Episode 7: “Preserving”

Edmund Parker never knew George and Martha Washington, but he knew Mount Vernon and the Washington Family very well. Parker was one of the many enslaved people who labored on the plantation in the nineteenth century after the Washingtons’ deaths. Later, as a free man, Parker was among Mount Vernon’s first interpreters when the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association purchased the property. In this episode, we explore what happened to the Mount Vernon landscape in the nineteenth century and various efforts to preserve the estate and George Washington’s memory as the nation headed for civil war.

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Full transcripts, show notes, and bibliographies available at www.georgewashingtonpodcast.com.