I was going to publish as my next Podcast, “Genders in America”. Unfortunately it requires a major rewrite so I am now doing long show on “Slaves and the Founding Fathers”. Featuring Presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. The script is 4338 words in length, and takes 16 pages to print it out. It will take a little while for me to edit and learn the script. Most of my podcasts are just about half that length. I feel that it is extremely important to share what I discovered when I did the research for this project. Facts that surprised me and some new information on both Washington and Jefferson’s treatment of their slaves. Plus the number that they owned and what happened following their deaths. Each was different treatment following their deaths.
Washington was a young child when he became a slave owner, upon the death of his father at age 11, he was given 10 slaves, plus the family 280 acre farm. Jefferson was given about a 175 slaves through inheritances, from his Father and Father-in-law. Both Presidents bought and sold slaves, and profited from owning humans. Both of them attempted to keep the violence down on their properties however, both failed.
I believe that both men did not do enough to end slavery during the early years of America, yes it would have caused a fight with the Southern States and in fact it did during the Constitutional Convention, and ended in a very bad comprise for both sides, and slaves. However, I still think that they could have done more as Presidents.
Here are the links that lead the sources I used. George Washington: https://www.mountvernon.org/.
Thomas Jefferson: https://www.monticello.org/slavery/slavery-faqs/property/
I will let everyone know when I publish “Slaves and the Founding Fathers” as a podcast
