Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

To: 11th_VA

Wow — can I write the biography about MLK?
Sure, before the Wikipedia editors change it back. But at least the screenshots can live forever.

Did you get the edit history of the Washington article, to show who did the changes?
3 posted on 06/19/2020 7:25:24 AM PDT by Olog-hai ("No Republican, no matter how liberal, is going to woo a Democratic vote." -- Ronald Reagan, 1960)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies ]


To: Olog-hai

Presently it states in the intro, with zero references.

George Washington, a Founding Father of the United States, was a slaveowner. He became uneasy with the institution of slavery but only provided for the emancipation of the people he kept in slavery after his death. Slavery was ingrained in the economic and social fabric of colonial Virginia, and Washington inherited his first ten slaves at the age of eleven on the death of his father in 1743. In adulthood his personal slaveholding grew through inheritance, purchase and natural increase. In 1759, he gained control of dower slaves belonging to the Custis estate as a result of his marriage to Martha Dandridge Custis. Washington’s early attitudes to slavery reflected the prevailing Virginia planter views of the day and he initially demonstrated no moral qualms about the institution. He became skeptical about the economic efficacy of slavery before the American Revolutionary War. Although he expressed support in private for the abolition of slavery by a gradual legislative process after the war, Washington remained dependent on slave labor. By the time of his death in 1799 there were 317 slaves at his Mount Vernon estate, 124 owned by Washington and the remainder managed by him as his own property but belonging to other people.

Washington was a demanding master. He provided his slaves with basic food, clothing and accommodation comparable to general practice at the time, which was not always adequate, and with medical care. In return, he expected them to work diligently from sunrise to sunset over the six-day working week that was standard at the time.


16 posted on 06/20/2020 3:50:22 AM PDT by daniel1212 (Trust the risen Lord Jesus to save you as a damned and destitute sinner + be baptized + follow Him)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson