The Work of the Enslaved People at Gunston Hall Fisheries

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In an early-19th-century Alexandria Gazette advertisement, Gunston Hall was listed for sale, with “nearly 3,000 acres of land, level and fertile, to which are attached six shad and herring fisheries.”[1] The Potomac River just below George Mason IV’s plantation was long associated with the production of protein for home and commercial consumption.

The fishing business supported the Mason family since George Mason III -- the father of George Mason of Gunston Hall -- purchased the exclusive right to net shad and herring in Simpson’s Bay, which was located at the mouth of Occoquan Creek, Virginia. An important investment in the eighteenth century, prepared fish were sold in colonial markets and packed in barrels for winter months to feed free and enslaved families.[2] The fisheries of Gunston Hall were run by enslaved laborers, who cleared the shore of tree limbs and other obstructions.[3]  Displaying high regard for the Mason family fisheries, George Washington advised his planter neighbors to take notice of “Colonel George Mason’s” skilled production and handling of fine fish products.[4] The bondsmen and bondswomen of Gunston Hall also valued this family business for they were among the biggest consumers of protein netted in the Potomac.  Archaeologists have noted that in the kitchen area adjacent to George Mason IV’s home fish scales, bones, and spines were more amply represented in excavated trash pits than any other preserved food item. [5]  Finally, enslaved people developed their own practices of catching their gilled prey such as gar, the long-snouted bony fish that was clubbed in shallow water, usually with a tree branch.

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Shad fisherwomen and men hauling up a catch, c.1915

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African American shad fisherman on the James River in Virginia, c.1915


[1] “Gunston for Sale,” Alexandria Gazette, November 7, 1818.

[2] Pamela Copeland and Richard MacMaster, The Five George Masons: Patriots and Planters of Virginia and Maryland (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1975), 66-67.

[3] Denise McHugh, “Mason Fisheries” (Research paper, January 2009).

[4] Letter, George Washington to Whitling, Fisheries Records folder, Gunston Hall Plantation Archives.

[5] David Shonyo, "Archaeological Investigations at Gunston Hall Plantation: Report on 2013 Activities" (Gunston Hall Plantation, 2014), 23

Creator: Farhaj Murshed

The Work of the Enslaved People at Gunston Hall Fisheries