Washington as President could have tried to ban slavery

Posted on: August 18, 2017 at 14:24:18 CT

It was his show right out of the gate. He failed miserably. He owned slaves at Mount Vernon. He spoke about how he didn't like it as an institution, and in his will he emancipated his own slaves. But he was the President. Why not emancipate everyone everywhere in his new country that he was running? He failed utterly and miserably at that. You could argue that if he disliked slavery but did nothing to end it as President and didn't even free his own slaves until after he was dead...then his approach to the whole issue was cowardly. His cowardice was part of what led to slavery as an institution being able to maintain such a strong political foothold in the South. It helped make the active and violent work of Lee and other Confederate leaders possible.

The fact we still revere and idolize George Washington through statues and dollar bills could be argued to be shameful when you view him with respect to the issue of slavery. Just as Lee can be viewed as a shameful figure when it comes to the issue of slavery as well.

Edited by McMuffin at 14:25:25 on 08/18/17