Description
In ""The Only Unavoidable Subject of Regret,"" Mary Thompson 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.
Thompson begins with an examination of George and Martha Washington as slave owners. Culling from letters to financial ledgers, travel diaries kept by visitors and reminiscences of family members as well as of former slaves and neighbors, Thompson explores various facets of everyday life on the plantation ranging from work to domestic life, housing, foodways, private enterprise, and resistance. Along the way, she considers the relationship between Washington's military career and his style of plantation management and relates the many ways slaves rebelled against their condition. The book closes with Washington's attempts to reconcile being a slave owner with the changes in his thinking on slavery and race, ending in his decision to grant his slaves freedom in his will.
About the Author
Mary V. Thompson, Research Historian at George Washington's Mount Vernon, is the author of "In the Hands of a Good Providence": Religion in the Life of George Washington (Virginia).
Reviews
brilliant, erudite history of Mount Vernon" - ALH Online Review
Book Information
ISBN 9780813941844
Author Mary V. Thompson
Format Hardback
Page Count 520
Imprint University of Virginia Press
Publisher University of Virginia Press
Weight(grams) 893g