The Washington Plantation

The Washington plantation consisted of two farms: the Home House Farm, where the family lived, and a quarter, (outlying farm) located to the east. The main crops were corn, wheat, and tobacco. The plantation complex included the Washington house, a kitchen dependency, dairy, storehouses, barns, and slave quarters. When Augustine Washington died here in 1743, there were 20 slaves living at the Home House Farm and 6 at the quarter. The inventory of his estate lists 27 head of cattle, 21 sheep, 21 pigs, and 4 horses at Home House Farm and 18 head of cattle, 19 pigs, 11 sheep, and 2 horses at the quarter. By the terms of Augustine Washington's will, George Washington was to inherit all of this land, ten slaves, and other property when he reached twenty-one., In his 1771 survey of the Home House Farm, George Washington identified a garden and henyard in the vicinity of the house. If the fabled cherry tree grew on the plantation, it may have been in this area., George Washington left his mother in possession of the plantation after he moved to Mount Vernon, but returned for visits. In 1771 he surveyed the Home House Farm, recording the boundaries of the fields and pastures he had known since childhood. This survey is the most important surviving record of the layout of the Washington plantation.