George Washington's Fisheries

George Washington’s three fisheries along the Potomac River reflected his entrepreneurial spirit. For almost 40 years, these fishing operations brought in food for his enslaved and paid workers, and by selling the surplus, provided additional profits for his estate. Each spring, when fish began running past Mount Vernon’s ten-mile shoreline, enslaved workers, overseers, and indentured servants dropped everything and headed to the river to haul in and process more than a million fish in a matter of weeks.

Fort Hunt, Virginia · United States