In this episode, Dr. Jim Ambuske sits down with the Washington Library's Research Historian Mary V. Thompson to discuss her new book, "The Only Unavoidable Subject of Regret": George Washington, Slavery, and the Enslaved Community at Mount Vernon.
About Our Guest:
Mary V. Thompson is a long-time (38 year) member of the staff at Mount Vernon, where she is now the Research Historian. She is the author of In the Hands of a Good Providence: Religion in the Life of George Washington, A Short Biography of Martha Washington, and "The Only Unavoidable Subject of Regret": George Washington, Slavery, and the Enslaved Community at Mount Vernon.
About Our Host:
Jim Ambuske leads the digital history initiatives at George Washington's Mount Vernon. He received his Ph.D. in history from UVA in 2016 with a focus on Scotland and America in an Age of War and Revolution. He is a former Farmer Postdoctoral Fellow in Digital Humanities at the University of Virginia Law Library. At UVA, Ambuske co-directed the 1828 Catalogue Project and the soon to be released Scottish Court of Session Project. Ambuske was a contributor to the edited collection, The Eighteenth Centuries: Global Networks of Enlightenment, and has published reviews in The Southern Historian and Reviews in American History. Ambuske is currently at work on a book entitled Emigration and Empire: America and Scotland in the Revolutionary Era, as well as a chapter on Scottish loyalism during the American Revolution for a volume to be published by the University of Edinburgh Press. He is presently pursuing individual projects centered on transatlantic legal history and the reign of George III.
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Purchase the Book
In "The Only Unavoidable Subject of Regret," Mary V. Thompson, Research Historian at George Washington’s Mount Vernon, offers the first comprehensive account of those who served in bondage at Mount Vernon. Drawing on years of research in a wide range of sources, Thompson brings to life the lives of Washington’s slaves while illuminating the radical change in his views on slavery and race wrought by the American Revolution.
Music Provided by Ginger and Dr. David Hildebrand
The Hildebrand's present concerts and educational programs throughout the country for museums, historical societies, national and state historic parks, and universities. David and Ginger’s seven full-length recordings focus mostly on colonial and federal era music, highlighting both classical and folk‑based repertory. David is also a former Washington Library research fellow.