George Washington took an early interest in new husbandry and agricultural improvement. As early as 1760, he was already in the practice of keeping records of his planting activities, crop rotations, building projects to support harvesting, and managing the labor of enslaved workers, hired laborers, and indentured servants. Overtime, these directives from Washington would be facilitated by various overseers and farm managers, some of which were instrumental maintaining accounts. Over time, Washington's agricultural record keeping grew increasingly detailed and inquisitive, steadily progressing from a basic record of planting and agricultural products to a quasi-scientific journal of experimentation and economic viability. While providing an invaluable history of the agricultural activity at Mount Vernon, these records also provide glimpses of the daily lives of enslaved workers.
The Development of Mount Vernon
In the decade following Washington’s full ownership of Mount Vernon in 1761, he made key acquisitions to add to the property. By the end of his life, Mount Vernon and his outlying properties near the Potomac river were known as the five farms, comprised of Mansion Farm, River Farm, Union Farm, Dogue Run Farm, and Muddy Hole Farm. By the start of the American Revolution, Washington took an interest in new farming methods known as new husbandry. Instead of growing primary tobacco, in 1766, he began rotations of wheat, crops, and barley as well as streamlining fertilizer usage from livestock. In this decade, he began constructing homes for overseers, new quarters for those enslaved across various farms, and structures of livestock.
When Washington returned to Mount Vernon after the American Revolution, he continued to make physical improvements to the property to further develop the five farms. This included extensive work to landscapes to be more suitable to agriculture, but also repair to structures such as mansion. This required those enslaved at Mount Vernon and hired workers to perform tasks such as ditching, brick making and laying, and custom carpentry. Washington also continued his interest in agricultural technology, which included agriculture equipment, but also what structures best suited livestock or wheat production. These improvements extended into Washington’s final decade of life, including the construction of a 16-Sided barn to thresh wheat in 1792. Further expanding revenue streams, Washington began operating a distillery at Mount Vernon as well.
Growing Connection to the New Husbandry Movement
In June 1785, Washington signaled his intention to adopt a new and more rigorous approach to farming, seeking an English farmer familiar with new husbandry to assume the management of his Mount Vernon. Washington's desire for a capable farmer circulated through several hands in England, and soon found its way to Arthur Young a major figure in the agricultural reform movement in England. On January 7, 1786 Young wrote directly to Washington, offering to procure workers, materials, and farm animals as needed. The correspondence with Young soon expanded to include other prominent figures in English agricultural circles, including Dr. James Anderson and Sir John Sinclair. In 1797, Washington was even made an honorary member of the English Board of Agriculture. Ultimately, Washington hired various employees through these connections.
Arthur Young's enthusiasm only served to encourage Washington to proceed with his project. In August 1786, Washington began to reconfigure the fields at Dogue Run and Muddy Hole from the old three-field arrangement to a new seven-field system. This enabled him to adopt a seven-year crop rotation focused on wheat as the principal cash crop, corn for domestic food needs, and legumes to rejuvenate the soil. Building upon decades of studying agriculture, Washington was able to facilitate the best practices in new husbandry at Mount Vernon. This also cultivated an interest in landscapes broadly, which prompted the creation of gardens and vistas at Mount Vernon.
Agricultural Reform
The end of the war triggered an interest among educated and wealthy American planters and gentleman farmers in agricultural reform. On March 1, 1785, twenty-three such prominent planters founded the first American organization devoted to agricultural pursuits—the Philadelphia Society for the Promotion of Agriculture.
In July of 1787, Samuel Powel—the Society's first president—wrote to Washington to announce his election as an honorary member.1 Washington was pleased to be included and carried on correspondence with a number of other members over the remainder of his life. Washington recorded attending at least one society meeting while in Philadelphia, and on another occasion attended a demonstration of a threshing machine outside the city.2
Agricultural reform, however, was not a simple matter of reorganizing fence lines. Washington recognized that experimentation was anathema to all but the most forward-looking farmers. Instead, Washington believed that it was the responsibility of wealthy farmers to undertake experimentation, as failures would be inevitable and losses would have to be absorbed while new techniques were perfected. He corresponded regularly with his contemporaries in England about these ideas, but also other founding fathers such as Thomas Jefferson.3
Notes:
1. “George Washington to Samuel Powel, 19 July 1785,” Founders Online, National Archives.
2. "Samuel Powel to George Washington, 30 June 1787," The Diaries of George Washington, Vol. 5, eds. Donald Jackson and Dorothy Twohig (Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1978), 173.
3.“To Thomas Jefferson from George Washington, 6 July 1796,” Founders Online, National Archives.
Bibliography:
Dalzell, Robert, Jr. and Lee Baldwin Dalzell, George Washington’s Mount Vernon: At Home in Revolutionary America. Oxford University Press, 1998.
Fusonie, Alan and Donna Jean. George Washington, Pioneer Farmer. Mount Vernon, VA: Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, 1998.
Ragsdale, Bruce A., Washington at the Plow: The Founding Farmer and the Question of Slavery. The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2021.
Schoelwer, Susan P., ed. Lives Bound Together: Slavery at George Washington's Mount Vernon. Mount Vernon, VA: Mount Vernon Ladies Association, 2016.
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.
Wall, Charles Cecil. George Washington, Citizen-Soldier. Mount Vernon, Va.: Mount Vernon Ladies Association, 1983, 17-18, 24-31, 93.
