A far more serious trouble than bad business methods was one which was little heeded at the moment, but which really lay at the foundation of the whole system of society and business.  This was the character of the labor by which the plantations were worked.  Slave labor is well known now to be the most expensive and the worst form of labor that can be employed.  In the middle of the eighteenth century, however, its evils were not appreciated, either from an economical or a moral point of view.  This is not the place to discuss the subject of African slavery in America.  But it is important to know Washington’s opinions in regard to an institution which was destined to have such a powerful influence upon the country, and it seems most appropriate to consider those opinions at the moment when slaves became a practical factor in his life as a Virginian planter.

Washington accepted the system as he found it, as most men accept the social arrangements to which they are born.  He grew up in a world where slavery had always existed, and where its rightfulness had never been questioned.  Being on the frontier, occupied with surveying and with war, he never had occasion to really consider the matter at all until he found himself at the head of large estates, with his own prosperity dependent on the labor of slaves.  The first practical question, therefore, was how to employ this labor to the best advantage.  A man of his clear perceptions soon discovered the defects of the system, and he gave great attention to feeding and clothing his slaves, and to their general management.  Parkinson[1] says in a general way that Washington treated his slaves harshly, spoke to them sharply, and maintained a military discipline, to which he attributed the General’s rare success as a planter.  There can be no doubt of the success, and the military discipline is probably true, but the statement as to harshness is unsupported by any other authority.  Indeed, Parkinson even contradicts it himself, for he says elsewhere that Washington never bought or sold a slave, a proof of the highest and most intelligent humanity; and he adds in his final sketch of the General’s character, that he “was incapable of wrong-doing, but did to all men as he would they should do to him.  Therefore it is not to be supposed that he would injure the negro.”  This agrees with what we learn from all other sources.  Humane by nature, he conceived a great interest and pity for these helpless beings, and treated them with kindness and forethought.  In a word, he was a wise and good master, as well as a successful one, and the condition of his slaves was as happy, and their labor as profitable, as was possible to such a system.

[Footnote 1:  Tour in America, 1798-1800.]