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About 400 people gathered beneath towering oaks, sycamores and hollies at Mount Vernon on Oct. 4 to remember the men, women and children enslaved by George and Martha Washington.
From 1754 to 1799, the Washingtons enslaved at least 577 people on their Virginia plantation. The commemoration confronted the stark contradiction between George Washington’s leadership in the fight for colonial freedom and his participation in slavery.
Ann Petri, the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association regent from Wisconsin, noted that Washington once described slavery as his “only unavoidable subject of regret.”
Mount Vernon President and CEO Dr. Doug Bradburn said the stories of enslaved people had sometimes been only faintly visible in accounts of the estate’s history. He pledged to tell a fuller story.
“We are not afraid to tell the truth,” Bradburn said. “African American history is American history.”
He emphasized that enslaved people’s unpaid labor made Washington’s life possible. Addressing current divisions and what he called the country’s worst political violence since the 1960s, Bradburn said healing must come through love rather than hate. He praised the sacrifice and resilience of those held at Mount Vernon.
Linda Allen-Hollis, a California resident descended from West Ford, warned that many young people know little about the nation’s history of slavery.
“We will never forget,” she said. “The earth still cradles the bones of the men, women and children who labored on this land.”
Ford worked at the estate for nearly 60 years. In 1833, he founded Gum Springs in Mount Vernon, the oldest Black community in Fairfax County.
Young members of the Youth Readers and Writers, wearing kente cloth scarves, solemnly recited the known names and ages of people enslaved at Mount Vernon. They ranged from infants to people as old as 70 and included Billy, 16; Lucy, 11; and an unnamed infant.
Tributes to lives of service
Among the special guests was 101-year-old Baltimore resident Susan Taylor King, described at the event as the last “Rosie the Riveter.” King helped assemble airplanes at Eastern Aircraft in Baltimore during World War II. Former President Joe Biden awarded her the Congressional Gold Medal in 2024.
The program also honored three prominent figures who had died since the previous commemoration: poet and professor Nikki Giovanni, Judge Rohulamin Quander and architect and educator Harry Robinson III.
Giovanni, an award-winning poet who taught at Virginia Tech for 36 years, died on Dec. 9, 2024.
Quander served as an administrative law judge in Washington, D.C., and was the lead historian of the Quander family, whose American roots stretch back 350 years. The author of “The Quanders” died on Aug. 16, 2025.
Robinson was dean of Howard University’s School of Architecture and Planning. He led Howard students who won a competition to design Mount Vernon’s Slave Memorial, which was dedicated in 1983. He died on June 13, 2025.
Prayers and songs carried themes of faith, endurance and hope. Malik Roberts praised “the strength to endure,” while Barika Porter, an officer with Black Women United for Action, told the crowd, “The sun always shines again.”
Choirs from Howard, Morgan State and Norfolk State universities performed spiritual music, including “Rocka My Soul.”
Mount Vernon resident Queenie Cox said she attended to help preserve the memories of enslaved people and recognize the “blood, sweat and tears” they expended.
A silent walk to the burial ground
After the two-hour program, Richmond-area Rep. Jennifer McClellan led a silent procession to the Slave Memorial in Mount Vernon’s African American Burial Ground. An estimated 100 to 150 people are buried there near Washington’s tomb.
Participants placed a wreath and boxwood sprigs at the memorial. Its truncated form symbolizes lives left unfinished.
Bradburn called it “a granite monument like a song in stone.”
“Their graves are unmarked,” he said, “but their lives are unforgettable.”
Black Women United for Action, led by Sheila Coates, organized the annual commemoration with Mount Vernon. Coates left attendees with a reminder of the sacrifices behind their presence: “Others died for you to get here.”