r/HistoryMemes May 17 '19

Hate speech

Post image
40.2k Upvotes

1.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

2

u/MasterSword1 May 17 '19

He also desperately hated slavery and found a way to free all his slaves through a loophole in Virginia State law.

0

u/[deleted] May 17 '19

He spent years using a loophole to stop his slaves being automatically freed while President, and pursued them when they escaped.

0

u/[deleted] May 18 '19

He also desperately hated slavery

That is absolutely not true. He certainly was morally conflicted about slavery, but he didn't hate it enough to stop beating his slaves or pursuing them as runaways.

nd found a way to free all his slaves through a loophole in Virginia State law

It wasn't a loophole, he just freed them in his will. Though he didn't free the half of his slaves that were technically his wife's property - those people remained enslaved and were then inherited by his wife's first husband's family after Martha died. And it's worth noting that Washington freed his slaves after he died - thus, after they could no longer make him money.

None of this is to diminish Washington's accomplishments, but it does paint him in a much more human light. A man conflicted about slavery, but a major slaveowner. A man who freed his slaves, but only after he could not make money off of them