Recently several writers (e.g., Conor Cruise O'Brien in The Long
Affair) have critically examined the racial hypocrisy of Thomas
Jefferson, who preached equality but practiced slavery. Now fellow
Virginia slaveholder George Washington receives like treatment.
Hirschfeld, the editor of the John Hancock Papers, shows that in
the pre-Revolutionary era Washington ran a successful plantation
with slave labor and participated in the most brutal aspects of the
slave system: He purchased and sold slaves, pursued runaways with
vigor, and subjected wayward slaves to harsh punishments. The
Revolutionary War and its Enlightenment ideology changed that: both
because of concerns about his reputation and rapidly developing
moral doubts about the justice of slavery. Mostly drawing on
Washington's own correspondence and diaries and those of
contemporaries, Hirschfeld shows how Washington's attitudes toward
slavery evolved during his life. Prewar plantation records show
that he assembled a large slave population, apparently without
moral qualms, as his landholdings expanded, but in 1775 he reversed
an earlier decision to bar African-Americans from military service.
By 1779 he was expressing a distaste for the slave trade, and in
1786 he even wrote, "I never mean . . . to possess another slave by
purchase; it being among my first wishes to see some plan adopted,
by the legislature by which slavery in this Country may be
abolished by slow, sure, & imperceptible degrees." He refrained
from breaking up slave families, even though this practice made his
plantation unprofitable, and finally in his will he freed his
slaves. Hirschfeld shows that Washington's private dislike of
slavery didn't lead him as president to exercise his moral
leadership to end the institution. Hirschfeld speculates that
Washington understandably didn't want to jeopardize the new
nation's unity. Describing his final attitude as "lukewarm
abolitionism," the author concludes that Washington's was a mixed
legacy. A thoughtful and well-documented work that does not
diminish Washington's greatness, but shows the iconic Gilbert Smart
figure at his most morally vulnerable. (Kirkus Reviews)
"I never mean (unless some particular circumstance should compel
me to it) to possess another slave by purchase; it being among my
first wishes to see some plan adopted, by which slavery in this
country may be abolished by slow, sure and imperceptible
degrees."--George Washington, September 9, 1786No history of racism
in America can be considered complete without taking into account
the role that George Washington--the principal founding
father--played in helping to mold the racist cast of the new
nation. Because General Washington--the universally acknowledged
hero of the Revolutionary War--in the postwar period uniquely
combined the moral authority, personal prestige, and political
power to influence significantly the course and the outcome of the
slavery debate, his opinions on the subject of slaves and slavery
are of crucial importance to understanding how racism succeeded in
becoming an integral and official part of the national fabric
during its formative stages.
The successful end of the War for Independence in 1783 brought
George Washington face-to-face with a fundamental dilemma: how to
reconcile the proclaimed ideals of the revolution with the
established institution of slavery. So long as black human beings
in America could legally be considered the chattel property of
whites, the rhetoric of equality and individual freedom was hollow.
Progressive voices urged immediate emancipation as the only way to
resolve the contradiction; the Southern slave owners, of course,
stood firm for the status quo. Washington was caught squarely in
the middle.
As a Virginia plantation proprietor and a lifelong slaveholder,
Washington had a substantial private stake in the economic slave
system of the South. However, in his role as the acknowledged
political leader of the country, his overriding concern was the
preservation of the Union. If Washington publicly supported
emancipation, he would almost certainly have to set an example and
take steps to dispose of his Mount Vernon slaves. If he spoke out
on the side of slavery, how could he legitimately and
conscientiously expect to uphold and defend the humanistic goals
and moral imperatives of the new nation as expressed in the
Declaration of Independence and embodied in the Constitution and
the Bill of Rights? His was a balancing act that became more and
more difficult to sustain with the passing years.
Relying primarily on Washington's own words--his correspondence,
diaries, and other written records--supplemented by letters,
comments, and eyewitness reports of family members, friends,
employees, aides, correspondents, colleagues, and visitors to Mount
Vernon, together with contemporary newspaper clippings and official
documents pertaining to Washington's relationships with African
Americans, Fritz Hirschfeld traces Washington's transition from a
conventional slaveholder to a lukewarm abolitionist. "George
Washington and Slavery" will be an essential addition to the
historiography of eighteenth-century America and of Washington
himself.
General
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