Footsteps articles from November 2000

Footsteps archives from November 2000

The Mount Vernon Legacy.(George Washington's home)
November 1, 2000... No estate in United America is more pleasantly situated than this. It lies in a high, dry and healthy Country 300 miles by water from the Sea... on one of the finest Rivers in the world. --George Washington, speaking of Mount Vernon ...

Inheritance BY LAW AND BY WILL.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2000... In the thousands of years that human beings have enslaved others, several different kinds of slavery have been practiced. The system that developed in the British colonies in North America during the 17th and 18th centuries was known as chattel...

Your Family Tree.
November 1, 2000... George Washington could trace his family back hundreds of years to ancestors in England. Today, descendants of the Washington family carefully record their relationship to the "father of our country." What if you are descended from a slave who...

Slaves AT Work.
November 1, 2000... By 1799, Mount Vernon was an estate that stretched across almost 8,000 acres and included five farms, a fishery, a mill, and a distillery. Maintaining such a large plantation required a tremendous amount of workers. A community of more than 300...

Leisure Time.(slaves had some free time)
November 1, 2000... For the slaves who lived at Mount Vernon, leisure time would have been a small part of the week. Typically, field slaves were free during the evenings and on Sundays. The slaves living on the outlying farms perhaps had more control over...

Let's Play Prisoners'.(how to play a game also played by slaves in 1798)
November 1, 2000... In the summer of 1798, Julian Niemcewicz, a Polish visitor to the United States, spent several days at Mount Vernon as a guest of the Washingtons. He recorded his trip in the book Under Their Vine and Fig Tree. Niemcewicz wrote much about the...

Growing Up IN Slavery AT MOUNT VERNON.
November 1, 2000... What was it like to grow up as a slave, or as the child of a slave? What were their hopes and dreams for life? What was their role in the community and at home? Many children were born into slavery at Mount Vernon in the years George...

In Memory of My Caroline.
November 1, 2000... Isn't it strange how little some of our great-grandparents talk about slavery? It's almost as if they think it will just fade away if they never discuss it. Life doesn't always give us what we think it should. But, it does give us experiences....

Personal Notes FROM MOUNT VERNON.
November 1, 2000... George Washington was born in 1732. At 17, he became a surveyor. At 21, he led troops in the French and Indian War, and, in 1759, at age 27, he married Martha Dandridge Custis. Sixteen years later, in 1775, he became commander in chief and, in...

George Washington AND SLAVERY.
November 1, 2000... Many people wonder how George Washington, the father of liberty and freedom, could own slaves. By our modern social values and ethics, it is difficult to understand the world in which Washington lived--a world where slavery was common and the...

Uncovering the Past Through Archaeology.
November 1, 2000... Today, visitors to Mount Vernon learn much about America's first president through the collected artifacts and writings housed at his home. Yet to understand Mount Vernon as a community and as a business, it is necessary to learn about Tom...

GEORGE WASHINGTON'S Mill AND Distillery.
November 1, 2000... George Washington was a progressive farmer and entrepreneur, spending more than 40 years experimenting with methods to improve American agriculture and enhance crop output. As early as the 1760s, Washington made the decision to replace...

Breakfast of Hoecakes.(George Washing ate cornmeal pancakes called hoecakes for breakfast)
November 1, 2000... George Washington ate breakfast everyday at 7 A.M. According to his family, his favorite breakfast was three Indian hoecakes "swimming in honey and butter" and three cups of tea with sugar and no cream. Indian hoecakes are cornmeal pancakes....

Connecting With the Past: Gladys Tancil.
November 1, 2000... Seventy-nine-year-old Gladys Tancil leads the Slave Life Tour at Mount Vernon. She describes the life and work of African Americans who lived on the estate. She is a relative of Nancy Quander, who until her release from slavery at the age of...

The Mount Vernon Slave Life Tour and Memorial.
November 1, 2000... A drum beats low and solemnly. A roll call is slowly read: Nat, Frank, Caroline, Sambo, Davy, Joe, Tom, Moses, Jacob, Lucy, Charlotte.... More than 300 names are spoken aloud to the audience gathered to commemorate the lives of the slave...

BOOKS.(Review)
November 1, 2000... Africans in America: America's Journey Through Slavery by Charles Johnson, Patricia Smith, and the WGBH Series Research Team (Harvest/Harcourt Brace, 1998) tells of the shared history of Africans and Europeans as seen through the lens of...

RESOURCES.
November 1, 2000... Archaeology end Slave Life at Mount Vernon (Jackdaw Publications, 1999) includes a resource book with teachers' and students' lesson materials, facsimiles of historic maps, a 1799 slave census, a cargo ship invoice, and much more. Mount...

ON THE NET.(Websites on Mount Vernon and slavery)
November 1, 2000... For Mount Vernon's site, which provides information on many of the topics included in this issue, hit: www.mountvernon.org For numerous links to documents on slavery in the United states, with one section devoted to slavery in the 18th...