Browse Items (38 total)

This ledger entry shows that George Mason IV's neighbor Martin Cockburn (1731-1820), a white planter born in Jamaica, paid Gunston Nell, an enslaved woman of Gunston Hall, for her expertise in delivering a baby. This originally hand-written document…

A notice warning of the risk of smallpox spreading with the importation into the Chesapeake and Low Country of enslaved individuals landed in Charles Town, South Carolina,

"Slaves being inspected prior to sale."

A drawing of enslaved people fishing in the Albemarle Sound of North Carolina.

"Inventory of the goods and Chattels belonging to the Estate of George Mason of Lexington deceased taken on the Tenth day of January One thousand seven hundred and Ninety seven"

This inventory lists the medical books in the library of John Mercer (1704-1768), the uncle and tutor of George Mason IV. This originally hand-written document was typed in the 20th century. This originally hand-written document was typed in the…

This document from the “slave holdings” file of Gunston Hall’s archival library describes the evolution of “slave laws” in Virginia from 1619 to 1832.

In this letter to John Mason (1766-1849), one of George Mason IV's children, the patriarch of Gunston Hall tells his son that enslaved people on the plantation were inoculated against small pox. This originally hand-written document was typed in…

This letter from George Mason IV to Thomas Jefferson, dated July 1788, asks Jefferson to make sure that a man named Captain Fenwick ("Partner of the House in Bourdeaux") bought the right type of clothes for enslaved persons of Gunston Hall. This…

This trial book shows the absence of George Mason IV, a presiding Justice of the Peace, in a court case involving the public acknowledgment of the ages of enslaved children, possibly for the purpose of reinforcing their rightless state or…