The Newsweek article can be read in full beginning here: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20427884/site/newsweek/ --Jurretta Heckscher On Sep 1, 2007, at 10:08 AM, Jon Kukla wrote: > This excerpt was posted yesterday on History News Network: > > GW's slaves? Mount Vernon confronts the issue now > > Source: Michael Beschloss in Newsweek (9-3-07) > > Shortly before George Washington retired as president in 1797, two > of his > cherished house slaves—Martha's helper Oney Judge and their chef, > Hercules—ran away. Tracked down at Washington's order, Oney tried > to set > strict conditions for her return, which the old general refused. As > for > Hercules, he just disappeared. > > Despite Washington's indignation over the "disloyalty" of his > "Negroes," > slavery was one of the few subjects in his life that the first > president > was ambivalent about. Financially he knew that he and Martha could > not run > the presidential house in Philadelphia or his beloved estate Mt. > Vernon in > Virginia without their several hundred slaves. But in his later years, > Washington came to hate slavery for dividing families and > undermining the > best ideals of the Revolution. > > The Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, which in 1858 heroically rescued > Washington's by then weedy, decaying estate (the front portico was > being > held up by a sailboat's mast), was itself long ambivalent about how to > treat the subject—especially during the civil-rights era of the > 1950s and > 1960s. > > This month a replicated Mt. Vernon slave cabin—home to Washington's > slaves > Silla and Slamin Joe and their six children—will open, one of the > final > touches on a $100 million effort to augment Washington's mansion and > gardens with exhibits providing context for Americans who, with each > passing generation, sadly seem to know less and less about their first > president. > > Posted on Friday, August 31, 2007 > > > > -- > Dr. Jon Kukla, Executive Vice-President > Red Hill - The Patrick Henry National Memorial > 1250 Red Hill Road > Brookneal, Virginia 24528 > www.redhill.org