VA, USA
Enslaved Mount Vernon Workers Respond to Dunmore's Proclamation
November 15, 1775
Lord Dunmore's November 1775 proclamation offering freedom to enslaved men who escaped Patriot owners and joined British forces was heard at Mount Vernon as clearly as anywhere in Virginia. Washington's correspondence with Lund reveals anxiety about potential escapes throughout the winter of 1775–1776.
People Involved
Virginia planter and Continental Army commander-in-chief who owned and managed Mount Vernon's enslaved workforce. Absent from his estate for most of the war, he directed Lund Washington's management by correspondence and returned to find the plantation's human community shaped by eight years of wartime disruption.
Virginia widow who married Washington in 1759, bringing the Custis dower estate and its enslaved people into the household. Spent several winters at Continental Army camps supporting her husband and managing the social expectations of a commander's wife. Legal owner of the Custis dower slaves who could not be freed by Washington's will.
Distant Washington cousin who managed Mount Vernon as the estate's agent during the eight years of the Revolutionary War. Kept detailed accounts of the plantation's operations, managed the enslaved workforce in Washington's absence, and infamously provisioned a British warship in 1781, drawing Washington's sharp rebuke.