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Latest comment: 7 months ago5 comments4 people in discussion
“Washington had a strong work ethic and expected the same of his slaves […] but he was disappointed when they failed to meet his exacting expectations.”
This is very whitewashed. They’re slaves. He cruelly forced them to work as chattel. They almost surely worked harder every day of their lives than Washington ever had. The part about his “work ethic” should be removed entirely, and the part about his expectations to make it clear that he was a harsh taskmaster to the people he OWNED. 96.18.29.70 (talk) 03:32, 26 July 2022 (UTC)Reply
Well. I'll be darn. Another bleeding heart with no historical background complaining about an encyclopedia article about the founding fathers. It's as if you people would of been the John Browns of that day.You never come to realize that maybe you, yes you, born in that Era, would of thought of slavery as a given. I can't stand people who act like that they would of been "different" then what the prevailing wisdom was in those centuries long past. Haha 173.246.195.66 (talk) 16:40, 18 January 2024 (UTC)Reply
Except for the fact that the article as it currently stands breathlessly tries to reassure the reader that Washington did in fact think the slave trade was worth denouncing on “moral grounds”; he just chose to do nothing about it or his own slaveholdings, apart from freeing one (1) of his 124 slaves.
I’ve gotta say, the writing in this article is particularly substandard for Wikipedia. In one paragraph, we are reassured Washington had a “strong work ethic” and “expected the same from…slaves” before being told 75 percent of his slaves were forced into hard labour, working 6 days a week, 12 hours a day – but don’t worry, because they were also allowed to hunt, trap and grow vegetables in their “free time”. We’re also told his slaves were allowed to “build their own community around marriage and family” before learning slaves were allocated according to business need and that this resulted in husbands being forced to live apart from their families.
This article is reaching in its attempt to justify a simple fact that should be put simply: George Washington inherited human beings as property, treated them pretty terribly, and did nothing to free them in his lifetime. 2405:6E00:1111:C700:247C:8282:D095:146D (talk) 12:38, 10 April 2024 (UTC)Reply
All of that is very clear in the lead. Washington could easily have sold his slaves at auction, but chose not to take that easy path away from slaveholding, because (1) they would have remained enslaved, (2) he wanted to guarantee their eventual freedom, and (3) he did not want to split up families. Anythingyouwant (talk) 21:27, 10 April 2024 (UTC)Reply
