In 1799, most of Mount Vernon's 318 enslaved people were field workers, more than half of them women. Overseers supervised the work on each farm and reported to a farm manager who oversaw overall production. According to a 1799 census, the four outlying farms had these populations: Dogue Run Farm, 45 enslaved people, including 17 adult women, 7 adult men, and 21 children; River Farm, 57, including 23 adult women, 15 adult men, and 19 children; Muddy Hole Farm, 42, including 17 adult women, 7 adult men, and 18 children; and Union Farm, 74, including 24 adult women, 16 adult men, and 34 children. Labor was carried out in gangs of eight to ten people, and the work changed with the seasons: in spring they planted and tended crops; in late summer and fall, workers from the gristmill and Mansion House Farm joined the harvest; and in winter, enslaved people preserved crops, saved seeds, dug ditches, cut firewood, husked corn, repaired fences, and slaughtered and preserved hogs for food.
