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. than

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. he had 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 con

it was manufactured by the enslaved carpenters in mount vernon. this becomes another representation of washington service through his embrace of the plow how washington is also associated with the plow when he resigns as the president in 1797 washington's surrendering the symbols of power on the throne of liberty. with his left hand he gestures in waiting for him at mount vernon's the plow with the yoke of oxen. as these themes and images suggest washington, after 1783 is effectively farming on the public stage. he is closely being watched by both europeans and americans. celebrating is washington with a plow. a farmer doing the public good. the notion of the public that frames many of the expectations of washington as a farmer he places greater emphasis on the specific benefits of the agricultural improvements he introduces. those expectations also frame his new reckoning with slavery throughout the years following the revolutionary war. it is here in his life as a farmer more than in any other dimension of his life that we can discern how washin

enslaved manufacturers in mount vernon. this becomes another representation of washington service through his embrace of the plow how washington is also associated with the plow when he resigns as the president in 1797 washington's surrendering the symbols of power -- with his left hand he gestures in waiting for him at mount vernon's the plow with the yoke of oxen. as these themes and images suggest washington, after 1783 is effectively farming on the public stage. he is closely being watched by both europeans and americans. celebrating is washington with a plow. a farmer doing the public good. the notion of the public that frames many of the expectations of washington as a farmer he places greater emphasis on the specific benefits of the agricultural improvements he introduces. those expectations also frame his new reckoning with slavery throughout the years following the revolutionary war. it is here in his life as a farmer more than in any other dimension of his life that we can discern how washington ultimately confron

i am the reference librarian at george washington's mount vernon. i am so excited to be with you here today with a colleague of mine, kayla anthony. we will be discussing elizabeth william powel and her husband, samuel powel, two of george washington's very closest friends. we figure with this being the year of the woman why not talk about a super powerful woman that helped shape the founding of the republic? i myself am a powel scholar. i have been working on the project that i've been doing for about three years. i will have a chapter coming out in an edited volume that will be published by the university of virginia press in january of 2022. i very much look forward to sharing that with you all in the future. i'm going to go ahead and pass it over to my colleague and dear friend, kayla anthony. i will pass it over to you. >> thank you so much sam. thank you to mount vernon for asking me to speak today. i'm excited to also share elizabeth's story. i think you will all enjoy it very much. i am executive director for the philadelphia society for the

are named mount vernon? new york, there are lots of houses there called mount vernon. it becomes just an absolute icon of washington we. the first president and the revolutionary general. it becomes an extremely well-known place. here is a massive painting of mount vernon. it is really, it might even be bigger than the size it has on the screen here. sorry, it is hard to see. you see it on the trademark porch. you see it on the trademark porch, washington, this is published well after his death. it is based on a famous portrait of washington. i'm sure you recognize it. it was the basis of the image on the u.s. currency. and then here on the left is lafayette. this is the meeting of the two men. on the porch at mount vernon in 1784. what else do we have going on here? well, interestingly, you have the two women in this group to the right. or three i think. there is a girl child her. and then to the left, a very interesting vignettes of the white child and the african american child playing together over here. a vineyard that has been thought of as a kind of paradoxical

thank you to mount vernon for asking me to speak today. i'm excited to also share elizabeth's story. i think you will all enjoy it very much. i am executive director for the philadelphia society for the preservation of landmarks. we are an 89 year old nonprofit which has saved -- the powell house, where i am tonight. i am involved with the powel house. it is the ancestral home of samuel and elizabeth powel. we have the -- house which is just around the corner from here in society hill at philadelphia. we have germantown, in historic queensboro. our mission is to not only preserve our historic sites but also to provide related cultural educational historical programming. i thought it would be interesting to talk a little bit about how we came about. our organization, as i mentioned, is 89 year old. 90 next year. we were founded in 1931 by a woman called francis anne worcester. much like mount vernon, we were founded by a very strong matriarch. the organization was born, essentially to save the powel house from demolition. it was slated to b

named francis anne worcester so much like mount vernon. we were we were founded by a very strong matriarch and the organization was born essentially to save the pal house from demolition. it was slated to be knocked down for a taxi cab parking lot and francis ann and her her colleagues and friends rally together and managed to raise about $30,000 at the height of the great depression to save not only the pau house but the house that was next door originally and from there long. well advocacy turned into long-time stewardship and we started to acquire more and more properties. so that's that's who we are and we're excited to be we're excited for sam's research. we feel like this is going to be really helpful in further interpreting elizabeth story in particular. so, thank you again for having me here. absolutely. so i think kayla i think i want you to to kind of introduce samuel powell and then i'll go into a little information on elizabeth powell. so i know you want to talk about a really lovely portrait of samuel that that we have or that

to the main entrance and monticello like mount vernon mount vernon is a virtual pilgrimage saying evenwhile jefferson is alive after finishes his presidency. he goes back to mount vernon. he lives there. he's referred to as the sage of monticello this incredibly important intellectual artists architect. and of course statesmen, when people just go there hoping to meet up with them. and where they would be so they would wind their ways around the mountain. they would come up the main road. main pathways, they'd be met at this classical portugal which already would signal. this is an important house of somebody who is a lot of. aspirations and then if they were invited in they could move through it. through this space where there's a dome above. and then out to the lord, which is open to the west which is symbolic of jefferson's role in opening up the north american continent. as he frames that view very interestingly. with these walkways that make the whole complex into a kind of sea shape now. when he first started building up monticello when he was quite young he starts out with the s

you have this scene of him thinking in mount vernon towards the end when he is troubled. talk to us about that. what is he troubled about? >> guest: throughout three books about the revolution i kept wanting washington to have a high five moment where he said yes, i did it. it never comes. never gets that sense of satisfying accomplishments because always another catastrophe looming. for washington i said he was swinging for the fences when it comes to posterity. one of the things that bothered him more than anything was his involvement with slavery. it was a pernicious institution, this is a guy who became a slaveholder at age 11 when his father died. he had befriended lafayette, the idealistic frenchman, hoping to create a country of slavery i never would have lifted my sword in the cause of america. washington overheard, this was recorded in jefferson -- jefferson right to down saying at some point in his presidency if slavery should divide the country, i will go with the northern part. that is a statement from a virginian. there are 300 and enslaved people, half are o

he loved all the technology, he was all over the place when it came to mount vernon the farm on mount vernon. i think if he was here today and was grown up in this whatever, he would've been a very highly functioning person who would have figured it out. that is not the washington who was then. the plant someone from that age here, i think probably blood would start coming out of their ears. at all that have happened to the country we started 230 years ago. i think washington might have been a professional athlete if you brought him here today. incredibly physically gifted. >> powerful fives from riding. >> yeah, yeah. >> another question was was she washington's china's in humility part of the reason he declined to run more than two terms, not just because he didn't want to be president for life. >> i think it was exhaustion more than anything. he really didn't want to run for a second term. by that time hamilton and jefferson were at each other's throats. both sides said, look, federalists and anti federalists will tear this country apart if there isn't new there as president. it is

our years in mount vernon turned out to be the darkest of our lives.ents were in the 12th year of their affair. mom was putting up with the situation, but she was getting increasingly tired of being the woman on the side and was starting to pressure my father about marriage. usic - "sometimes i feel like a motherless child"] - (singing) ♪ sometimes i feel like a motherless child. ♪ ♪ sometimes i feel like a motherless child. ♪ ♪ sometimes i feel-- - i was always a little chubby as a toddler. but i had become very overweight as a young child, weighing in at 135 pounds by the time i was eight. the teasing was relentless. food and television, they were my comforters. often, i was left alone in my silence. - panel, as you know, one question at a time, in turn, moving clockwise. we'll begin-- - the same was true of my mother, who seemed to find solace only in the rhythm of my father's horn. it was when we were in mount vernon that dad made his most famous pop recordings, "hello dolly" and "what a wonderful world." [music - "what a wonderful world"] - (singi

. >> mount vernon, new york, this is my for democrats, good morning. >> good morning and how are you. trinity the question i have is i am trying to understand by formr president donald trump was not arrested he has committed the highest crime the nation called treason. and happens when you commit a crime against your government by trying to overturn an election has ceiling documents from the white house yet, he walks free and the punishment for treason,. >> is five years imprisonment and top level, is life imprisonment and death penalty. >> sure, so because i don't think there's evidence of treason, treason is you know, you can disagree with a man was a candidate for president and candidates are expected meeting our system is built to absorb election content. did you go past the point and some people thought it should have been to become a wilshire it did, and that is the point of continuing debate as well. but as a candidate, he has the right to be sure the count and everything else was done properly in accordance to the rules we know that, i mean, i just give your wisconsin example

all of our guests are great friends of mount vernon. we are so pleased to be able to offer signed copies of the books. please look for links in the chat that can help you find those and also please feel free to visit us anytime at mount vernon dot org. joseph ellis, john p. avlon, and lindsay chervinsky thanks for joining us. >> thank you for having. yes >> we are here to discuss an important moment in american history it is the farewell address. i gave the tiniest a preview of what it is. imagine someone is walking into the conversation right now. what is the farewell address? john i will turn to you first. what is this text? >> it is america's first civic scripture it. was the most wildly printed document in american history, including the declaration of independence for around the first hundred years of the republic. it is the sum total of wisdom that george washington had accumulated in his life of war in peace, as president. he put down, working first with james madison and then primarily with alexander hamilton as a warning to his

all of our guests are great friends of mount vernon. were so pleased to be able to offer signed copies of their books. look for links in the chat that can help you find those and of course please feel free to visit us anytime at mount vernon.org. welcome. >> hey. thanks for having us. >> are here to discuss a really important document in american history. i guess the farewell address. i give the tiny little preview of what it is just imagine someone coming into the conversation right now, what is the formal address john will turn to you first, what is the text? >> it is america's original >> scripture. it is most widely printed completely declaration of independence. it was the sum total of wisdom that george washington accumulated and a life of war and peace as president that he put down first with james mattis and alexander hamilton as a warning to his friends and fellow citizens which is how he addressed it, about the forces he felt could derail the democratic experiment going forward. it's one of the most relevant document you can i

recently iwo jima, monticello, mount vernon as well. i try to fix buildings that are historic but do not have enough money from the government to make it as good as it should be. >> are you willing to tell us a successful investment that you may personally and one that was not successful? >> i do not have enough time to talk about all of the ones that were not successful. the ones i regret are the ones that i did not do. i did not invest in facebook. we were an early investor in amazon but we sold our stock too soon. carlisle has made thousands of investments over the years. we have been around for 35 years. if you do not have bad deals you are not doing good investing, because not everything works out even forewarn buffet. >> the governor of virginia, glenn youngkin. >> he was at our firm for about 25 years. it did a very good job for us. >> frank, daytona beach, florida. >> i am calling it because i went to ask you if you think that nonfiction or fiction literature is more important to society, and as a follow-up, what is your favorit

host: the next question who use to interpret george washington at mount vernon with the scaffolding ofhe new nation what about the hebrews how are they affected? >> colossus is the right word so that when things collapsed there are opportunities and dangers and then sees new protections like jews can seek new protections and in other places it's a little more risky. it comes together after the revolution in the 17 nineties, dominant protestant groups in the us have to find new ways to influence policy and structure their version of protestant citizenship and the term as christian nation what will this look like? how will the nation be marked christian if it doesn't have a formally crushed on —- christian and structure at the top so if you can be included in those categories on the other hand it can make things very difficult and more ambiguous it is harder for a group and the best example would be indigenous americans. there is no part of federal or state law to recognize those as religious in the 19th century and there has been amazing work on defining how that process comes together

i visited constituents' homes and small businesses in yongers, mount vernon, rye and the sense of despair was palable. people could not check in with loved ones of the saw hill, hutch, spring brook and others were deep underwater. our immigrant neighbors had damage to their community resource center and the ymca was left completely destroyed. for thousands of neighbors, hurricane ida fundamentally changed their financial well-being and housing stability. the recovery process and trauma from that storm continues today. in the days following, our community showed an incredible amount of resilience, and as i reflect, these moments of solidarity come to the forefront of my mind. first responders ensured everyone was safe. the rye soccer team, volleyball eem and countless others took to the streets to support our neighbors. times like the tigers volunteered with the fuller center of housing of greater new york city to help members of the first baptist church remove pews that mothers would pray on and the hymnal books that contained songs of strength and power. organizations like the red cross

this was a document written at mount vernon collaboratively by washington and mason. many of you all familiar with this. but as you see, they write, we cannot be considered as a conquered country because we are descendants, not of the conquered, but of the conquerors. and this document goes on to make implied threats of military action and in so doing, really challenge really challenge the unconstitutional actions, what were believed and perceived to be by virginia and by many others as being unconstitutional. one of the other really interesting and important parts of this document is that you'll see here that it clearly stated the american claims to equal rights under the british constitution represent tension in parliament, control over taxation, control over military forces within their borders, control over judicial powers and more. and as we heard this morning in our latest presentation. this all goes back to that earlier period of time. and they're building upon these actions and this ideology that had been previously expressed by way of justifying and explainin

mount vernon in virginia, president george washington's home, mount vernon was built by enslaved.n summary, enslaved human beings built some of the most well known structures in our country. to recap, they built the white house in washington d.c. or helped to and others involved, the u.s. capitol in washington, d.c., the statue of freedom a top the capitol, the smithsonian institution, wall street in new york, trinity church. faneuil in boston, harvard law school in massachusetts, san marcos fort, georgetown university in drs, university of north carolina, monticeloo. and it should be noted that these structures are among those that are known to us. the list does not include the roads, bridges and water wells as well as houses and more that were constructed by enlaiived human beings or the many crops harvested in the economy built on the backs of enslaved human beings. all told, the value of labor in this country has been estimated to be $5.9 to 14.2 trillion. this is why i say that the the enslaved human beings are the greatest contributors to the american economy. as a group, as

come see us in mount vernon soon, when you travel. we would love to have you out there. stay safe, and we will see everyone very soon online or in person. >> thank you. next on american history tv, bob real documented the stories of every presidential campaign from 1789 to 2020 in his book, quest for the presidency. he is in conversation with author at chapman university english professor palm -- >> my name is tom --, i'm a professor chapman university, and at dartmouth college. i am here today with riel, the author of the incredible book, quest for the

with flooding and sewage is coming back into their homes or what i saw outside of new york in mount vernon same problem because of our lack of investment and infrastructure, we'll have more and more problems as we have climate events. >> i know you've been talking with people in jackson. what are they telling you? i'm hearing things like they had problems for a long time. this was the canary in the coal mine. we had problems before when they had a problem in dallas, texas that time when people without power and water for awhile. they also had problems in jackson and this is a temporary fix. a lot of people say they turn on the water sometimes and it's not drinkable and people tell me they had to leave the area because of the status of the water sand people have greater issues, as well. this is a time when sanitation, being able to wash your hands is important without having access to clean water in their home it makes it very, very hard for them. they hope this time they will get a long term fix and not just a short term fix. >> it's worth reminding everyone jackson is the capital of missi

my name is kevin butterfield kevin butterfield, the mount lady ladies association that rescue mount vernonn the 1850s which continues to protect and preserve it today. i wanna welcome it to their conversation about george washington's farewell address. on september 19th 1796 drones in announce to the world that he would not seek reelection to

scum see us in mount vernon soon, when you travel. we would love to have you out there. stay safe, and we will see everyone very soon online or in person. >> thank you. if you are enjoying american history tv, then sign up for our newsletter using the qr code on the screen to receive the weekly schedule of programs like lectures in history, the presidency and more. sign up for american history tv newsletter today and be sure to watch american history tv every saturday or anytime online at c-span.org slash history. weekends on c-span two are a -- every saturday, american history tv documents america story, and on sundays, book tv brings you the lettuce nonfiction books and authors. funding for c-span two comes from these television companies and more, including buckeye broadband. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> buckeye broadband, along with these television companies, supporting spent two as a public service. >> next on american history tv, bob real documented this stories of every presidential campaign from 1789 to 2020 in his book, quest for the presidency. here is a conversation with author

phlox and astors and roses too, but it was sort of typical of the kind of thing you'd see at maybe mount vernon. and that lasted for about a decade until her successor, ellen wilson, completely redid her spaces in a more modern taste. ellen wilson was also a painter, and she had what i would call a more modern aesthetic. so the modern rose garden first started to take shape, the rectangular shape with the open, central lawn dates back to that time period. then, fast forward a little bit more, by the 1930 the basic plan was still in place, but i hate to say it, but the garden was a little overgrown and not particularly well kept. i think any gardener can commiserate with that. and then in the truman white house between 1948-1952 the -- and pretty much the entirety of the grounds was enveloped as one big construction site when the white house itself was torn down to the bare walls and the studs. you see the famous photos of a bulldozer inside the white house, all the staging for that pretty well obliterated the previous iterations of the garden and then bring in jackie kennedy and jfk in 1962 wit

my name is kevin butterfield kevin butterfield, the mount lady ladies association that rescue mount vernon1850s which continues to protect and preserve it today. i wanna welcome it to their conversation about george sh

. >> good evening everyone my name is kevin butterfield on behalf of george washington mount vernon and the ladies organization continues to protect and preserve it today, i want to welcome me too this conversation about george sh

you are from mount vernon, new york. those of you who are on the winning side, the democrat side, joe biden side. i would suggest a lot of openness. instead of saying, you do the right to look at this stuff. the idea should be, open at all up so people can see themselves that the outcome was the accurate one. one of the things that are much frustrating, when either side tries to shut down the inquiry. the best side to answer, which will you would consider unreasonable beliefs about the election, is to be more open about them. we have localities and states all around the country that are trying to bury this stuff. we have registers, city clerks who are trying very hard not to answer questions. why not? the only reason most people usually conclude that you do not want to entity question is you are -- want to answer a question is you are afraid of the answer. that is not a position we want to be in our election. because who we elect, is leading our country. that is the starting point by the people. it is that expression of

this was a document written at mount vernon collaboratively by washington and mason. many of you all familiar with this. but as you see, they write, we cannot be considered as a conquered country because we are descendants, not of the conquered, but of the conquerors. and this document goes on to make implied threats of military action and in so doing, really challenge really challenge the unconstitutional actions, what were believed and perceived to be by virginia and by many others as being unconstitutional. one of the other really interesting and important parts of this document is that you'll see here that it clearly stated the american claims to equal rights under the british constitution represent tension in parliament, control over taxation, control over military forces within their borders, control over judicial powers and more. and as we heard this morning in our latest presentation. this all goes back to that earlier period of time. and they're building upon these actions and this ideology that had been previously expressed by way of justifying and explainin

so they would send them back to mount vernon. and so there was this back and forth in order to evade this law. we had 10 families in the white house historical association because michelle obama brought that to their attention looked at slavery in the white house. so 10 different families had brought in slave servants and part of the reason some of them did it was that congress was so tight with the money for running the household and they had to use a lot of their own money. it was just they would bring their own enslaved servants with them to say, you know on the funds so we look in this chapter starting with martha washington and the contributions those early southern first ladies made to systemic racism. and then we get into. you know mary lincoln who has an african freed woman who is her dressmaker and she is giving money to the freed slaves who have come to the dc area and are living hand to mouth and she's taking her own money and supporting them then you get up to eleanor roosevelt. you know who did amazing things and was

does everybody know george washington distilled whiskey in mount vernon, it's 127 dollars a bottle if you're interested. tonight we'll hear about those books and the first congress and how james madison and george washington and all those extraordinary men, no women, no people of color, no native americans, but men that founded a document, created a nation that is ever growing. he will share the unheralded place of firsts. so i give you a great honor and respect, fergus bordenwich. fergus: good evening, everyone. james baldwin once wrote, history is not the past, sorry, history is not the past, it is the present. we carry our history with us. we are our history. first i want to thank pete and the former members of inviting me to say a few words about "the first congress" and say it here in a wonderful space which as a new yorker i'm familiar with and always admired but this is called federal hall euphemistically because it wasn't federal hall but it's the site of federal hall and is an immensely rich site of ritalin of importance in american history. so i rarely use this kind of term

adding mount vernon as an additional court location would alleviate those burdens. it would also be a cost-free change because there is an existing facility availability for the court to use and no court personnel would be permanently stationed there. making use of this existing facility would ensure that litigants, attorneys, witness, and other court users would have greater access to the justice that our federal courts provide. mr. speaker, the judiciary committee is the holder, protector, and nurturer of the constitution. there is probably nothing as important among other elements but for the right to a trial by jury or right to be heard as a litigant in the court. and this important legislation is suggesting that those who may have difficulty or even deprived because of distance or other issues dealing with the far reaches of where this court is away from them can now have an unfettered access to court in their region, in their area. this move will benefit the many individuals who live, work, and do business in northwest washington which is very far from the pre

she visited mount vernon. she visited a large number of places in the u.s.es right across america on her death. >> ambassador, it's katty here. i was very lucky to be at the kentucky derby when she was there and it was wonderful watching the crowd and the queen enjoying races. i was watching american presidents to make the journey across the pond any meet the queen and there they go wielding all of the hard power with what comes to be president of the united states, they have the most money in the world and the richest country in the world and yet they turn up at buckingham palace and my only best description is they have a need. it was so fascinating to watch president after president meet this increasingly frail, diminutive woman, and sort of gushing over her. how have you watched it watching presidents go to meet the queen and being sort of completely won over by her? >>. >> i have the same reaction as you, katty, and what you and your colleagues were saying about your memories of her and the british diplomats around the world and especially those of us l

recently iwo jima, monticello, mount vernon as well.i try to fix buildings that are historic but do not have enough money from the government to make it as good as it should be. >> are you willing to tell us a successful investment that you may personally and one that was not successful? >> i do not have enough time to talk about all of the ones that were not successful. the ones i regret are the ones that i did not do. i did not invest in facebook. we were an early investor in amazon but we sold our stock too soon. carlisle has made thousands of investments over the years. we have been around for 35 years. if you do not have bad deals you are not doing good investing, because not everything works out even forewarn buffet. >> the governor of virginia, glenn youngkin. >> he was at our firm for about 25 years. it did a very good job for us. >> frank, daytona beach, florida. >> i am calling it because i went to ask you if you think that nonfiction or fiction literature is more important to society, and as a follow-up, what is your favorite