The Enslaved Children of George Mason project

Honors College Students Highlight the Lives of Enslaved People at Gunston Hall through Research

Two Honors College students contribute to the broader discussion of recognizing the lives of those enslaved by the university’s namesake.

George Mason IV, the namesake of this university, wrote in the Virginia Declaration of Rights that “all men are by nature equally free and independent and have certain inherent rights” to “life and liberty.” While Mason appeared to have been a proclaimer of human rights, how does this complicate him enslaving other people? How can we give a voice to those enslaved people without centering those who enslaved?

These are questions that arise from the Enslaved Children of George Mason (ECGM) project, a web-based exhibition that give a glimpse of what life was like for African Americans at Mason’s Gunston Hall. The research project was an important culmination of an ongoing university-wide discussion about Mason’s role in slavery.

The discussion began when the Honors College Black Ambition, a student organization now known as the Honors College Multicultural Alliance, hosted an event in September 2016 that focused on Mason’s ties to slavery. The event, titled “Caja. Millie. Tom. Liberty: The Forgotten Narrative,” invited researchers from Gunston Hall and Robinson Professor Spencer Crew to speak about the lives of the enslaved people at Mason’s plantation.

From there, the discussion continued in the work of Honors College alumnus Desmond Moffitt’s thesis in History, supervised by Professor Crew and developed in the Honors College’s Multidisciplinary Research and Creative Projects seminar. During the same academic year, the issue was the topic of classes in the History and African & African American Studies departments taught by Dr. Wendi Manuel-Scott.

The Honors College Living Learning Community (LLC) supported the student interest in this topic, as well. During Spring 2017, Honors College LLC Graduate Assistant Liz Lee worked with LLC Coordinator Kevin Stoy and Dr. Manuel-Scott to organize a trip to Gunston Hall and Mount Vernon, home of George Washington. Lee led two workshops about the experience of enslaved people in this region to prepare students for the trip. During the trip, Honors College students and students from Dr. Manuel-Scott’s classes examined how the experiences of enslaved people were represented at these two historical plantations.

Alexis Bracey (left), Ayman Fatima (center) and Elizabeth Perez-Garcia (right) pursue research together

Alexis Bracey (left), Ayman Fatima (center) and Elizabeth Perez-Garcia (right) pursue research together to drive the ECGM project forward. They began working with the project in summer 2017. Photo by Evan Cantwell.

The following summer, a team of five students spent their break researching the enslaved people at Gunston Hall under the guidance of Dr. Manuel-Scott and fellow history and art history professor Dr. Benedict Carton. The Office of Student Scholarship, Creative Activities, and Research (OSCAR) funded their research, and the team received support creating the online public history exhibit from Honors College professor and history librarian Dr. George Oberle. Their findings advanced this important discussion about Mason’s troubling history.

Two students on this team were Honors College students Alexis Bracey and Farhaj Murshed.

Both Bracey and Murshed were intrigued to dive deeper into the unpublicized history of the university’s namesake and, more importantly, the untold stories of the people he enslaved. Murshed found the timing of the project fitting for the political climate and was eager to be a part of something that had the potential to catalyze change.

“We do need to be critical of these [important historical figures],” said Bracey, a senior Global Affairs major. Bracey emphasized how small oversights of Mason’s history with slavery, such as its omission from the university’s website, alter the realities of his past.

Each student on the ECGM team focused on a section of Gunston Hall life that interested them and had much support from Dr. Manuel-Scott, Dr. Carton, and OSCAR. “[The professors] pushed us towards everything we wanted to do,” said Murshed, a junior Statistics major. “They were fostering an [encouraging and intellectually stimulating] environment.” Murshed stated that OSCAR allowed for the students to conduct their research at their own pace and were understanding of the students’ limitations.

Murshed focused on the health, wellness, food provisions, and gardening of the enslaved people at Gunston Hall, influenced by his interest in public and community health.

Bracey examined the roles of the enslaved children, the culture of the enslaved people, and the Mason family connection to slavery. Through her research, Bracey learned that Mason’s brother was involved in slave trading. She also learned that Mason had the ear of a runaway slave cut off as a form of punishment.

Finding documentation of these acts of violence and assertions of power led Murshed to offer a critical analysis of the minds of founding fathers who publicly disapproved of slavery but privately committed these aggressions. Murshed found that publicly denouncing slavery was an attempt to clean up the lasting image of the fathers.

“These historical figures did not care that [they] were enslaving someone. They cared about how it would look."

Farhaj Murshed

Due to a fire destroying a lot of Mason’s records, the team had to construct a story for life at Gunston Hall based on what they could find. There were numerous times when the team was not able to find information, but their dedication to the issue pushed them to continue searching.

Ayman Fatima, a junior Government and International Politics and Systems Engineering double major who also worked on the team, reflected on this erasure of Mason’s history.

“[Other universities] are coming to terms with their past. Our project was the first to do that at George Mason."

Farhaj Murshed

“There’s a lack of actual, hard evidence which can make [research] difficult, but it doesn’t make it impossible," said Fatima, who focused on Mason’s manservant James for her part of the project. 

Bracey emphasized how the project should center the enslaved people at Gunston Hall and their narratives. Bracey, who minored in History as a result of this project, went on to state that the history of white supremacy is embedded in the structure of American academia, from the names of school buildings to how little the average student learns about the realities of slavery.

Fatima added to this point, stating, “All these institutions were built for this fundamentally unfree system. We can’t continue on this path.”

To ensure that power was given to the enslaved people when telling their stories, the team decided to refer to the people as “enslaved” instead of as “slaves.” This change represents how language can both give and take away authority for humans.

While Murshed noted that the purpose of the project is not to demonize Mason the man, he emphasized the importance of acknowledging this history in order to advance as a university and as a community.

“[We need to] address the past and tell the stories of the enslaved people,” said Murshed.  “[Other universities] are coming to terms with their past. Our project was the first to do that at George Mason.”

The ECGM project has already influenced change on campus and across the country. Dr. Oberle has continued the lessons of this project in his Honors course called “The Legacies of George Mason.” A memorial to honor the enslaved people at Gunston Hall has also been commissioned as part of the Core Campus Project on the Fairfax campus. The team will present their research at the National Council of Undergraduate Research at Kennesaw State University in Georgia this April.

The team hopes that the project lives on long after their times at Mason. To view their exhibits on the lives of the enslaved people at Gunston Hall, visit https://ecgm.omeka.net.


Original reporting by Zaria Talley