What Were the Living Conditions of the Enslaved People at Mount Vernon?

"Slavery was a system in which enslaved people lived in fear, fear of being sold, fear of being separated from their families or their children or their parents, fear of not being in control of their bodies or their lives, fear of never knowing freedom. No matter what their clothing was like, no matter what food they ate, no matter their quarters looked like enslaved people lived with that fear. When human beings aren’t being treated as people details like the clothing they wore, the food they ate, and their housing become secondary."

-- Jessie MacLeod, associate curator and lead curator of the Lives Bound Together Exhibit, explaining the living conditions and treatment of the enslaved at Mount Vernon in this video. This video is catered to answering questions for a younger audience, but as Mount Vernon historian Mary Thompson writes, "many of the worst things one thinks about in terms of slavery – whipping, keeping someone in shackles, tracking a person down with dogs, or selling people away from their family – all of those things happened either at Mount Vernon or on other plantations under Washington’s management." We encourage you to learn more about slavery at Mount Vernon using our resources:

www.mountvernon.org/slavery
Mount Vernon’s Slavery YouTube Playlist: bit.ly/3g6fEVt
Mary Thompson’s book: bit.ly/3ga5H9w
Mount Vernon’s Museum Exhibition Lives Bound Together: bit.ly/34oo9JF

Shorter answer: No such thing as a well treated slave.

“I don't trust anyone who's nice to me but rude to the waiter. Because they would treat me the same way if I were in that position.” - Muhammad Ali

Imagine being forced to work against your will and being someone’s property, and they say they treated you well because the gave you clothes.

Short Answer: Being a slave is still horrible treatment

Like property i guess. I'm not sure it's possible to treat a slave 'fairly'. I mean...if you wanted to treat someone 'fairly' you wouldn't own them as property.

I'm glad you didn't sugarcoat anything. Historical facts, good and bad, should be presented as honestly as possible.

Here let me fix that response: They were treated horribly, they were human beings and deserved better.

How does someone treat slaves? It doesn’t matter if they are treated “good”. If someone is a SLAVE they are not being treated fairly at all!!!

2:44 "we don't think whipping was a constant occurrence at Mount Vernon, but it happened regularly." AKA: it didnt happen all the time, but it did happen all the time.

“Whippings weren’t a constant occurrence but they did happen regularly..” 🤔🧐

I remember as a kid and I first found out that George Washington had slaves my teacher assured me that he treated them kindly. You can have a great man founded a country who was also cruel and self righteous. People are complicated and, you know, people.

"Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it means to be a slave." -Rutger Hauer, 'Blade Runner'

Question: How did George Washington treat his slaves?

Answer: 🗣HE TREATED THEM LIKE SLAVES

My guess is, he treated them like slaves.

“Whippings were uncommon but did happen regularly....wtf does that mean

"Like slaves"

Next question.

so the short answer is he was a SLAVE owner and there is no arguing that slaves were NEVER treated fairly

Isn't the key word here still "Slave?" 🤔

I appreciate Ms. MacLeod's assessment and her ability to speak to Washington's treatment of his slaves while also talking about the institution as a separate, though related, issue