posted on the Park Service\u2019s website<\/a> but still await judicial approval to be hung, mark a vast improvement.<\/p>\nBut you\u2019d never know it from press accounts.<\/p>\n
Far from neglecting slavery, they present it with the complexity and nuance that those seeking to disparage America\u2019s history and heroes champion in speech, but eschew in practice.<\/p>\n
The new signs refer to slavery as \u201can odious and pernicious affront to the glorious rule of liberty proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence\u201d \u2014 which is how most of the Founders, including Washington, viewed it.<\/p>\n
The previous signs didn\u2019t even mention the Civil War on their \u201cSlavery Timeline.\u201d<\/p>\n
The new ones observe that it \u201ctook Lincoln and a bloody Civil War to finish the work that the Founders had begun and end slavery in the United States once and for all.\u201d<\/p>\n
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These signs highlight Harriet Tubman and the Underground Railroad, Frederick Douglass and his belief in the \u201csaving principles\u201d of the Declaration of Independence, and the 13th Amendment\u2019s abolition of slavery.<\/p>\n
Whereas the old signs described Washington\u2019s actions as \u201cdeplorable\u201d and \u201cprofoundly disturbing,\u201d and as having \u201cmocked the nation\u2019s pretense to be a beacon of liberty,\u201d the new ones offer balance and insights on Washington and slavery.<\/p>\n
They observe that he \u201coften expressed discomfort with the institution and a desire to see it abolished,\u201d yet \u201chis wealth and livelihood were deeply tied to it.\u201d<\/p>\n
They note that he \u201chelped draft the Fairfax Resolves at Mount Vernon,\u201d which called for putting (in the Resolves\u2019 words) \u201can entire Stop\u201d to the \u201cwicked\u201d slave trade.<\/p>\n
They highlight that he \u201csigned legislation that both upheld and limited slavery,\u201d including banning it in the Northwest Territory (the current Midwest).<\/p>\n
They note, \u201cAmong all of the Founders, Washington carried out the largest manumission of enslaved people,\u201d through his will.<\/p>\n
These new signs also observe, \u201cSlaves living in the President\u2019s House experienced a greater modicum of autonomy\u201d than one might presume \u2014 as they were at times \u201cable to explore the city and sometimes even attend the theater, with Washington buying the tickets.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n
They make clear that while slavery was egregiously at odds with the right to liberty, the lives and living conditions of slaves varied greatly.<\/p>\n
The new signs also provide information on the nine slaves who lived in the house and whose names remain carved into the site\u2019s walls.<\/p>\n
In addition, the replacement panels add a wealth of rich detail about the site itself, noting that British Gen. William Howe made the house his headquarters while Washington and his army suffered at Valley Forge; that Washington was owner Robert Morris\u2019 guest there throughout the Constitutional Convention; and that Benedict Arnold lived there in 1778 as the military commandant of Philadelphia, courting Loyalist Peggy Shippen.<\/p>\n
Such history wasn\u2019t previously presented.<\/p>\n
Oral arguments at the Third Circuit Court in Philadelphia\u2019s lawsuit are scheduled for June 2, one month before visitors flock to Independence Park for the July 4 anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.<\/p>\n
It matters how America\u2019s story is told.<\/p>\n
If the Trump administration gets the court\u2019s green light to hang these exemplary new signs, reclaiming the President\u2019s House Site for the American people will rank as a signature accomplishment during the Quarter-Millennial celebration of our independence.<\/p>\n
Jeffrey H. Anderson is president of\u00a0the American Main Street Initiative.\u00a0Adapted from RealClear Politics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the National Park Service removed signs that had made George Washington the most heavily criticized individual at…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":184843,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[4000,34,14416,94,1559,69,71,70,34251,82545],"class_list":["post-184842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-america-250","tag-donald-trump","tag-george-washington","tag-history","tag-opinion","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news","tag-slavery","tag-woke-culture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184842"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184842\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}