Open 365 days a year, Mount Vernon is located just 15 miles south of Washington DC.
From the mansion to lush gardens and grounds, intriguing museum galleries, immersive programs, and the distillery and gristmill. Spend the day with us!
Discover what made Washington "first in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen".
The Mount Vernon Ladies Association has been maintaining the Mount Vernon Estate since they acquired it from the Washington family in 1858.
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Enslaved people spent most of their waking hours working without pay on Mount Vernon’s five farms.
Whether fieldhands, craftsmen, or household workers, they had little control over their schedules, work assignments, or living arrangements. George Washington expected them to “do their duty” by working diligently at all times. Those who did not meet his expectations faced punishment.
My people [must] be at their work as soon as it is light—work ’till it is dark—and be diligent while they are at it…
Yet enslaved men, women, and children persevered in the face of harsh physical and psychological conditions. They used subtle tactics to negotiate with Washington and overseers for better treatment. They acquired personal possessions to make their homes more comfortable. They grew vegetables and raised poultry to eat and sell. They practiced religion, played music, and told stories. They married, celebrated the births of children, and mourned loved ones who died. And they faced great risks to resist Washington’s authority, sometimes even running away.
Details of Edward Savage’s painting, showing enslaved people near the Mount Vernon Mansion.
Bequest of Helen W. Thompson, 1964
by Edward Savage, ca. 1787–1792
Edward Savage depicted the Washington family strolling on the expanse of lawn known as the bowling green. In the background, a group of enslaved men walks past the Servants’ Hall, while a woman walks across the circle in front of the Mansion. Enslaved people were a constant presence near the Mansion, whether performing work on landscape features or traveling from one part of the estate to another.
Bequest of Helen W. Thompson, 1964
by Edward Savage, ca. 1787–1792
This view of the Mansion’s east front shows many of the landscape features that enslaved laborers added at Washington’s directive in the 1780s: the fenced deer park along the river, sunken brick “ha-ha” walls to keep livestock off the sloping lawn, and groves of trees obscuring the outbuildings beside the Mansion.
Samuel Vaughan, Plan of Mount Vernon, 1787, ink and watercolor, W-1434, MVLA.
George Washington designed Mount Vernon's landscape to be a beautiful pleasure ground for his family and guests. The labor of the estate’s enslaved people, along with a handful of hired workers, turned his vision of lawns, pathways, groves, and gardens into reality. Washington’s diary entries from 1785—the year he began a massive overhaul of his estate—reveal the extensive work necessary to alter the landscape.
In 1787, Samuel Vaughan completed this bird’s-eye view drawing of the Mount Vernon Mansion and its surrounding landscape, which Washington laid out in the 1780s.
Washington experimented with plaster of Paris as a fertilizer for his lawns and gardens. Enslaved workers had to crush the hard substance into spreadable powder before it could be used.
Washington’s carpenters constructed a park for tame deer near the Mansion. Enslaved people were skilled at building fences, which were necessary throughout the estate to keep livestock out of the fields.
The lawns surrounding the Mansion were flattened by enslaved ditchers before gardeners planted them with grass. Moving the vast quantities of earth was grueling work, especially as the ground began to freeze.
The far end of the bowling green on the Mansion’s west side featured groves of pine trees, which Washington called “Wildernesses.” His detailed plans for different varieties of trees near the Mansion required enslaved laborers to dig up trees elsewhere and transport them for replanting.
The content on this page was adapted from Lives Bound Together: Slavery at George Washington’s Mount Vernon, an exhibition on view in the Donald W. Reynolds Museum & Education Center from 2016–2020.
