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I recently visited the new President's House exhibit that opened on Independence Mall in Philadelphia. It was quite interesting in that it emphasizes not only the time spent there by George Washington and John Adams, but gives plenty of voice to the slaves that Washington kept during his time there.
Typically presented as a hero, Washington doesn't come out looking so great here. For example, a law in PA at the time was that any slave who spent 6 months in the state would be considered free, so Washington made sure to rotate each slave out of the state before the six months was up (the clock would start over each time) and tried to do it in such a way that the public and the slaves would not realize it. It also talks about how Washington split up families for fear that they were planning to run away. These things weren't illegal, but they don't come across as admirable either, especially when looking at it with a 21st century lens.
I'm curious as to what people's reactions are to a high profile historical exhibit that provides a pretty unvarnished look at national icons.
That's interesting because I've read a lot about Washington and everything I've read said that he worked very hard NOT to split up his slave families. Also, that at the end of his life, so much of the slave population was either elderly or small children that it was as though he was running a child care center and a senior care facility at the same time.
If you loo at any home in about nay country of a leader i thsoe days the picture doesn't loo that good by today standards but it was today.Looking at even standrad of white farmers in mnay states shows they were little otherthan slaves. Same can be siad of the industrial northeast in child labor. Many countries had debt prisons also in which even children worked off their parents debts and not always just by labor. Always remmeber that the world has changed and you have to look at the picture as its was then.Even poor people then where very harsh on their own children in todays standards and even the reason for a large family different.
It's no secret that Washington and Jefferson along with many of their contemporaries owned slaves. Even Adams had slaves at his employee during his Presidency. In fact, much of Washington D.C. was built with slave labor. When the Founding Fathers wrote that "all men are created equal" men to them = white male landowners. Only over time have we taken the phrase to mean something different.
I don't think the reality of who they were tarnishes the image that was built upon what they did.
I just wonder at the motivation of someone who goes to a place or a website like that and the ONLY thing they take away and want to share with everyone is the one negative that would only be considered bad in a modern context?
I just wonder at the motivation of someone who goes to a place or a website like that and the ONLY thing they take away and want to share with everyone is the one negative that would only be considered bad in a modern context?
I think it has to do with these facts running contrary to the image most people have of the people in question. I have yet to visit the exhibit the OP was talking about, but I worked in Philadelphia during the dig and construction of the exhibit. They were quite surprised at finding the slave quarters and the extent to which slaves were used in the city by Washington. The creators of the exhibit did focus heavily on the aspect of slavery at the site, moreso than the site itself.
In the late Howard Zinn's best-seller "People's History of the United States" he points out how the famous French traveler Alexis de Tocqueville visited Mount Vernon and was really appalled at George Washington's inhumane treatment of his slaves he saw there.
I just wonder at the motivation of someone who goes to a place or a website like that and the ONLY thing they take away and want to share with everyone is the one negative that would only be considered bad in a modern context?
NJGoat's response is my answer too. There are plenty of historical sites that downplay the more negative aspects of history, so it is interesting to see an exhibit approach them head on. The motivation was to see what people thought about how the NPS has presented this era, rather than as a commentary on the character of George Washington. Sorry some people didn't get that. Not everything is a political declaration.
And I would dispute the notion that slave-holding is only considered bad in a modern context, there were abolition movements very early on, so there has always been a segment of the population that was against slavery.
I live in Philadelphia and I have passed this outdoor exhibit several times, but just haven't found the time to examine it yet. Friends tell me that it is a very good and educational addition to the many historical sites we have here in the "City of Brotherly Love."
The reviews have all been positive.
George Washington actually had some some slaves who escaped their servitude and fled to the North for freedom. One of them was his much admired chef who was known for being one of the best cooking experts in all America, named Hercules.
On the one hand it is easy to be dismissive and understate the problem of looking at 18th Century customs and lifestyles "through the lens of the 21st Century" as a kind of recent revisionism ...
However - what about the lives of those people who were enslaved? How do we honor and recognize them and not ignore the fact that Washington had a policy to keep them enslaved and some of them actually fled his household to freedom? Do we just hang on to the "nice" myths and not question the adoring untarnished picture of our first president; or do we try to shed light towards a more accurate understanding of historical facts?
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