George Washington and slavery : a documentary portrayal
No 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. 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
Print Book, English, ©1997
University of Missouri Press, Columbia, ©1997
History
xiv, 256 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm
9780826211354, 0826211356
36954583
Slavery at Mount Vernon. Building an estate
Gone to war
Washington as slave manager
Through the eyes of foreign visitors
Mistress of the mansion
Slave vignettes
The sunset years
Personalities. Phillis Wheatley
Billy Lee
Oney Judge
The Marquis de Lafayette
John Laurens
The Revolutionary War. African American recruits
Combat veterans
The commander in chief
The new nation. The Constitutional Convention
Presidential politics
The abolitionists
Finale. Last will and testament
In retrospect