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b********n
发帖数: 38600 | 1 George Washington, Slave Catcher
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/16/opinion/george-washington-sla
AMID the car and mattress sales that serve as markers for Presidents’ Day,
Black History Month reminds Americans to focus on our common history. In
1926, the African-American historian Carter G. Woodson introduced Negro
History Week as a commemoration built around the birthdays of Abraham
Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. Now February serves as a point of collision
between presidential celebration and marginalized black history.
While Lincoln’s role in ending slavery is understood to have been more
nuanced than his reputation as the great emancipator would suggest, it has
taken longer for us to replace stories about cherry trees and false teeth
with narratives about George Washington’s slaveholding.
When he was 11 years old, Washington inherited 10 slaves from his father’s
estate. He continued to acquire slaves — some through the death of family
members and others through direct purchase. Washington’s cache of enslaved
people peaked in 1759 when he married the wealthy widow Martha Dandridge
Custis. His new wife brought more than 80 slaves to the estate at Mount
Vernon. On the eve of the American Revolution, nearly 150 souls were counted
as part of the property there.
In 1789, Washington became the first president of the United States, a
planter president who used and sanctioned black slavery. Washington needed
slave labor to maintain his wealth, his lifestyle and his reputation. As he
aged, Washington flirted with attempts to extricate himself from the
murderous institution — “to get quit of Negroes,” as he famously wrote in
1778. But he never did.
During the president’s two terms in office, the Washingtons relocated first
to New York and then to Philadelphia. Although slavery had steadily
declined in the North, the Washingtons decided that they could not live
without it. Once settled in Philadelphia, Washington encountered his first
roadblock to slave ownership in the region — Pennsylvania’s Gradual
Abolition Act of 1780.
The act began dismantling slavery, eventually releasing people from bondage
after their 28th birthdays. Under the law, any slave who entered
Pennsylvania with an owner and lived in the state for longer than six months
would be set free automatically. This presented a problem for the new
president.
Washington developed a canny strategy that would protect his property and
allow him to avoid public scrutiny. Every six months, the president’s
slaves would travel back to Mount Vernon or would journey with Mrs.
Washington outside the boundaries of the state. In essence, the Washingtons
reset the clock. The president was secretive when writing to his personal
secretary Tobias Lear in 1791: “I request that these Sentiments and this
advise may be known to none but yourself & Mrs. Washington.”
The president went on to support policies that would protect slave owners
who had invested money in black lives. In 1793, Washington signed the first
fugitive slave law, which allowed fugitives to be seized in any state, tried
and returned to their owners. Anyone who harbored or assisted a fugitive
faced a $500 penalty and possible imprisonment.
Washington almost made it through his two terms in office without a major
incident involving his slave ownership. On a spring evening in May of 1796,
though, Ona Judge, the Washingtons’ 22-year-old slave woman, slipped away
from the president’s house in Philadelphia. At 15, she had joined the
Washingtons on their tour of Northern living. She was among a small cohort
of nine slaves who lived with the president and his family in Philadelphia.
Judge was Martha Washington’s first attendant; she took care of Mrs.
Washington’s personal needs.
What prompted Judge’s decision to bolt was Martha Washington’s plan to
give Judge away as a wedding gift to her granddaughter. Judge fled
Philadelphia for Portsmouth, N.H., a city with 360 free black people, and
virtually no slaves. Within a few months of her arrival, Judge married Jack
Staines, a free black sailor, with whom she had three children. Judge and
her offspring were vulnerable to slave catchers. They lived as free people,
but legally belonged to Martha Washington.
Washington and his agents pursued Judge for three years, dispatching friends
, officials and relatives to find and recapture her. Twelve weeks before his
death, Washington was still actively pursuing her, but with the help of
close allies, Judge managed to elude his slave-catching grasp.
George Washington died on Dec. 14, 1799. At the time of his death, 318
enslaved people lived at Mount Vernon and fewer than half of them belonged
to the former president. Washington’s will called for the emancipation of
his slaves following the death of his wife. He completed in death what he
had been unwilling to do while living, an act made easier because he had no
biological children expecting an inheritance. Martha Washington lived until
1802 and upon her death all of her human property went to her inheritors.
She emancipated no one.
When asked by a reporter if she had regrets about leaving the Washingtons,
Judge responded, “No, I am free, and have, I trust, been made a child of
God by the means.” Ona Judge died on Feb. 25, 1848. She has earned a salute
during the month of February.
Erica Armstrong Dunbar, an associate professor of black studies and history
at the University of Delaware, is the author of “A Fragile Freedom: African
American Women and Emancipation in the Antebellum City.”
A version of this op-ed appears in print on February 16, 2015, on page A17
of the New York edition with the headline: George Washington, Slave Catcher.
Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe | h******1
发帖数: 16295 | | h******1
发帖数: 16295 | 3 他就是个接盘寡妇发家，后来当派出所长有了点“军事经验”。那帮乌合之众连当过派
出所长的都没有，他就上位了。 | h***i
发帖数: 89031 | 4 靴子扯淡
华盛顿的牙不好，看着哪个奴隶的牙可以用，就拔出来换上
【在 h******1 的大作中提到】
: 人皮靴子的事情是真的吗？
| b********n
发帖数: 38600 | 5 人皮靴子的事我不清楚。但他强奸不少黑奴是史实。
【在 h******1 的大作中提到】
: 人皮靴子的事情是真的吗？
| h***i
发帖数: 89031 | 6 亚当斯要找一个有号召力的人，选人还是不错的
可以战胜英国军队的天才不存在
华盛顿善败者不亡，也算军事家
【在 h******1 的大作中提到】
: 他就是个接盘寡妇发家，后来当派出所长有了点“军事经验”。那帮乌合之众连当过派
: 出所长的都没有，他就上位了。
| h***i
发帖数: 89031 | 7 这个没有直接证据，因为丫不能生育
杰佛逊是有黑人后代的，还被他卖了
【在 b********n 的大作中提到】
: 人皮靴子的事我不清楚。但他强奸不少黑奴是史实。
| b********n
发帖数: 38600 | 8 Washington’s cache of enslaved people peaked in 1759 when he married the
wealthy widow Martha Dandridge Custis. His new wife brought more than 80
slaves to the estate at Mount
Vernon. On the eve of the American Revolution, nearly 150 souls were counted
as part of the property there.
寡妇也是靠黑奴发家的
【在 h******1 的大作中提到】
: 他就是个接盘寡妇发家，后来当派出所长有了点“军事经验”。那帮乌合之众连当过派
: 出所长的都没有，他就上位了。
| b********n
发帖数: 38600 | 9 不能生育不等于不能强奸
【在 h***i 的大作中提到】
: 这个没有直接证据，因为丫不能生育
: 杰佛逊是有黑人后代的，还被他卖了
| h***i
发帖数: 89031 | 10 这个指控要有证据
比如你查dna，就有证据杰佛逊买卖后代
【在 b********n 的大作中提到】
: 不能生育不等于不能强奸
| | | b********n
发帖数: 38600 | 11 太祖有个玉凤，老将就整天如丧考妣。美国国父如此劣迹，却视而不见
【在 h***i 的大作中提到】
: 这个没有直接证据，因为丫不能生育
: 杰佛逊是有黑人后代的，还被他卖了
| h***i
发帖数: 89031 | 12 还有一个孟锦云
玉凤基本上是工作助手，通房丫头，老毛喜欢的是孟锦云
【在 b********n 的大作中提到】
: 太祖有个玉凤，老将就整天如丧考妣。美国国父如此劣迹，却视而不见
| b********n
发帖数: 38600 | 13 至少是两厢情愿呀
【在 h***i 的大作中提到】
: 还有一个孟锦云
: 玉凤基本上是工作助手，通房丫头，老毛喜欢的是孟锦云
| h***i
发帖数: 89031 | 14 女小黑被操可以不去地里面干活，也情愿
拔了牙给换盛顿的老黑可以两年后自由也情愿
【在 b********n 的大作中提到】
: 至少是两厢情愿呀
| d*******g
发帖数: 8992 | 15 别人说的是没证据，不是说不可能！
【在 b********n 的大作中提到】
: 不能生育不等于不能强奸
| l*****i
发帖数: 20533 | 16 美国建国时，打仗主力是法国，而那些本地奴隶主互相谁也不服谁，所以自然只好‘民
主’：奴隶主以及部分有一定财产的‘自由民’（潜在奴隶主）之间的民主。结果这就
成了他们光辉伟大的历史了。
而且对中国人来说，关键总有人拿着中国皇帝的历史去套这些美国‘国父’，以为华盛
顿多有统治力。在此基础上‘主动让位’多么不容易。实不知那帮国父谁tm愿意服从他
华盛顿一个人啊？他要不让出位子，其他人哪里就能认了？ |
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