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Originally Posted by citizen
Probalbly not something to be proud of. Its sounds like something that would give a Nazi ideas.
Even if the dentist tried to make it work - it didnt. But I guess it was worth a try since he had some folks he could use their bodies for whatever purpose would suit him. So when that didnt work, they ended up using wood.
It just doesnt sound christian like.
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I'm not persuaded that Washington thought of his slave's as "something he could use their bodies for whatever purpose would suit him." The leap you make here sounds rather hateful. You attribute things to Washington that the evidence doesn't warrant. Why do you hate the guy?
By freeing his slaves he obviously considered them with some moral considerations. He spent the entire day and evening before he died outside in the snow and freezing rain working side by side with some of them, at 67 years of age.
If they were merely chattel in his mind I doubt he would have been on his hands and knees in the freezing mud pushing on a stuck carriage wheel so that everyone could hurry up and get inside.
Washington came into most of his slaves, certainly all of those he owned at the time of his retirement from public office, through his marriage to the wealthy widow Martha Dandridge Custis.
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"Following the 1757 death of Martha's first husband, the widow received a "dower share", the lifetime use of (and income from) one third of his estate, with the other two-thirds held in trust for their minor children. The full Custis Estate contained plantations and farms totaling about 27 square miles (70 km2), and 285 enslaved men, women, and children attached to those holdings. In 1759, Martha's dower share included at least 75 slaves.
Upon his 1759 marriage to Martha, George Washington became the legal manager of the Custis Estate, under court oversight. In actuality, estate records indicate that Martha Washington continued to purchase supplies, manage paid staff, and make many other decisions. Although the Washingtons wielded managerial control over the whole estate, they received income only from Martha's "dower" third."
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha_...lave_ownership