Mount Vernon (Va. : Estate). Mansion Farm

List of enslaved people, subdivided by farm subdivision at Mount Vernon.

Map of Mount Vernon's farm divisions.

By 1799 the Mount Vernon estate totaled nearly 8,000 acres and was divided into five farms: Mansion House, Dogue Run, Muddy Hole, River, and Union, plus a gristmill and distillery. Each site has its own overseers, enslaved workers, livestock, equipment, and buildings. The Mansion House Farm was not a farm in the typical sense of the word—no large-scale cultivation of field crops was carried out on or around the house. Rather, the 500 acres directly around the mansion were developed as a gentleman's country seat, a new-world version of an English country house of the period. Located within a deep border of woods were rolling meadows, vistas, and groves of trees.

Between the mansion and the river shore was an extensive park, and below the kitchen garden was an enclosed vineyard. Small areas were cultivated, but these were usually restricted to testing new crops and agricultural methods. The four farms--River, Muddy Hole, Dogue Run, and Union--were the focus of intensive agricultural activity. In 1799, more than 215 enslaved people and other workers lived on these farms which consisted of more than 3,000 acres under cultivation.