question of slavery. in the summer of 1787 in the midst of the meeting of the constitutional convention george washington recorded an outing in his diary. observing some farmers at work and entering into conversation with them. i received the following information with respect to the mode of cultivating buckwheat and the application of the grain. in his letters and diary entries throughout his life washington

frequently makes observations on crops and farming practices. for his own mount vernon estate. he kept careful accounts all we seeking improvements in agricultural practices. one can read washington's own words on founders online a searchable website hosted by the national archives through the national historical publications and records commission over time washington's ideas about agriculture and agricultural labor changed based on his own experiences and application of modern farming techniques in today's program. we'll hear from author bruce ragsdale whose new book washington at the plow discusses these changes in examines how washington's passion for farming led him to question the reliance on enslaved labor for say ragsdale served for 20 years as director of the federal judicial history office at the federal judicial center the author of a planter's republic the search for economic independence and revolutionary, virginia. he's been a fellow at the washington library mount vernon and the international center for

jefferson studies. now that's here from bruce ragsdale. thank you for joining us today. thank you. i'm delighted to have this opportunity to speak to audience the archives and as the archivist said i relied so heavily on founders online the wonderful resource that has all the published correspondence in washington and other founders that made it so accessible to do this research. um, the book is an attempt to write a full history of washington's life as a farmer of farming biography as it were and is his life as a farmer really still stands as the most important untold story about the most familiar of the founders and i started this project with a conviction that no one can fully understand washington without having some sense of why he preferred his life as a farmer so much and also what i hope to achieve for the new nation as a farmer in the way, he saw it. is it an additional kind of

leadership in establishing the united states a british visitor to mount vernon 1785 reported that estrogen's greatest ambition following the american revolution was to be considered the first farmer of america washington's been celebrated for many firsts, but the idea of first farmer of america is one that has been lost to our nation's memory and i wanted to find out why why that accolade would have been so important to washington so soon after he had just led the continental army to victory insecured american independence. why was it so important for him to tend to turn to farming in his service to the nation? i also wanted to uncover a side of washington that that seldom evident in his and and political life. he considered farming the activity that was best suited to his disposition. he certainly enjoyed it more than any other activities that

it was more rewarding than any string of military victories could ever be and it reveals a private washington that it is often hard to discern. in his life you find a man who is deeply connected to the natural world around him. you find an intellectual curiosity and you find an engagement with a world of enlightenment self-defined enlightened landowners on both sides of the atlantic it became a very important part of the person that washington wanted to be and what he wanted to bring to his farming at mount vernon. he affirming for washington was never just a private enterprise agriculturally thought would be one of the most important foundations of america's place in the world if it's respectability among a community of nations, and he always in all of his agricultural innovations

over 40 years. he always was looking toward the larger direction of economic growth the political economy. that would be supported by different kinds of agriculture first. the 1760s when he moves away from tobacco, which he abandons in 1765 and makes wheat his cash crop. he does that in those small part because he sees the opportunities outside the restrictions of empire was a crop that could be traded without the restrictions of the navigation accident encumbrate the tobacco trade and he saw it as a way of making virginia more independent more self-directed and then again after the revolutionary war when he adopts a program of diversified farming that he thinks will be the foundation of the new nations commercial prosperity that it'll provide the common commercial interest that we'll talk the nation together. and so farming was another

demonstration of the kind of leadership that he had exercised as both a military and and political leader. but i also wanted to reconstruct a side of the heroic washington that is often forgotten about and especially as represented in this famous sculpture by the french sculptor. who don created for the state capital in richmond, and that was the celebration of washington as the american cincinnatus that his return from the army to farming recalled the example of the roman general who had left his farm to defend the republic in in battle and then refused an offer of arbitrary power and return to his life as a farmer in the 18th century. the image of cincinnati central plow was held as an idea of

civic virtue and washington is the plow became a similar representation made all the more powerful by his actual preference for farming and his deep engagement in farming at mount vernon after 1783 and the presentation that who don has here. it's it's um, he is showing washington. i'm not just as he takes off his military cloak and hangs up this sword, but also with the plow that's at his feet and the plow at his side that is awaiting his life as a farmer and this representation of washington at the plow is especially notable because who done in consultation with franklin and jefferson and some input from washington, decided to present washington and modern dress rather than the classical address associated with cincinnati of agents and of the ancient cloud that was

always associated with cincinnatus who don presents washington with a drill plow a new innovative kind of cloud washington designed one like this. it was manufactured by the enslaved carpenters in blacksmiths at mount vernon and this becomes another representation of washington service through through his his embrace of the cloud. washington is also associated with the plow and he retires from resigns as president and 1797 in this image. that was created to celebrate that event washington is surrendering the symbols of power on the throne of liberty, but with his left hand, he just gestures to mount vernon and waiting for him at mount vernon is is the plow of the yoke of oxen. and so as these themes and

images suggest washington after 1783 is effectively farming on the public stage that he's being closely a watched in by both europeans and americans celebrated as washington at the plow this idea of a farmer doing the public good and that notion of the public that frames many of the expectations of washington as a farmer. he places greater emphasis on the civic benefits of the agricultural improvements. he introduces but those expectations also frame his new reckoning with slavery in the years following the revolutionary war and it's here in his life as a farmer more than any other dimension of his life that we can discern how washington ultimately confronted the paradox of slavery freedom that runs throughout the founding. and it says a farmer that we can find the most detailed record of

his changing attitudes towards slavery. the story of washington the farmer is the story of washington made slaver farming and enslaved labor were inseparable to washington throughout his entire life as a farmer and he once wrote that he didn't like to even think about slavery let alone write about it or talk about it, but in fact he thought about slavery all the time and he thought about it and wrote about it in terms of his management of the enslaved agricultural labor at at his own estate and it's there in that record that you can see both the change in attitude and also the record of his daily interactions with the enslaved laborers who means supervised and control and then finally when washington does ultimately decide to search

for some way to emancipate the enslaved people. he controls the only record we have of that process and thought process is through his record of farming and israel organization of mount vernon. it is here this example of this document of washington made in 17909 toward the end of his life. he gave a detailed description of various enslaved laborers at mount vernon this documents only in the last 10 years come to light it was acquired by mount vernon and it's in the library there. it's available on their website and what's really interesting about this document is that if such a detailed description of individual laborers and what he sees as their strength, it also makes clear that it finds these individuals largely through their labor and through their valued him but it shows a kind of close personal connection and

engaged personally engagement that is not available in any place other than in these farming records. when i started the research for this book, i thought i had a pretty good sense of the trajectory of washington's life as as a farmer. but what i now think are two of the most important contributions of the book came largely as surprises as i as i undertook the research, um, and the first of the surprises is the depth of washington's commitment to british agriculture to british models of agricultural improvement. and in the middle decades of the 18th century. um transformation of farming and great britain had brought about remarkable increases in productivity and as soon as washington becomes a full-time

farmer in 1759 after he leaves the virginia regiment, he's determined to adopt many of those practices from british husbandry to bring it into virginia to create a new kind of farming and new kind of agriculture at mount vernon that would open up new kinds of opportunities and provide a new role for him and he learns about these new techniques almost entirely through books beginning in 1759. he starts to order new books through his tobacco merchants in london. this is one of the most important is thomas hales complete body of husbandry, and he not only brings these books into his library and takes extensive notes, but we can i'm very specifically trace experiments that he undertakes changes in cultivation that he undertakes. two and after he receives this and other books, he develops one of the largest libraries of this is a closed captioning test.

this is a closed captioning test. this is a closed captioning test. this is a closed captioning test. this is a closed captioning test. promoted by a new type of gentleman self-profess gentleman farmer in great britain as n our right side illustrates, um, these gentlemen farmers often connected their efforts with the great agriculturalists of antiquity people like virtually sinny they often presented there improvements as a kind of civic even patriotic service that they were undertaking experiments that would lead common farmers to improve their land and washington found in this cultural farmer a new role for the virginia planter that the virginia planter could be and take on this role of demonstrating new kinds of farming that would diversify farming it would open up new

kinds of commercial opportunities. what's even more surprising is that that this commitment to english has been british husbandry increases over time and is becomes stronger and stronger after the revolutionary war after independence from from the empire washington is still deeply committed to these british models and and 1785. he announces that he wants to undertake a complete a course of husbandry as practice in the best farming counties in england, and this is not just cultivation methods or new crops. this is a very elaborate complicated system of crop rotations immigrated with livestock management and especially restoration of the soil stewardship of the soil. and it leads him to to redesign the entire agricultural landscape over thousands of acres have mount vernon and also leads him to demand that the enslaved construct a whole new

infrastructure of farming including what washington thought was the largest barns in the united states. they probably were all constructed on the basis of very sophisticated british models. the same time washington begins correspondence with some of the most important agriculturalists in in great britain, and they really become his confidants and and guides as he implements new types of farming after 1785. um, but the second and closely related surprise was was the enormous effort that washington expended on in trying to adapt enslaved labor to this complicated washington expanded in trying to adapt enslaved labor to this complicated course of british husbandry. this is a merger of british notions of enlightened

farming with enslaved labor which really is unique to washington. no one else is trying to do it on the scale that he has. it is a challenge that he understands is also unique to him. during the revolutionary war, washington on a couple of occasions in private correspondence says he wants to be done with managing enslaved labor. he wants to be done relying on enslaved labor for agriculture. those comments, combined with a few remarks in the 1780 said he supported the principle of gradual abolition, persuaded many historians that from the revelation on washington is trying to extricate himself from the institution of slavery. he sees the future of american agriculture going in a different direction. from the time that he adopts this new type of farming in 1785, he takes a number of very decisive

actions to increase his reliance on enslaved labor. to adapt that labor to new kinds of farming. to find new value in enslaved labor that he has acquired for mount vernon. he relies on enslaved overseers at four of the five plantations at mount vernon that are involved in commercial agriculture. he tries to replace the hired white artisans who he had paid to do various types of skilled trades with enslaved labor at mount vernon, especially carpenters who were making the agricultural implements, with brick layers who would help build these tremendous

agricultural structures and work with the carpenters. to do complicated joinery. most of the enslaved labor in the fields. washington in the process and poses a new type of specialization of labor and it is a specialization of labor by gender. he puts more and more of the agricultural work and the fieldwork and the responsibility of enslaved women and more and more of the enslaved men working as artisans and craftsmen it is a very carefully constructed program to take the labor that he had the enslaved labor and to apply it to new kinds of farming. washington understood what he was trying to do was unprecedented. certainly, he was not going to get any advice or suggestions from the british

agricultural that he read. he devises a new type of supervision that was enslaved, it is original to him. it allows him to supervise much more closely than he ever had before. he devices these weekly worker reports. they eventually are kept in the format of booking format. even though there is no money. not knowing the monetary values recorded but rather each plantation in indebted for the number of labour is they had and then credited for the work that those labor did over the course that they did. he received these every week. they would be prepared on a saturday and from 1785 until the end of its life -- and they allow him to exercise enormous control over

the enslaved labor, even when he is not at mount vernon. as president, he devoted most sundays to reviewing these reports, and writing a very detailed instruction for a response to that. these reports are just one example of the many kinds of records that washington kept about his state. he had a penchant for all kinds of record keeping. those records collectively make mount vernon probably the best state on the chesapeake in the 18th century. it also made possible writing a book like this. here is an example of the kinds of exactitude and detail that he offered as far manager. this is his architectural design for treading wheat. a 16

sided barn, a very complicated construction. at the bottom, he provides exact details for how the lumber is to be cut. he explains which lumber was to be gathered on the estate, which was to be bought from alexandria. but he put this together at one of the busiest times of his presidency. this document was sent to his manager a week before he was elected to a second term. and as he came back from the fields one day in the 1780's, he creates this remarkable account of scenes, of how many seeds are in a pound. how many various acres. he is looking for an exactitude and a new kind of efficiency through this really quite remarkable

attention to detail. he brought that same attention to detail in many of the records related to enslaved, particularly in the work reports that i've just shown. and also in the record of provisions of the enslaved clothing, food. those kinds of detailed records, aside from correspondence, are really what make possible information about the lives of the enslaved. those records are always imperfect because they are kept almost entirely by washington and his white managers, rather than any input from the enslaved themselves. these kind of plantation records and accounts for much more reconstruction work on the enslaved. many historians once thought this was possible. and it gives a tantalizing view of what people would like to know far more about. we would love to have better records for is

this man davy gray. davy gray was an enslaved overseer. later, he learned how to cradle which especially valued. washington was trying to train the enslaved to do it, rather than hire people to do it at enormous expense. in 1783, he is made an overseer, the second enslaved overseer of the farm where he worked. he continues as overseer for 30 years, and he works on several different farms over that time. he probably knew the land and the patterns of farming better than anyone, maybe better than washington. gray was there as

supervisor of labor and farming for years as washington was away in the revolution and then as president. but in all the records, and the many references to davy gray, this document is the only one that has any indication of his mark that he apparently was not able to write. but we do have this one receipt where he marks his receipt for having been paid for poultry that he raised for martha washington after the death of george washington. that mark is the one indication of gray himself. gray was able to -- gray received some small cash payments from washington, and he apparently used those to buy poultry that he can then sell. he also, after the death of washington and the sale of the livestock, gray was able to

purchase a cow, quite a remarkable purchase for an enslaved person. but he was not able to purchase his own freedom. he was one of the so-called dour slaves. those that were controlled by the estate. washington was able to use their labor during his marriage to martha. but after his death and martha's death, the slaves were divided among the grandchildren and davey gray remained enslaved. for all this attention to detail, washington never loses sight of a grander aspirational vision of farming that he was trying to implement at mount vernon. this is the seal of the agricultural society of philadelphia. washington was inducted as an honorary member and had a great deal of correspondence and gained a lot of practical assistance. it presents this aspirational notion of what farming will contribute to that new nation.

the goddess of agriculture is here presented with a crown of 13 stars. this improvement in society, like washington, they had a vision for agriculture. he was focused primarily on trying to bring the best to the united states. washington, in the later years of his service in the revolutionary war, he starts to talk about, he makes references to the vine and fig tree. life under the vine and fig tree and the anticipation of his life after the revolutionary war. he sees those biblical references, including the many about

turning swords into plow shares, is a representation of a new type of peaceful area that he thinks will be based on agricultural improvement, a shared culture of agricultural improvement with other nations, particularly great britain. he bonds with a lot of british agriculturalists and their mutual rejection of mercantilism which he thinks led to the war. they believe they are in this joint effort, they engage in almost global exchange of an agricultural knowledge and planting material and agricultural implements. this image here of it was called general washington's donkey, hardly seems like a new era of enlightened exchange. in fact, this is a documentation

of washington's first improvement project after the revolutionary war. he decided that he wanted to breed mules. that mules were supposed to be superior to all other draft animals. their endurance, longevity, and also in the cost of their upkeep. he decides that he wants to procure a spanish donkey, which was considered the best animal from which to breed mules. they were prohibited from export from spain. he sends out letters trying to find out a way how to get one. it sets in play a whole network through the highest levels of diplomatic circles in europe and it also attracts the attention of the king of spain, king charles the

third, recognizes that this is a new way of supporting their ally in the revolutionary war. he orders that one of these prized animals would be sent to washington in the united states. the one that survived was named royal gift. when he comes in, he is almost a kind of celebrity in his own right. he is pictured here in this massachusetts farmers almanac. also his journey from massachusetts where he is brought to mount vernon in the newspapers. he attracts the interests of other agricultural improver throughout the united states. reaching from john j in new york, to the political elite in charleston, south carolina. they all want to bring their mares for breeding with royal gift at mount vernon. the next 15 years, washington participated in this

global network of scientific agricultural exchange that extends mostly through the paddocks of the british empire but also through diplomatic channels of the united states. he received seeds and plants from all over the world. he is planting wheat from the cape colony in southern africa. to the coast of africa, he even receives wheat that was sent to him from agriculturalists in great britain that supposedly was seed supposedly given by catherine the great of russia to george the third. washington is connected to this whole world of both improvement and exploration of the natural world and exchange, a plant exchange that also includes

agricultural implements. he gets plows from great britain, and most importantly it includes even more books to add to his library. he again returns to his practice of taking detailed notes from agricultural treatises that he can apply those lessons to the farming at mount vernon. in return, washington welcomed many, many, visitors who pilgrimage to mount vernon. he offered them a view of an agricultural landscape unlike anything else in the united states. this is the five farms map that he draws in 1794. it shows the extent to which he had completely reworked the landscape at mount vernon to incorporate british farming. a

visitor, one of the visitors who came to mount vernon recognize that it just look different than any other farms in the united states, particularly those in virginia. a visitor from europe couldn't believe that washington had not been to europe because he had so completely absorbed the ideas of agriculture landscape. they also recognized the specific purpose of what washington is trying to do. those who came to mount vernon walks with him and wrote back later and said, the farms that he was building were a monument to patriotism. they were showing the way for other

american farmers. this is a detail of the map that shows that he also was creating vistas and views that connected different farms. and is agriculture on display to the visitors. here is the farm with the tree long alley that went to the grandest barn that he built all on union farms. and then in this image of mount vernon it was painted in the late 1780, for early 90s was one of the very few that showed the house that was provided for enslaved families. to the right of mount vernon is what was

known as the house for families. when these visitors came to mount vernon, they saw the agricultural improvements, but they also saw the large number of enslaved laborers who were carrying out washington's innovations and were responsible for the changes in innovations that he had brought to mount vernon. and just as we recognize the power of the general term, farmer. so a new generation of anti slavery advocates were convinced that washington was there for their cause. and washington's emancipation of slave laborers. they encouraged other people to join them. washington becomes one of the most important objects of the appeals of these abolitionist, he because there is special target among all the founders. the first appeal that is

documented is from lafayette. who invited washington to join him in an experiment to educate enslaved labor's to be self supporting and independent tenets on the land. washington received other personal appeals from religious leaders such as the methodist clergy who wanted him to support a petition for a gradual abolition in virginia. or the quaker leaders who came to him in new york to ask him, as president, to support petitions to congress for the freedom of slaves. the french abolitionist, jack pierre bristle, came to mount vernon with a very special appeal that he wanted washington to establish, be the leader of a new abolitionist society in virginia. russo, like many of the others

who appealed to washington, they recalled the language of liberty from the revolution and they called on washington as the hero of american liberty to now extend that kind of liberty to the enslaved labor's at his estate. and hopefully that that would then lead to further emancipation of enslaved laborers throughout the united states. also caught washington and said it was appropriate the man he called the savior of america become the liberator of hundreds of thousands of enslaved blacks in the united states. these appeals to washington, including some that were harshly critical and crass, continue throughout his life. apart from the very few private comments that washington makes

in support of gradual abolition, the change in his attitude towards slavery is really only evident in his record of farming and his record as an agricultural improver. in the years after he first heard at the appeals of abolitionists, he attempted to institute some new ways of managing enslaved labor. he attempts to shield the enslaved from the worst in most inhumane parts of slavery, what he thinks are the most inhumane aspects of slavery. he resolves not to be involved in the purchase or sale of enslaved labor's. he resolves to protect the families of the enslaved. he insists that his managers provide adequate food and medical care. and he also tries to discourage the use of violent punishment, especially any violent punishment used in coercion, for the coercion of labor.

in a way that mirrored similar efforts in the caribbean and among other people, including thomas jefferson, who thought he could make slavery more rational and humane. washington thought he could include slavery, like he was improving agriculture. but by making these resolutions some minimal protection of slavery, washington increases his demand for labor. he thinks that in return, the enslaved people owe him what he calls their duty to work from sun up to sun down. and to do all the labor they're physically capable of carrying out. it's difficult to write about it because -- the fact that they are not able to leave their own mark in the record. but as i've done this project,

i've come to the recognition that washington created his own silences. he documented his life as an enslaver and his changing attitudes towards slavery. when lafayette first approached him with the experiment to prepare the enslaved for freedom, washington replies that he gives some vague support and affirmation that he'd like to help him. but he also says that any discussion of this should wait till mount vernon. that becomes a pattern where washington reserves for conversations that are undocumented, any kind of details talk about slips for slavery. or freedom for the enslaved. and it's that record

that makes the study of washington so important for understanding his eventual path to emancipation. and it's in this famous map have already shown of the five farms, it was created as washington's first step towards what he thought could be a program that could allow him to emancipate the enslaved, or at least find some other kinds of dependency for them. and he creates this map in 1793 as part of a very elaborate plan that he has to

lease his farms. they would come and take over his improvements, continue his improvements but they would not rely on enslaved labor. the money they provided washington would allow him to free the enslaved. he suggested at one point that they might work and hire them as laborers. other people advised him and said they might be able to work as tenants. but it's all part of this plan that he puts forth in 1793, and draws this map as a way of showing the british farmers what could be available for them to lease. and how washington got to this point is somewhat harder to document.

but there is definitely a change that takes place during his presidency. he comes to the recognition that the kind of agricultural system that he wants, and the kind of enlightened agriculture that he hopes to implement is incompatible with slavery. he begins to understand the ways that slavery separated virginia and maryland from other parts of the country to the north, who were engaged in the same kinds of farming but without a reliance on slavery. and it's particularly his residency in pennsylvania, where he comes to the conclusion that pennsylvania has improved agriculture much more than a virginia. not because they have greater advantages, though the soil is better. rather he

concludes it is because pennsylvania has provided for the ending of slavery and virginia has not but is convinced that virginia needs to if they were going to keep up and compete with the farming of pennsylvania. of course washington understood that virginians were not going to -- virginians were not going to endorse abolition. at that point, he decides he is going to have to try to find a way to do it himself. it was first through this plan of leasing the full arms to farmers. it was a wildly inventive idea. he said he wouldn't hand it over to the sullivan lee farmers of the united states. and despite the support of a number of british correspondents, it never happens. and so washington to his own actions in the summer of 1799, just

five months before his unexpected death. washington drafted a will that would provide for the freedom of enslaves at mount vernon. he ensured that the young would be trained to take care of themselves and be self supporting. beyond that, he offered no statement of opposition to slavery and he never explained what it was he was hoping to accomplish, whether he expected other people to follow his actions. and as he rightly anticipated, very few virginians would share his ideal. just in closing, several years after he

rescinded his life as a full-time farmer of the revolutionary war, washington had said that the life of a husband was the most delectable life of all. he said that to see plants rise from the earth and flourish by the superior skill and bounty of the labor combined with ideas which were more easy to be conceived then express. it was a kind of poetic expression not normally associated with washington. but it's one that you find throughout his description of farming. it was the ideal of a natural bounty and the world. the rural landscape, and the dignity of labor. it originally attracted him to the model of british husbandry in 1760's,

and it had guided his further adoption of british style husbandry in the 1780's. and visitors to mount vernon coming into the most public rooms, this is the new room at mount vernon which washington decorated, both the walls and the ceiling with sort of the symbols of this kind of improved, enlightened agriculture that he had adopted from great britain. he also was convinced that his engagement with the enlightened world of agricultural improvement would bring about a new kind of piece. he chose for the top crowning declaration of mount vernon, this design, the peaceful dove. he was convinced that agricultural improvement would allow the nation to

engage in peaceful commerce and also to establish a kind of political stability based on the land, that would discourage haphazard -- the idea of rural life remains common throughout washington's life. it remains in conflict with a system of labor that was dependent on coercion and a denial of individual dignity. in this book, i try to recover not just what i think is an essential dimension of washington as a farmer, but also i have tried to show how his pursuit of a particular model of agriculture and improvement ultimately convinced him that slavery had

no place in an enlightened, commercial, prosperous new nation. thank you. we have a few questions here. i have time to answer them. a very good question that many people have asked is, can you discuss in the cultivation of various crops such as wheat, as opposed to other crops, affected the number of enslaved workers washington needed? many people have thought so, and have written in the past that once he transitions to wheat, that he no longer has the need for as many enslaved laborers. but that's not true. he finds productive employement for enslaved laborers. he continues to buy enslaved laborers after he transitions to wheat. and in

part, because wheat, as he implemented it, depends on a much greater diversity of crafts. so he employs more of the enslaved in these crafts. he is building a whole infrastructure at the farm of barnes, and also there is just more work to maintain the kinds of fields that are necessary. wheat requires far more land than tobacco as a crop. it requires less work on a daily basis than tobacco, but it requires far more land. washington actually increases his need for enslaved labor or his demand for enslaved labor after the transition to wheat. through most of his life, he is able to find work for the enslaved laborers. it's only in the mid to late 1790s that he kind of decides he has more labour then he can productively employ. another question, did

washington's agricultural activities affect his presidency? i would say yes, very much so. he sees himself as an agricultural representative of the united states. he puts together a remarkable survey of american agriculture. it's not a part of his official duties. but he receives a request from a leading agriculturalist in great britain, and washington calls on a number of leading farmers who are part of the government. most notably thomas jefferson, and he puts together this extensive report on american farming. he also tries very hard to get congress to endorse an institution like the british parliament had established a board of agriculture. he also recommended national legislation, so he begins to

see more active role for government and the promotion of agriculture. congress does not pass that board of agriculture, to his great disappointment. let me see what else is here. a question, did enslaved labor's help manage mount vernon during the war? washington has to enslaved overseers who are managing the plantations and supervising the farming and the labor at this plantations. david gray, the man i had spoken about, had muddy a whole plantation. and they play a very important role in trying to find some way to increase revenue during the revolutionary war. he has them grow tobacco. he thinks maybe he could make some money from

that, and he instructed both of the two overseers who are involved, they have been involved in tobacco before. it's not terribly successful this experiment, because of disruption of the tobacco markets. so a question here, were black laborers different from slaves? there is a no one enslaved at mount vernon who is not black. but what is important is to recognize that washington retired with slave labor. he throughout his life hired a number of skilled craftsman, usually. he used indentured servants throughout his time as a farmer. what's interesting is that after 1785,

he requires most of those indentured servants as part of their contract with him to also train enslaved laborers in their craft. these were the people who maintain the boundaries of the plantation. that's all the questions that we have here. if there aren't any others, i just want to thank you all for listening to this, and i hope you found it her something new about george washington. so thank you. i'm very excited about tonight's

>> if you're enjoying american history tv, then sign up for our newsletter using the qr code on the screen. to receive the weekly schedule of upcoming programs like lectures in history, the presidency and more. sign up for the american history tv newsletter today and be sure to watch american history tv every saturday or anytime online at c-span.org slash history. >> c-span now is a free mobile app featuring your unfiltered view of what is happening in washington, live and on demand. keep up with the day's biggest events with live streams of floor proceedings and hearing from the u.s. congress, white house events, the courts, campaigns and more from the world of politics. all at your fingertips. you can also stay current with the latest episodes of washington journal and find scheduling information for c-span tv networks and c-span radio. plus a variety of compelling podcasts. c-span now is available at the apple store and