July 15, 1799
Mount Vernon, Fairfax County, Virginia
The entry supplies a named person, approximate age, labor status, and direct connection to an operating whiskey distillery. It replaces a generalized assertion about enslaved labor with a recoverable archival episode.
Primary evidence: complete four-page manuscript, p. 1, with official transcription. Publication boundaries: the document does not identify James’s surname, exact distilling tasks, length of service, or every work assignment. 'Cradler' records an agricultural skill; it should not be converted into a distilling title. The census reflects Washington’s coercive and evaluative viewpoint, not James’s own account.
In a census dated July 15, 1799, George Washington identified James, about twenty-four, among the enslaved people whose labor he rented from Penelope French. Washington described James as a cradler and recorded that he had been employed mostly at the distillery.