Mount Vernon and Monticello: The History of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson's Famous Estates

*Includes pictures *Includes accounts of the estates' histories and construction made by Washington and Jefferson *Includes online resources and bibliographies for further reading *Includes a table of contents For about as long as George Washington has been famous, so has his most famous residence, the spacious Virginian plantation known as Mount Vernon. Washington lived in a smaller structure on the land as a teen, and ironically, tradition and inheritance suggested that George would never be the one to own the land. Of course, fate would intervene, and Washington would not only come into possession of the 10,000 acres in 1761 but build and renovate the property to create one of the most famous private residences in the nation. Washington would live at Mount Vernon before the Revolution and retire there after the war and after his presidency. Indeed, he would die there and be buried there as well. By 1760, Washington was one of Virginia’s wealthiest and most influential citizens, in large measure due to Mount Vernon’s success as a tobacco plantation. However, to make that happen, Washington used hundreds of slaves, and though he mandated that his slaves be freed upon his death, the estate continued to employ slave labor until his widow’s death years later. Thus, while Mount Vernon remains a hallowed tourist spot, it also underscores the most divisive and controversial issue of the post-Revolution era.