this post was submitted on 13 Aug 2024
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Forcing them to argue that washington had slaves is a step in the right direction. It is a crack in their jingoistic myth of the founding fathers. Theyre being forced to learn a bit of history thats been intentionally hidden. Next question; If most the founding fathers owned slaves, whats that mean? Whats that say about america? So slavery was an institution and treated as the norm?
Its messy but this is progress
And then you find out that not only was Saint George a slaver, but he did things like having teeth yanked out of his slaves' mouths to construct false teeth for his own.
He was genuinely not a good dude.
Hmm, it sounds like he actually bought them.
This somehow makes it weirder.
Washington was the wealthiest man in the colonies by 1776. Sort of the Jeff Bezos of tobacco.
Would you let Jeff Bezos pull out nine of your teeth if he offered to paid you $1200?
It also means we can, as a country, chose to be better. These asshats are not choosing to be better. There is a moral and ethical onus to improve ourselves as a nation and as individuals. They're failing that.