It is
notorious that free negroes will often forget or fail to water and feed
their own horses, and it may easily be believed that when not influenced
by fear, slaves would neglect the stock of their master. Among the
General's papers I have found a list of the animals that died upon his
Mount Vernon estate from April 16, 1789, to December 25, 1790. In that
period of about twenty months he lost thirty-three horses, thirty-two
cattle and sixty-five sheep! Considering the number of stock he had, a
fifth of that loss would have been excessive. During most of the period
he was away from home looking after the affairs of the nation and in his
absence his own affairs suffered.
Hardly a report of his manager did not contain some bad news. Thus one
of January, 1791, states that "the Young black Brood Mare, with a long
tail, which Came from Pennsylvania, said to be four Years old next
spring ... was found with her thigh broke quite in two." This happened
on the Mansion House farm. On another farm a sheep was reported to have
been killed by dogs while a second had died suddenly, perhaps from
eating some poisonous plant.
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