Forgive me for simply throwing out, for you to read (and I hope you do) another large section of newspaper material but I think this is pretty important stuff. Its from a Washington Post Book World review by John Ferling of Henry Wienceks An Imperfect God. The full review is at http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A38737-2003Nov13.html
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Washington was born into a world in which African slavery was an inescapable fact of life. He inherited 10 slaves while still an adolescent, and by the War of Independence he possessed legal title to more than 100 bondsmen. Thereafter, he refused to purchase slaves. He had no need to, as by then he had largely converted from producing tobacco to wheat, which required less labor. Nevertheless, his slave population continued to grow dramatically by natural increase. When he made the final census of his properties in 1799, the year of his death, he owned 317 slaves.
According to Wiencek, Washington was neither an especially enlightened nor benevolent slaveowner. While he lived opulently, repeatedly enlarging Mount Vernon and steadily acquiring the very best material possessions available in England and America, his slaves were poorly clothed and housed in substandard quarters. A businessman seeking a profit, Washington worked his slaves hard. They started for the fields before dawn and did not lay down their tools until after sunset. In between, he kept an eye on his human chattels' pace of work, managing their labor and productivity as scientifically as industrial efficiency experts would manage factory workers a century later.
A man of discipline and order who abhorred waste, Washington ordered floggings for the insubordinate and sold some slaves who were utterly recalcitrant to the West Indies, an action tantamount to a death sentence. He did not hesitate to divide families in order to obtain an adequate labor force for each of the five farms that composed Mount Vernon. The result was that wives in three-fifths of the slave families at Mount Vernon did not live with their husbands.
Washington's crass materialism at times knocked askew his moral compass. In 1769 he and other creditors organized a raffle of slaves to liquidate the property of a debtor, a procedure that randomly sundered families and sowed untold misery. Washington, with a vengeance, went after those slaves who fled his control. His pursuit of Ona Judge, who escaped to Maine in 1796, is an ugly story of cunning and deceit on Washington's part, as he sought to return to servitude this young woman who had married and borne a child during her years of freedom.
When he assumed command of the Continental army in 1775, Washington was mortified by the sight of African-American soldiers bearing arms. He unsuccessfully sought their immediate dismissal. In the final desperate years of the war, with victory far from certain and troops in short supply, he refused to throw his weight behind a plan to have South Carolina raise black troops, including slaves. Washington, Wiencek implies, preferred risking the failure of the American Revolution rather than taking a step that might put slavery on the road to extinction.
Wiencek wants to see good in Washington, and good can be found. In time, Washington came around to the idea of recruiting Northern blacks, including slaves, and used his influence to make it a reality. He ultimately acknowledged that black soldiers were among the best that he commanded, and during the decisive siege at Yorktown he turned to the First Rhode Island Regiment, three-fourths of whose soldiers were blacks, for a crucial attack.
Furthermore, Washington ultimately liberated his slaves, altering his will in 1799 to decree that they were to be emancipated following his and Martha's deaths, and to provide for the education of the younger slaves. Wiencek believes that Washington experienced an epiphany around 1789, coming to see slavery as a poor economic system and a moral nightmare that tainted everyone, and everything, it touched.
Wiencek is unclear on what precisely provoked the change in Washington's thinking. He may have been transformed by observing the courage and resolve of black soldiers after 1775 or perhaps by the Revolutionary ideology of freedom. Discussions with his bright young aides-de-camp, especially Alexander Hamilton, a whiz on economic theory and a foe of slavery, could only have helped along his growing disenchantment with slavery. Washington's ultimate place in history was never far from his thoughts. Furthermore, he had no children to whom he could bequeath his property.
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I rented a couple of movies, The Stepford Wives and Shadow of a Doubt, and just watched the latter. It's a Hitchcock film; I haven't seen that many of his films (well, only about 8) and I have to say I found the ending pretty shocking. It was really good. I also really liked Strangers on a Train but (I guess I'm in the minority) I thought Vertigo was really dumb, for reasons I can't get into without spoilers... suffice it to say-- I thought it was implausible.
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Washington was born into a world in which African slavery was an inescapable fact of life. He inherited 10 slaves while still an adolescent, and by the War of Independence he possessed legal title to more than 100 bondsmen. Thereafter, he refused to purchase slaves. He had no need to, as by then he had largely converted from producing tobacco to wheat, which required less labor. Nevertheless, his slave population continued to grow dramatically by natural increase. When he made the final census of his properties in 1799, the year of his death, he owned 317 slaves.
According to Wiencek, Washington was neither an especially enlightened nor benevolent slaveowner. While he lived opulently, repeatedly enlarging Mount Vernon and steadily acquiring the very best material possessions available in England and America, his slaves were poorly clothed and housed in substandard quarters. A businessman seeking a profit, Washington worked his slaves hard. They started for the fields before dawn and did not lay down their tools until after sunset. In between, he kept an eye on his human chattels' pace of work, managing their labor and productivity as scientifically as industrial efficiency experts would manage factory workers a century later.
A man of discipline and order who abhorred waste, Washington ordered floggings for the insubordinate and sold some slaves who were utterly recalcitrant to the West Indies, an action tantamount to a death sentence. He did not hesitate to divide families in order to obtain an adequate labor force for each of the five farms that composed Mount Vernon. The result was that wives in three-fifths of the slave families at Mount Vernon did not live with their husbands.
Washington's crass materialism at times knocked askew his moral compass. In 1769 he and other creditors organized a raffle of slaves to liquidate the property of a debtor, a procedure that randomly sundered families and sowed untold misery. Washington, with a vengeance, went after those slaves who fled his control. His pursuit of Ona Judge, who escaped to Maine in 1796, is an ugly story of cunning and deceit on Washington's part, as he sought to return to servitude this young woman who had married and borne a child during her years of freedom.
When he assumed command of the Continental army in 1775, Washington was mortified by the sight of African-American soldiers bearing arms. He unsuccessfully sought their immediate dismissal. In the final desperate years of the war, with victory far from certain and troops in short supply, he refused to throw his weight behind a plan to have South Carolina raise black troops, including slaves. Washington, Wiencek implies, preferred risking the failure of the American Revolution rather than taking a step that might put slavery on the road to extinction.
Wiencek wants to see good in Washington, and good can be found. In time, Washington came around to the idea of recruiting Northern blacks, including slaves, and used his influence to make it a reality. He ultimately acknowledged that black soldiers were among the best that he commanded, and during the decisive siege at Yorktown he turned to the First Rhode Island Regiment, three-fourths of whose soldiers were blacks, for a crucial attack.
Furthermore, Washington ultimately liberated his slaves, altering his will in 1799 to decree that they were to be emancipated following his and Martha's deaths, and to provide for the education of the younger slaves. Wiencek believes that Washington experienced an epiphany around 1789, coming to see slavery as a poor economic system and a moral nightmare that tainted everyone, and everything, it touched.
Wiencek is unclear on what precisely provoked the change in Washington's thinking. He may have been transformed by observing the courage and resolve of black soldiers after 1775 or perhaps by the Revolutionary ideology of freedom. Discussions with his bright young aides-de-camp, especially Alexander Hamilton, a whiz on economic theory and a foe of slavery, could only have helped along his growing disenchantment with slavery. Washington's ultimate place in history was never far from his thoughts. Furthermore, he had no children to whom he could bequeath his property.
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
I rented a couple of movies, The Stepford Wives and Shadow of a Doubt, and just watched the latter. It's a Hitchcock film; I haven't seen that many of his films (well, only about 8) and I have to say I found the ending pretty shocking. It was really good. I also really liked Strangers on a Train but (I guess I'm in the minority) I thought Vertigo was really dumb, for reasons I can't get into without spoilers... suffice it to say-- I thought it was implausible.
VIEW 5 of 5 COMMENTS
Grease is one of those films that i remember from my early childhood and has never gone away. I'm just sick to death of it. And people doing 'Greased Lightning' at karaoke makes me wanna injure myself.