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Letter to the editor

A new voice for a U.S. landmark

Scott Casper tells the story of the slaves at Mount Vernon.

By Jules Wagman, Special to the Times
Published February 3, 2008

This is not so much a "forgotten history" as it is one that was ignored: the story of George Washington's 123 slaves, what happened to them when they were emancipated in 1801, and what happened to their descendants.

Scott Casper, a history professor at the University of Nevada at Reno, constructed the story of Mount Vernon's slaves and freed blacks by using courthouse records - wills, slave censuses, estate inventories and maps - as well as diaries and ledgers. (He also traces the history of the estate, which passed through several owners before it was acquired by the Mount Vernon Ladies Association in 1859 for $200,000.)

Some African-Americans at Mount Vernon - Washington's original slaves and their descendants - were freed. Martha Washington's slaves and their descendants were not.

Descendants of both groups who worked the plantation developed tales of Mount Vernon that suited what the mostly white pilgrims to Washington's grave wanted to hear. Sarah Johnson, born at Mount Vernon to a teenage slave in 1844, was trained to be a domestic servant. After the Emancipation Proclamation, she returned to Mount Vernon as a cook and washerwoman.

Casper writes, "She drew upon lessons from slavery days, now for a monthly wage and public audience . . . played a featured role in the Mount Vernon that visitors saw as she courteously sold them milk for five cents a glass."

Johnson remained at Mount Vernon until 1892, when she bought 4 acres of Washington's original 7,600-acre plantation and remained there until she moved to a segregated nursing home in Washington, D.C., where she died in 1920. Mount Vernon's flag was lowered to half-staff until she was buried in the nearby black cemetery.

This is a fascinating look at a national shrine from the other end of the telescope.

Jules Wagman, last book editor of the old Cleveland (Ohio) Press, reviews book in Jacksonville.

Sarah Johnson's Mount Vernon: The Forgotten History of an American Shrine

By Scott E. Casper

Hill and Wang, 286 pages, $25

[Last modified January 30, 2008, 15:18:48]