When George Washington died in 1799 there were 317 enslaved people living and working at Mount Vernon, but technically he only owned 123 of them, per George Washington’s Mount Vernon. Most of the others were the property of his wife Martha’s first husband’s estate. Martha (pictured above) inherited one-third of the estate of her late husband, Daniel Parke Custis, as he died without a will.

When George and Martha married in 1759, she brought with her 84 enslaved people from Custis’ estate, and over time that number grew. George and Martha seemed to have no qualms about using slave labor, as the couple spent a couple of decades remodeling and enlarging the original family home, adding wings and essentially making the place palatial, according to the National Park Service. Slaves were also used to do the work on what eventually became 8,000 acres of farm land at Mount Vernon. 

While the Washingtons utilized the slave labor of hundreds of people, George stipulated in his will that their slaves should be emancipated after Martha died, but as it turned out, those that were the property of the Custis estate were not his to free by law, and they were divided between the Custis grandchildren, per George Washington’s Mount Vernon. Still, those 123 enslaved people owned by George Washington did finally get their freedom on January 1, 1801, after Martha, still living, signed a deed of manumission, a formal legal process which emancipated them (per Encyclopedia.com).