• PugJesus@piefed.socialM
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    14 days ago

    He rotated the slaves he and his wife had in Philadelphia, the temporary US capital during his presidency, out because it would have embroiled him in a broader legal issue of federalism when his top priority as the country’s first president was avoiding scandals which would damage the office, including that of the deeply contentious issue of slavery.

    You could argue that he should have freed all of his slaves immediately, and you wouldn’t be wrong, but that ends up no different than any other aspect of the question of Washington owning slaves to begin with.