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When George Washington wrote his will, he made the startling decision to set his slaves free; earlier he had said that holding slaves was his "only unavoidable subject of regret." In this groundbreaking work, Henry Wiencek explores the founding father's engagement with slavery at every stage of his life--as a Virginia planter, soldier, politician, president and statesman.
Washington was born and raised among blacks and mixed-race people; he and his wife had blood ties to the slave community. Yet as a young man he bought and sold slaves without scruple, even raffled off children to collect debts (an incident ignored by earlier biographers). Then, on the Revolutionary battlefields where he commanded both black and white troops, Washington's attitudes began to change. He and the other framers enshrined slavery in the Constitution, but, Wiencek shows, even before he became president Washington had begun to see the system's evil.
Wiencek's revelatory narrative, based on a meticulous examination of private papers, court records, and the voluminous Washington archives, documents for the first time the moral transformation culminating in Washington's determination to emancipate his slaves. He acted too late to keep the new republic from perpetuating slavery, but his repentance was genuine. And it was perhaps related to the possibility--as the oral history of Mount Vernon's slave descendants has long asserted--that a slave named West Ford was the son of George and a woman named Venus; Wiencek has new evidence that this could indeed have been true.
George Washington's heroic stature as Father of Our Country is not diminished in this superb, nuanced portrait: now we see Washington in full as a man of his time and ahead of his time.
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Subjects
Politics and government, Sklaverei, Relations with slaves, Presidents, Slavery, Political aspects of Slavery, Slavernij, Presidenten, Political aspects, Biography, History, Views on slavery, Large type books, Slaves, Washington, george, 1732-1799, United states, politics and government, to 1775, United states, politics and government, 1775-1783, Presidents, united states, Slavery, united states, historyPlaces
United StatesTimes
1775-1783, 18th centuryShowing 6 featured editions. View all 6 editions?
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An imperfect god: George Washington, his slaves, and the creation of America
2004, Thorndike Press
in English
- Large print ed.
0786261293 9780786261291
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An imperfect god: George Washington, his slaves, and the creation of America
2003, Farrar, Straus and Giroux
in English
- 1st ed.
0374175268 9780374175269
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An Imperfect God: George Washington, His Slaves, and the Creation of America
Nov 01, 2003, Brand: Macmillan Audio, Macmillan Audio
audio cd
1559279273 9781559279277
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An Imperfect God: George Washington, His Slaves, and The Creation of America
2003, Farrar, Straus and Giroux
in English
- 1st ed.
0374175268 9780374175269
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Book Details
Table of Contents
Edition Notes
Includes bibliographical references (p. 363-390) and index.
The Physical Object
ID Numbers
Source records
Collingswood Public Library recordIthaca College Library MARC record
Internet Archive item record
First Sentence
"HARDLY HAD I BEGUN my research when I discovered that collateral descendants of Washington still live in Virginia."
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- Created May 29, 2009
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January 17, 2019 | Edited by Johnathan Le | I had changed the description of this book's edition. The description is pulled off from the Macmillian (publishing company) website. |
January 17, 2019 | Edited by Johnathan Le | Edited without comment. |
January 17, 2019 | Edited by Johnathan Le | Edited without comment. |
January 17, 2019 | Edited by Johnathan Le | Edited without comment. |
May 29, 2009 | Created by ImportBot | Imported from Collingswood Public Library record |