What is the Mount Vernon Plantation like?

I will actually say I think Mount Vernon does a rather fair job, far better than one might fear.

The layout of most walking tours, and the general flow if just visiting on your own also helps. When you exit the visitor center onto the grounds proper the first building you pass is the Greenhouse. The very next are the Slave Quarters, literally everyone that doesnt take a roundabout way to the mansion must pass them, and from a few visits and just people watching most do stop and see what it is. The interpretive signage and all does little to pull punches, Emphasizing both the massive scale of the Washington's participation int he slave trade, standard cruelty(whipping was in use at Mt Vernon among other punishments), routine forced relocation of families and individuals(between the various parts of Mt Vernon and the families other properties or hired out slave labor), and the need for the enslaved to make many of their own comforts. In the shadow of the .1% of colonial America while toiling for their profit, and noted on site were the ways both which those peoples used to resist from stealing some to reinforce their meager rations, to slow work, to of course seeking to escape.

Other portions of the property also do make very clear points about the entire enterprise being run on the backs of slave labor, their experimental distillery the park has started up comes to mind. I also didnt realize the scale of fishing during the yearly Shad runs on the Potomac before I had first visited, and that slaves would be forced to work round the clock catching, and packing to the exclusion of most other jobs during that time.

Now how many truly take that to heart is of course probably much less than we would hope, but it is not something one can spend any time on the property and not at least once be confronted with.

I think it would be worth the trip personally! Especially if you can do it when the weather is nice, maybe take the water taxi from The Wharf in SW or the Old Town waterfront. Would not recommend the option of renting a bike in Old Town and riding there, unless you are used to rides of several miles, found that out the hard way.

Some other sites I might consider would of course the AAHC Smithsonian, along with American Indian if you have never been! The Fredrick Douglas House is just an Uber away in Anacostia,

Alexandria also hosts the Freedom House Museum, have not visited myself but its ont he list, occupies what used to be the offices of a major slave trading company.

One final site that I would check out is not a museum but another site. The Contraband and Freedmen's Cemetery in Alexandria. After burials stopped in the late 1860's the site eventually was lost of city maps entirely in 1939 and even had a gas station built on site in the 50's. Rediscovered during other research in the 90's after 20 years fo excavation, demolition of buildings on site, and the memorial has now been open for 5 years, its still a WiP but both a chilling reminder of how easily history can be paved over, but also in how some dedicated efforts can revive it too. https://www.alexandriava.gov/FreedmenMemorial

I havent visited say, Monticello, since I was in high school so I will defer to someone else on the merits of a visit with an eye towards how it talks about slavery and its African American occupants, but that is very much something you could do in a long day trip or an overnight(Charlottesville is really nice!).