The clueless “Progressive Regressives” often claim that Thomas Jefferson and other Founders were “slave owners.”
It i9s a historical fact Jefferson and washington were slave owners. In Fact Washington’s will frees his soaves but not his wife’s.
There was a National Geographic story 5-10 years ago showing plenty evidence of slaves at Jefferson’s plantation and describing what kind of owner he was.
Regardless of their philosophies and genius, they were indeed slave owners, no quotations necessary.
George Washington could not free Martha’s slaves...they were entailed to her estate. By his will his slaves were to become free on Martha’s death, but Martha gave them their freedom earlier (she didn’t want one of the slaves to decide to hurry things along by killing her).
George Washington may well have had the largest slave holding of his time. Jefferson was no slouch either. The current fad of equating American slavery with Nazism has a lot of people attempting to exempt their favorite antebellum slave owners from the condemnation that they routinely heap on the slaveowners of 1860. Good luck with that. Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind.