Young Washington’s Social World Historian Roundtable

0:08 Invitation sir. I am Mr. Washington and George Washington. Half brother to Lawrence, who is married to and formerly Fairfax. Thank you for the genealogy. Now your invitation, sir. I think there’s a couple things we have to talk about. George Washington would have been familiar with the Fairfax at Belvoir,

0:28 because he had had a long standing relationship with the Fairfax through his half brother, who had married into the family. And, he had worked for Lord Fairfax earlier as serving some of the millions of acres that the Fairfax is actually owned. Washington’s station in life isn’t quite the same as, the richest

0:52 or the most wealthiest, which would have been the Fairfax family. And that’s certainly true. But Washington himself, you know, had inherited land. He had inherited enslaved people. He was extraordinarily wealthy in comparison to other colonials. But to get into the house, then he goes, underneath,

1:13 into the basement where he, interacts with several enslaved people. And there certainly would have been many enslaved people working at Belvoir. That would have been really, quite frankly, ubiquitous because the entire plantation, the entire structure, everything that revolved around how that plantation operated

1:36 was facilitated by enslaved people. Good evening. Good evening. How how do I get in the house? Having inherited enslaved people at the age of 11, he would have been very used to the fact that he would have given them orders. He would have told them what to do.