Sorting Out Debts for a Slave Hire from the Last Private Owner of Mount Vernon

Autograph Letter Signed, to John Augustine Washington III, Accontink, Virginia, July 1, 1859. 2 pp., 8 x 10 in. "the girl was not worth to me her victuals & clothes, and any attempt now to make me pay a big hire over twice will be most strenuously opposed." Complete Transcript Accotink July 1st 1859Jno. A. Washington Esqr Dear Sir I have just seen Mr P. H. Troth, who informs me that an order I gave him last fall on Danl Williamson for $44 (including Troth' act against me and the twenty Dols I owed you for which you gave Troth an order on me) had not yet been settled, and that he Troth would hold me bound for it. He says you are owing him, and as he is in want of funds he will have to return the claim to you and ask for the money, leaving it with you to collect it. It has been now about 9 months since I gave Mr T. the above order on Williamson and untill recently thought it was settled. I gave Williamson Credit for that amt and in order to get a settlement with Williamson for hauling wood, I have had to warrant him for a bal of $23. for which I have obtained a judgment after the case was strongly contested by Williamson & all this time I was confident that the above order had been settled and accordingly credited Williamson with it. Now I do not want to pay this money twice, and will therefore resist it. Mr Troth' recourse is upon Williamson and him alone, and if you settle with Mr T expecting to recover the $20 from me I now respectfully notify you that I will not pay it unless forced, which I think neither law or justice can do Williamson paid Mr T Twenty Dols on the above order. Do not understand me as making any complaint, but just in this connection I will say that the girl was not worth to me her victuals & clothes, and any attempt now to make me pay a big hire over twice will be most strenuously opposed. I have had enough to do with Williamson already & Mr T must now try his hand with him Very respectfully yours Truly Saml E. Nevitt[Docketing:] July 1, 1859 / S. C. NevittHistorical BackgroundOn December 25, 1857, Samuel E. Nevitt and William Nevitt hired the slave Jenny for a year for $60 from John Augustine Washington III, who was the last private owner of the Mount Vernon estate of George Washington. Samuel E. Nevitt was unsatisfied with her performance and returned her after four months. Nevitt initially refused to pay anything but then agreed to pay $20 for the proportional time.Augustine Washington had sold 200 acres of his great uncle's estate to the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association in 1858, but did not turn it over to the organization until 1860. Throughout his ownership of Mount Vernon, one source of income for Augustine Washington was renting out slave labor to surrounding farms and plantations.It was common for antebellum Americans to transfer debts in a society scarce of cash. When debtors and creditors transferred and combined debts, the result was a complicated web of credit that the courts often had to sort out. In this case, Washington determined that the costs of a lawsuit would be more than the debt.Samuel E. Nevitt (1825-1897) was born in Maryland. He married Mary Jane Marders in May 1855, in Fairfax County, Virginia. In 1860, he was a farmer along the South Orange and Alexandria Railroad in Fairfax County and owned $2,000 in real estate and $2,000 in personal property, including 3 slaves.John Augustine WashingtonIII (1821-1861) was born in Blakeley, (West) Virginia, the son of John Augustine Washington II and Jane Charlotte Blackburn Washington, and graduated from the University of Virginia in 1840. His father inherited George Washington's estate Mount Vernon in 1829, but it passed to his wife at his death in 1832. In 1841, Augustine Washington proposed to manage Mount Vernon for his mother. She loaned him 22 slaves and agreed to pay him $500 per year for seven years. When she died in 1855, the plantation passed to him. The plantation obtained income from wheat. (See website for full description).…