Joann Bagnerise couldn't bring herself to visit George Washington's home at Mount Vernon, driving by without stopping, thinking too much about the hundreds of slaves who had labored in the mansion and fields beyond the brick walls. Even yesterday, as the Dumfries resident sat in the warm sun near the estate's new model of a slave cabin, she said she was filled with conflicting emotions.

"It's very solemn," she said from underneath the brim of a wide straw hat. "I'm feeling all who were enslaved here. I'm just standing on their shoulders."
Yesterday, Mount Vernon unveiled its highest-profile slavery exhibit in years, a 16-by-14-foot log cabin modeled on the field hands' quarters on Washington's vast estate along the Potomac River. The exhibit is the first to show how the majority of Washington's slaves lived, Mount Vernon officials said.

In recent years, Mount Vernon -- the most visited historic home in the country -- has undertaken a pricey effort to renew interest in the life of the nation's first president, culminating with the opening of a $110 million orientation and museum center last year. Yet officials say visitors have always craved more information about slavery, one of the most troubling aspects of the life of the war hero, president and statesman.