You Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George Washington

by Alexis Coe

Washington also blamed Cary & Co. for endangering his livelihood. The law required that colonists sell any tobacco they grew through England, but his crops fetched prices far lower than he deemed fair—not that Mount Vernon’s soil, regularly tested by drought and heavy rain, grew especially good tobacco. Like many land-rich, cash-poor Virginia planters, including Thomas Jefferson, Washington got behind on his payments to London purveyors, and was soon in debt. He spent the 1760s and early 1770s attempting to break the cycle, which was only possible because his marriage to Martha had brought with it hundreds of enslaved people. Washington purchased additional slaves and indentured servants, and leased others from nearby plantations. While they worked, the man they called “Master” holed up in the mansion house, inhaling books and pamphlets on agriculture and manufacturing. He hoped to diversify his crops and maybe produce some artisanal goods.