"The Only Unavoidable Subject of Regret"

2019 non-fiction book by Mary V. Thompson "The Only Unavoidable Subject of Regret": George Washington, Slavery and the Enslaved Community at Mount Vernon File:The Only Unavoidable Subject of Regret.jpg First edition Mary V. Thompson English History University of Virginia Press 2019 502 0813941849 1035366283 right right 25% The unfortunate condition of the persons, whose labour in part I employed, has been the only unavoidable subject of regret. To make the Adults among them as easy & as comfortable in their circumstances as their actual state of ignorance & improvidence would admit; & to lay a foundation to prepare the rising generation for a destiny different from that in which they were born; afforded some satisfaction to my mind, & could not I hoped be displeasing to the justice of the Creator. Statement attributed to George Washington that appears in the notebook of David Humphreys, c.1788/1789none Wiencek Henry Henry Wiencek An Imperfect God: George Washington, His Slaves, and the Creation of America 2003 Farrar, Straus and Giroux New York, New York 978-0-374-17526-9 https://archive.org/details/imperfectgodgeor00wien "The Only Unavoidable Subject of Regret": George Washington, Slavery and the Enslaved Community at Mount Vernon is a scholarly book on the history of slavery at Mount Vernon during the times of George Washington. Written by Mary V. Thompson, the book was published in the United States in 2019. Background Thompson stated that she had worked on the book for "about thirty years, although for a lot of that time, it didn't know that it wanted to be a book.""The Only Unavoidable Subject of Regret" [Washington Library Author Interviews] https://www.mountvernon.org/library/author-interviews/the-only-unavoidable-subject-of-regret/ George Washington's Mount Vernon National Library for the Study of George Washington 19 June 2020 en Topics covered Thompson's book contains major chapters that focus on topics that include George Washington and Martha Washington as slave owners; George Washington's changes in views about slavery over time; supervisors of slaves who were hired, indentured, or enslaved; family life in Mount Vernon's slave community; the slaves' quarters; the slaves' diets; slaves' recreation and private enterprise; and control and resistance and among Mount Vernon's slaves. Reviews and influence Reviews have appeared in the London Review of Books,Foner Eric Eric Foner Tremendous in His Wrath: George Washington, Slave Owner London Review of Books 9 December 2019 41 24 https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v41/n24/eric-foner/tremendous-in-his-wrath 19 June 2020 the Journal of Social History,Dickinson Michael Untitled [Review of "The Only Unavoidable Subject of Regret": George Washington, Slavery, and the Enslaved Community at Mount Vernon. By Mary V. Thompson] Journal of Social History 16 January 2020 10.1093/jsh/shz124 the Washington Independent Review of Books,Wiencek Henry Henry Wiencek "The Only Unavoidable Subject of Regret": George Washington, Slavery, and the Enslaved Community at Mount Vernon Washington Independent Review of Books 2 August 2019 http://www.washingtonindependentreviewofbooks.com/index.php/bookreview/the-only-unavoidable-subject-of-regret-george-washington-slavery-and-the-enslaved-community-at-mount-vernon The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography,Conley Nathaniel Review of "The Only Unavoidable Subject of Regret": George Washington, Slavery, and the Enslaved Community at Mount Vernon The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography 2019 127 4 341–343 26803245 0042-6636 the Journal of the American Revolution,Symington Timothy "The Only Unavoidable Subject of Regret": George Washington, Slavery, and the Enslaved Community at Mount Vernon Journal of the American Revolution 17 July 2019 https://allthingsliberty.com/2019/07/the-only-unavoidable-subject-of-regret-george-washington-slavery-and-the-enslaved-community-at-mount-vernon/ and Choice.Mann B. A. Untitled [Review of "The only unavoidable subject of regret": George Washington, slavery, and the enslaved community at Mount Vernon] Choice: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries September 2019 57 1 97 In the London Review of Books, Eric Foner wrote that virtually all the information Thompson draws on comes from whites; as she ruefully notes, "only occasionally can the voice of one of the slaves be heard." Nonetheless, her command of the sources makes possible an almost encyclopedic description of the conditions of slave life. What did slaves eat? ... What clothing did Washington provide? ... On the much debated question of whether African elements survived in slave culture, Thompson acknowledges that the evidence is scanty but cautiously suggests that some naming practices, religious beliefs and methods of food preparation reflect an African inheritance.... In the Washington Independent Review of Books, Henry Wiencek wrote that Drawing upon decades of research and writings as staff historian at Mount Vernon, Mary V. Thompson has, in "The Only Unavoidable Subject of Regret", produced a superb, moving portrait of the plantation's enslaved community. Thompson's admiration for George and Martha Washington is strong, but her focus is on the enslaved, whose stories she tells vividly and without sentimentality. Editions The book was published in 2019 by University of Virginia Press: Thompson Mary V. "The only unavoidable subject of regret": George Washington, slavery, and the enslaved community at Mount Vernon 2019 University of Virginia Press Charlottesville, VA 978-0-8139-4184-4 1035366283 en References Category:2019 non-fiction books Category:2019 English-language non-fiction books Category:Books about George Washington Category:American history books Category:University of Virginia Press books Category:Non-fiction books about American slavery Category:Articles with quotation marks in the title