SLAVE QUARTERS By Washington’s death in 1799, there were 317 slaves and about 25 hired or indentured white servants living at Mount Vernon. They were housed in “small villages,” as his presidential home calls them today, across Washington’s five farms. In 1797, a visitor “entered one of the huts of the Blacks” and described what he saw: “the husband and wife sleep on a mean pallet, the children on the ground; a very bad fireplace, some utensils for cooking, but in the middle of this poverty some cups and a teapot.”
