People Enslaved by the Mason Family

The purpose of this dataset is to identify each of the people enslaved by George Mason IV and his descendants between the years 1773 and 1865. The former date reflects when George Mason IV wrote his last will and testament (i.e., the version his descendants filed with the Fairfax County Circuit Court upon his death in 1792), while the latter date corresponds with the ending of the American Civil War and the ratification of the Thirteenth Amendment (which abolished slavery in the United States). By identifying and describing each enslaved person, we aim to reconstruct the personhood and relationships of the enslaved, as well as equip descendants and scholars with information. The dataset will be expanded to include other Mason descendants and their slaveholding practices beyond Virginia.