Among His Slaves: George Mason's Struggle with Slavery

George Mason of Gunston Hall distinguished himself as a planter, revolutionary patriot, author the Virginia Declaration of Rights, and slave owner. He wrote "that all men are by nature equally free and...have certain inherent rights..." and argued simultaneously that slavery was "that slow Poison, which is daily contamination [to] the Minds & Morals of our People." Yet Mason owned more than a hundred slave men, women, and children himself. Over his lifetime he freed none of them.

Among His S...