The last manager, James Anderson, was described by his employer as “an honest, industrious and judicious Scotchman.”  His salary was one hundred forty pounds a year.  Though born in a country where slaves were unknown, he proved adaptable to Virginia conditions and assisted the overseers “in some chastisements when needful.”  As his employer retired from the presidency soon after he took charge he had not the responsibility of some who had preceded him, for Washington was unwilling to be reduced to a mere cipher on his own estate.  Seeing the great profusion of cheap corn and rye, Anderson, who was a good judge of whisky, engaged the General in a distillery, which stood near the grist mill.  The returns for 1798 were L344.12.7-3/4, with 755-1/4 gallons still unsold.

Washington’s letters to his managers are filled with exhortations and sapient advice about all manner of things.  He constantly urged them to avoid familiarities with the blacks and preached the importance of “example,” for, “be it good or bad,” it “will be followed by all those who look up to you.—­Keep every one in their place, & to their duty; relaxation from, or neglect in small matters, lead to like attempts in matters of greater magnitude.”

The absent owner was constantly complaining that his managers failed to inform him about matters concerning which he had inquired.  Hardly a report reached him that did not fail to explain something in which he was interested.  This was one of the many disadvantages of farming at long range.

In 1793 Washington described his overseers to Pearce, who was just taking charge, in great detail.  Stuart is competent, sober and industrious, but talkative and conceited.  “If he stirs early and works late ... his talkativeness and vanity may be humored.”  Crow is active and possessed of good judgment, but overly fond of “visiting and receiving visits.”  McKoy is a “sickly, slothful and stupid fellow.”  Butler, the gardener, may mean well, but “he has no more authority over the Negroes he is placed over than an old woman would have.”  Ultimately he dismissed Butler on this ground, but as the man could find no other job he was forced to give him assistance.  The owner’s opinions of Davy, the colored overseer at Muddy Hole Farm, and of Thomas Green, the carpenter, are given elsewhere.

In the same letter he exhorted Pearce to see what time the overseers “turn out of a morning—­for I have strong suspicions that this, with some of them, is at a late hour, the consequences of which to the Negroes is not difficult to foretell.  All these Overseers as you will perceive by their agreements, which I here with send, are on standing wages; and this with men who are not actuated by the principles of honor or honesty, and not very regardful of their characters, leads naturally to endulgences—­as their profits whatever may be mine, are the same whether they are at a horse race or on the farm.”