The enslaved people of Mount Vernon

When does the Enslaved People of Mount Vernon tour run?

Daily at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., for 60 minutes, through the end of December 2026. Free with admission, ticket required.

The estate's event page lists the tour as a guided walk from Mansion Circle. It costs nothing beyond general admission, but places are limited, so reserve the free tour ticket when you buy entry.

Two departures a day is not many. On a weekend in November, take the 10 a.m. one and see the mansion afterwards.

What does the tour cover?

Where enslaved people worked and lived, what they ate and wore, how they formed families, and how resistance was punished.

The guide works through daily life on the estate: duties, food, clothing, family life and the penalties for resistance, as the tour description sets out. The numbers behind it are stark. The estate's 1799 census counts 317 enslaved people. A little under half, 123, belonged to George Washington; 153 belonged to the Custis estate through Martha Washington's first marriage; 40 were rented from a neighbor.

Washington's 1799 will provided for the people he owned to be freed after Martha's death. The 153 dower people were not his to free, and by law they passed to her grandchildren.

What else at the estate tells this history?

The Lives Bound Together exhibit in the greenhouse quarters, and the Slave Memorial at the African American burial ground.

Lives Bound Together: Slavery at Mount Vernon reopened in a reworked form on Juneteenth 2025, inside the historic greenhouse slave quarters. It uses archaeological finds, descendant stories and rebuilt living spaces, and names people such as Isaac, Kate and Caroline Branham.

Down the hill, the Slave Memorial of 1983 marks the burial ground of free and enslaved people. The estate's African American history page lists a wreath-laying there, daily from February to October, where staff place a boxwood wreath and read individual histories. This month is the last chance until February.

Can you fit it into the half-day tour from DC?

Not the 2 p.m. walk: the bus leaves the Mall at 1:30 p.m. The exhibit and the memorial fit easily.

The Mount Vernon half day picks up at the National Air and Space Museum at 1:30 p.m. and runs three to four hours, with estate admission included, from $82 per person. It is rated 4.8 from 85 reviews. You arrive after the 2 p.m. departure has left, so plan your time around the exhibit, the quarters and the memorial instead.

If the guided hour is the reason you are going, drive or take a morning tour and catch the 10 a.m. walk. If you want the estate as a whole with no planning, the half day is the easy option. Late bookings on it confirm within 48 hours, not instantly.

Admission included and a guide from the Mall, back in Washington by early evening.

★ 4.8 · 3 to 4 hours · from $82 per person

Explore the Mount Vernon half day → Tour details

How does Mount Vernon pair with a DC African American history tour?

On separate days: Mount Vernon in the afternoon, a city tour that ends at the museum on another morning.

Mount Vernon shows slavery on one plantation. Washington itself held enslaved people until the DC Compensated Emancipation Act of April 16, 1862, which freed 2,989 people through 930 approved petitions. The history of slavery walk covers that city story in one private hour on foot from Lafayette Square, from $40 per person.

For the full day with a reserved museum pass at the end, see the private history tour. The museum's pass rules this winter are in our passes and hours post.

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