In 1768, for example, he engaged for this purpose a certain Jonathan Palmer, who was to receive forty pounds a year, four hundred pounds of meat, twenty bushels of corn, a house to live in, a garden, and also the right to keep two cows.
The carpenters were required not only to build houses, barns, sheds and other structures, but also boats, and had to hew out or whipsaw many of the timbers and boards used.
The carpenter whose name we meet oftenest was Thomas Green, who married Sally Bishop.

I have seen a contract signed by Green in 1786, by which he was to receive annually forty-five pounds in Virginia currency, five hundredweight of pork, pasture for a cow, and two hundred pounds of common flour.

He also had the right to be absent from the plantation half a day in every month.

He did not use these vacations to good advantage, for he was a drunken incompetent and tried Washington's patience sorely.

Washington frequently threatened to dismiss him and as often relented and Green finally, in 1794, quit of his own accord, though Washington thereafter had to assist his family.
The employment of white day labor at Mount Vernon was not extensive.