From the above it will appear that he did not believe that the overseers were storing up any large treasury of good works.  In the Revolution he wrote that one overseer and a confederate, “I believe, divide the profits of my Estate on the York River, tolerably between them, for the devil of anything do I get.”  Later he approved the course of George A. Washington in depriving an overseer of the privilege of killing four shoats, as this gave him an excuse when caught killing a pig to say that it was one of those to which he was entitled.  Even when honest, the overseers were likely to be careless.  They often knew little about the stock under their charge and in making their weekly reports would take the number from old reports instead of actually making the count, with the result that many animals could die or disappear long before those in charge became aware of it.

[Illustration:  Part of Manger’s Weekly Report]

Washington’s carpenters were mostly slaves, but he usually hired a white man to oversee and direct them.  In 1768, for example, he engaged for this purpose a certain Jonathan Palmer, who was to receive forty pounds a year, four hundred pounds of meat, twenty bushels of corn, a house to live in, a garden, and also the right to keep two cows.

The carpenters were required not only to build houses, barns, sheds and other structures, but also boats, and had to hew out or whipsaw many of the timbers and boards used.

The carpenter whose name we meet oftenest was Thomas Green, who married Sally Bishop.  I have seen a contract signed by Green in 1786, by which he was to receive annually forty-five pounds in Virginia currency, five hundredweight of pork, pasture for a cow, and two hundred pounds of common flour.  He also had the right to be absent from the plantation half a day in every month.  He did not use these vacations to good advantage, for he was a drunken incompetent and tried Washington’s patience sorely.  Washington frequently threatened to dismiss him and as often relented and Green finally, in 1794, quit of his own accord, though Washington thereafter had to assist his family.

The employment of white day labor at Mount Vernon was not extensive.  In harvest time some extra cradlers were employed, as this was a kind of work at which the slaves were not very skilful.  Payment was at the rate of about a dollar a day or a dollar for cutting four acres, which was the amount a skilled man could lay down in a day.  The men were also given three meals a day and a pint of spirits each.  They slept in the barns, with straw and a blanket for a bed.  With them worked the overseers, cutting, binding and setting up the sheaves in stools or shocks.