"Shoemaker Will": William Lee, Mount Vernon Ledger 1794-1796

Project Details

In the unpublished Mount Vernon financial ledger from 1794-1796, Washington's former valet, William Lee, appears unexpectedly as "Shoemaker Will." By analyzing his representation in financial data, I constructed a narrative of Lee’s life after his role as valet to fill archival absences using financial documents and existing histories on Lee from the the Papers of George Washington and George Washington's Mount Vernon. I used Google Sheets to collect metadata referencing Lee, shoemaking, and Washington’s enslaved community and to analyze the amount of shoes made, the volume of materials, who received shoes, and the broader financial value of his labor. I used this analysis to explore Lee’s quality of life and work, which I then translated through Canva, Tableau, and StoryMaps to make acces

Subjects or Themes

Slavery--America--History--18th Century.

Project Language(s)

English

Time Period

Geographic Location

Project Categories

Content Type

Images, Text, Graphs, Timeline, Mapping

Target Audience(s)

Creators

Madeline Pannell

Year(s)

2019-2020

Host Institution / Affiliation / Project Location

The Washington Papers

Software Employed

Labor and Support

I began by editing the transcription of the Mount Vernon Ledger 1794-1796, by George Washington, which took approximately three months. Next, I collected data and general analytics from the ledger itself to begin visual analysis of the ledger's contents, along with beginning to gather external research about the enslaved community at Mount Vernon. This process took roughly another three months. During the successive five months, I narrowed my focus to developing the narrative of the StoryMap by designing specific content and visuals, along with writing accompanying prose and analysis. The project was completed over the span of a year, beginning in September 2019 and finishing in August 2020.