least thirteen years.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.
