**Mount Vernon: Revolution, Contradiction, and the Plantation Behind the Patriot**
PEOPLE
George Washington
Commander-in-Chief, Mount Vernon Planter, Enslaver
Lund Washington
Mount Vernon Manager, Washington Cousin, Plantation Overseer
Martha Washington
Mount Vernon Mistress, Continental Army Camp Presence, Dower Slave Owner
William Lee
Washington's Personal Valet, Mount Vernon Enslaved Worker, Revolutionary War Participant
KEY EVENTS
Lund Washington Provisions British Warship HMS Savage
Apr 1781
Washington Departs Mount Vernon for Continental Command
May 1775
Hercules Escapes from Philadelphia Household
Feb 1797
Washington's Will Provides Conditional Freedom
Dec 1799
Enslaved Mount Vernon Workers Respond to Dunmore's Proclamation
Nov 1775
Washington Returns to Mount Vernon After Yorktown
Nov 1781
STORIES
HISTORICAL VOICE
April 1781: Seventeen Choose the British
On an April night in 1781, with a British warship anchored in the Potomac and Lund Washington negotiating on the bank, seventeen enslaved people at Mount Vernon made the most consequential decision of...
HISTORICAL VOICE
William Lee: The Man at Washington's Side
William Lee was at every major battle of the Revolutionary War. He was at Boston when the British evacuated, at Trenton when Washington crossed the Delaware in the winter dark, at Valley Forge through...