In observance of African American History Month, Mount Vernon Estate offers a Slave Life specialty tour once a day throughout the month of February. The tour provides insight into the lives and contributions of the slaves who built and operated the plantation home of George and Martha Washington.

The tour includes living quarters, working gardens as well as reproduction clothing, tools, furniture, cookware, ceramics, and children’s toys of the many enslaved individuals who lived there. Inclusion of the slave quarters provides a complete history of what life was like on the plantation; both those who owned it as well as those who toiled there.

While there, visitors may run into the last serving valet to the late General Washington, Christopher Sheels (portrayed by Jonathan Wood). He walks the plantation as one of the important people from Washington’s world. More than 300 slaves “contributed heavily to the success of Mount Vernon,” Wood said. Seeing a live actor portray the character of one of the enslaved individuals guides visitors toward an understanding that Washington, while a great national hero, was also a conflicted individual. “General Washington did not free his slaves until his death” and the display of the slave quarters is a “part of telling his whole story,” Wood added.

Maria Morgan, one of the guides who leads the specialty tour, describes how the Mount Vernon Ladies Association, the current owners and stewards of the estate, received the recommendation to tear down the quarters when they bought the property in 1860. Instead, the Ladies’ Association kept the property intact and begin the process of restoring it. They decided to celebrate the good but also, according to Wood, to be “courageous enough to embrace the bad.” The inclusion of the slave quarters “paints the full picture of this man …” who “was a visionary.” Although Washington did not free his slaves during his lifetime, the fact that he freed them on his deathbed, “left a direction, a map” with which the nation could move forward.

Visitors can follow the path to the slave memorial site for a special wreath laying and presentation, which occur daily at 1 p.m. The steps that lead to the column read “Faith,” “Hope” and “Love.” The design was created by architecture students from Howard University and opened to the public in 1983.

The Slave Lives tour is at noon daily. Character actors are available twice a day at 10:30 a.m. and again at 2:30 p.m. in the Green Room by the High Garden of the estate. African American History Month activities are included in regular Estate admission: adults, $17; children ages 6-11, $8; and children under 5 are admitted free.