"America loves its heroes. The nation has made lions of the men who signed a document 250 years ago to declare independence from the English crown; it's made saints of the 55 men who gathered in a sweaty room in Philadelphia to draft its Constitution. Time elevates those people and their deeds to the heights of deities, and American gods must be faultless. But those heroes are not gods; they were, indeed, men-fallible as all others."
"In the same city where the Founders wrote the words that have guided the nation for more than two centuries, George Washington-the most esteemed of them-made a home as America's first president. He brought men and women he had enslaved with him, and rotated them between Philadelphia and Mount Vernon, in Virginia, so that they would not earn their liberty under Pennsylvania law. He shuffled them back and forth so that they would remain his property."
Americans often elevate the Founders and early leaders into faultless heroes while overlooking their human failings. George Washington, as president, brought enslaved men and women to Philadelphia and rotated them between the city and Mount Vernon to prevent their gaining freedom under Pennsylvania law, ensuring they remained his property. For 16 years an exhibit at Washington's Philadelphia home presented that history near the Liberty Bell. In late January federal workers removed the exhibit's placards after a March 2025 executive order directed monuments to emphasize national greatness and progress. Observing Black History Month can feel radical in the face of such erasure.
Read at The Atlantic
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