Upon This Land: Seven Generations of the Washington Family and the Residents of Popes Creek and Mattox Neck
Levy P. 2023. Upon This Land: Seven Generations of the Washington Family and the Residents of Popes Creek and Mattox Neck. Historic Resource Study. National Park Service
This is the story of the Washington family and their lives on Mattox Neck between Popes Creek on the east and Mattox Creek on the west. This roughly 7,000-acre patch of alluvial Potomac River valley land saw seven generations of the family work and live in an era that began in the 1650s and lasted until 1813. The family most famously lived on the northeastern-most portion of the land along Popes Creek. This is where the best-known member of the family—George Washington—was born, and it was his national significance that allowed a few hundred acres around that site to become the George Washington Birthplace National Monument (GEWA). From its inception, GEWA has been both a shrine to Washington and his birth and an interpretive historical park with the mission of teaching visitors about the Washingtons and their epoch. This report recounts the park’s interesting and complex colonial-era history.
- Type
- Published Report
- Authors
- Levy, Philip
- Date of Issue
- 2023-03
- Publisher
- National Park Service
- Units
- GEWA
- Keywords
- African American, agricultural history, agriculture, Augustine Washington, Bacon's Rebellion, colonial, enslaved labor, family cemetery, family history, fire, George Washington, material culture, merchant, plantation, plantation economy, Popes Creek, Revolutionary War, slavery, tobacco, trade, Washington Family