Slavery and the Complicated Legacy of George Washington
George Washington privately condemned slavery while actively holding hundreds of people in enslavement. He championed gradual emancipation plans while scheming to keep the people he enslaved from accessing them. He ruthlessly pursued a woman who escaped his enslavement and then emancipated the slaves he owned outright in his will. Washington’s complicated and contradictory legacy around slavery has been debated by Americans since his death. Joining us to discuss is Dr. John Garrison Marks, the Vice President of Research and Engagement at the American Association for State and Local History and author of Thy Will Be Done: George Washington's Legacy of Slavery and the Fight for American Memory.
Our theme song is “Frogs Legs Rag,” composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The episode music is “I think we’ve got another Washington,” composed by George Fairman and performed by the Peerless Quartet on October 32, 2015, in New York City; the recording is in the public domain and is available via the Library of Congress National Jukebox.The episode image is “Washington at Mount Vernon plantation, 1797,” lithographed and published by Nathaniel Currier in 1852; the image is in the public domain and is available via Wikimedia Commons.
Additional Sources:
- Never Caught: The Washingtons' Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge, by Erica Armstrong Dunbar, 37 Ink, 2015.
- “The Enslaved Household of President George Washington,” by Lindsay M. Chervinsky, White House Historical Association, September 6, 2019.
- “George Washington on the abolition of slavery, 1786,A Spotlight on a Primary Source by George Washington,”Gilder Lehrman Institute.
- “George Washington’s Last Will and Testament, 9 July 1799,” Founders Online, National Archives.
- “Forgotten No Longer: Archaeology of the Slave Memorial & African American Burial Ground at George Washington's Mount Vernon,” by Joe A. Downer, Archaeological Field Research Manager, George Washington's Mount Vernon.
- “People Enslaved at Monticello Who Gained Their Freedom,“ Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello.
- “Trump administration ordered to restore George Washington slavery exhibit it removed in Philadelphia,” by Hannah Schoenbaum, AP News, February 16, 2026.
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I am a historian, public history researcher, and writer. I help people better understand history and help historical organizations better serve the public.
My forthcoming book, Thy Will Be Done: George Washington’s Legacy of Slavery and the Fight for American Memory, explores how generations of Americans have remembered and forgotten George Washington’s involvement with slavery. For the better part of 250 years, Americans have viewed Washington’s entanglements with slavery through the lens of their particular cultural and political moments, selectively remembering Washington’s history as one of the nation’s most prolific enslavers and the architect of one of the its largest private emancipations. The book dives deep into this history, exploring how successive generations have grappled with slavery’s place in Washington’s legacy, offering a new historical foundation for today’s debates about slavery and the nation’s founding. The book will be published in April 2026 by University of North Carolina Press.
In my first book, Black Freedom in the Age of Slavery: Race, Status, and Identity in the Urban Americas (2020), I explored the lives of free people of color in in Charleston, South Carolina, and Cartagena de Indias, Colombia. My public history writing has appeared in the Washington Post, TIME, and Smithsonian Magazine, and elsewhere.
As a public history researcher, I investigate the state of the U.S. public history community and history’s role in American life. I serve as the Vice President of Research and Engagement at the American Association for St…Read More
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