George Washington & Slavery George Research Paper

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He also ordered that the "Negros...are...to be taught to read and write; and to be brought up to some useful occupation..." And they are to be "comfortably clothed and fed by my heirs while they live..."

Washington also wrote in his will that he "...expressly forbid the Sale, or transportation out of the said Commonwealth, of any Slave I may die possessed of." He did order the immediate freedom of "my Mulatto man William...for his faithful services during the Revolutionary War."

Another article from the Papers of George Washington found in the University of Virginia digital materials indicates that while Washington managed his own plantations (when he was not at war or serving as president) "...and was well acquainted with the strengths and weaknesses of individual slaves. He was not impressed with them as a labor force," fretting in some of his correspondence about their "irresponsibility and indolence" (Twohig, 1994).

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That said, Washington didn't blame the African race for this "indolence," but rather he believed "their poor work habits to be a result of the system itself," author Twohig explained.

After the Revolutionary War, Washington wrote to John Francis Mercer (September 1786), and it is quoted in the University of Virginia's Papers of George Washington: "I never mean (unless some particular circumstance should compel me to it) to possess another slave by purchase; it being among my first wishes to see some plan adopted by the legislature, by which slavery in this Country may be abolished by slow, sure & imperceptible degrees."

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