With the TJ/Hemings issue in full conflagration again, I would like to roll back to Jurretta Heckscher's eloquent post on GW. She wrote: "I would argue that Washington . . . must be presumed to have believed almost inevitably in white racial superiority. That was, quite simply, one of the bedrock foundations of the world that made and sustained him--and if he broke extensively with that belief in his own mind, as I at least would need to see demonstrated by an unambiguous pronouncement." He did break with that world by freeing his slaves and he did make a "pronouncement" in his will, in which he not only freed his slaves but specified that they be taught to read & write, be "brought up to some useful occupation," and further ordered that no slave be transported out of Virginia "under any pretence whatsoever." This is my interpretation of that pronouncement: Washington believed that blacks had a right to freedom; that formerly enslaved blacks were quite amenable to education and training; furthermore, he clearly believed that they had a claim to education and decent work; finally, he seems to have believed that with education and training the freed children of slaves could immediately take a fruitful and productive place in Virginia society as free people because he emphatically specified that no one should be exiled. I don't think a racist of the 1790s variety would write such a will. Henry Wiencek To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html