Lives, Loves, and Loss: Remembering the Families

Spend the day at Mount Vernon exploring the lives and loss of enslaved couples Boatswain and Myrtilla and Hercules and Alice through a special guided tour and family activity. 

Both enslaved families featured during this event suffered the loss of a loved one. Although a footnote to the farm management documents, the loss of young Boatswain, a son and brother, and of Alice, a mother and wife, transformed the lives of many who knew and loved them.  

Activities

Activity Hub at the Tomb Grove (9:30am- 3:30pm)

Visit with Mount Vernon educators to learn about the Enslaved People's Cemetery and how archeology how archaeology has shaped what we know about the space.

Make your own remembrance marker to place at Mount Vernon's Slave Memorial.

Specialty Tour (10:00am & 2pm)

(free tour ticket required)

Learn about the daily lives of the men women and children of the enslaved community who labored, and loved at Mount Vernon. Lives, Loves, and Losses is an immersive tour that offers an in-depth look at the experiences of two enslaved families—Boatswain & Myrtilla and Hercules & Alice—as they navigated love, resilience, and loss. In an hour-long tour:

•  Walk the same paths as Boatswain, Myrtilla, and their children, learn about their daily lives. 
• See where enslaved women like Alice and Myrtilla worked tirelessly to produce basic textiles. 

Join us as we honor their lives, their loves, and the losses that shaped their community. Immediately following this tour, accompany the guide down to participate in a moving tribute at the Slave Memorial and Cemetery.

Slave Memorial Ceremony

At 11:15 AM and 3:15 PM, join us at the Slave Memorial and Cemetery for a moving tribute. Hear select biographies of individuals from the 318 enslaved people documented as living here in 1799.

Learn about Mount Vernon’s ongoing efforts to memorialize the enslaved community, from the establishment of the 1983 Memorial—comprising three circles symbolizing faith, hope, and love—to the ongoing archaeological project, started in 2014, that continues to uncover and honor the graves within the Enslaved People’s Cemetery.