Today's DAR
On March 16, 2020, the DAR Library hosted a lecture titled “Research in the States: New Hampshire.” Later that day, staff were informed that DAR Headquarters would be closing due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nearly 3 years later, the DAR Library was able to bring back one of our favorite programs, the DAR Library’s Speaker Series. On March 11, 2023, the Library hosted Mary V. Thompson, Historian Emeritus at Mount Vernon, and the author of “The Only Unavoidable Subject of Regret:” George Washington, Slavery, and the Enslaved Community at Mount Vernon.
The book is in many ways a culmination of Thompson’s career at Mount Vernon conducting research to support programs in all of the estate’s departments. For over 40 years, Thompson studied everyday life in the estate, household routines, domestic animals, foodways, religious practices, slavery, the Revolutionary War at Mount Vernon, and the enslaved community. “The Only Unavoidable Subject of Regret” brings all these topics together to explore the relationship and interactions between George Washington and the individuals enslaved on his farms. In 2020 the book received the James Bradford Prize for Biography from the Society for Historians of the Early American Republic.
Thompson writes with a passion built from decades of research and dedication; as she says in the introduction, several colleagues told her she had to write this book to share her knowledge beyond those who visit Mount Vernon. Her presentation at the Library’s Speaker Series just scratches the surface, focusing on the struggle between Washington’s attempts to control the enslaved community at Mount Vernon versus the various types of resistance efforts by the enslaved community to both George Washington himself and his farm managers.
View the video of the DAR Library Speaker Series: Mary V Thompson here. Make sure to follow us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/NSDARLibrary/ so you don’t miss updates about our next Library speaker.
