The museum we took our granddaughters to visit had a room displaying death jewelry: items made with hair of the deceased. I scanned the descriptive placards and explained each display to the girls. As we left one said, “the best part of the museum was that jewelry.” The museum visit had expanded her knowledge about jewelry.
Last year we visited George H. Bush’s presidential library. The last room briefly covered our nation’s history of different groups’ quest to be treated equally under the law. During Reconstruction our nation added the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution to end slavery and bestow full rights of citizenship on anyone born here. The display also pointed out that Native Americans had to go to court to validate their citizenship and right to vote. African Americans and Japanese Americans had their own days in court regarding their mistreatment as citizens. Unfortunately someone always tries to manipulate circumstances to justify the inequities.
An early manipulation demonstrates our nation’s greatest dichotomy. Thomas Jefferson, who wrote the Declaration of Independence, insisted the colonists had the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Yet, he denied those same rights to the 600 individuals he enslaved. As did our first president George Washington who enslaved over 100 persons. When Washington served his presidency, he took nine slaves to the capitol to serve while living in the President’s house in Philadelphia (the nation’s capitol before Washington D.C.)
In 2010 the citizens of Philadelphia built a pavilion called “The President’s House.” They included displays recognizing the nine people who also served there. A week before this year’s Black History Month, the National Park Service took down those displays. It was 50 years after President Gerald Ford declared February Black history month to honor the contributions and accomplishments of Black Americans. It was 100 years after Dr. Carter Woodson chose the second week of February as Black History Week.
The displays were removed because someone said it presented a negative image of the United States. Not that it was false information, but that it was an unpleasant historical fact. Folks in Philadelphia have begun to address that removal.
I had never heard about that particular display. However, thanks to stories about the removal, I have learned about the nine enslaved individuals who served President George Washington and his wife Martha.
During their time in the presidency, the Washingtons rotated their slaves in and out of Philadelphia every six months to avoid Pennsylvania’s Gradual Abolition Act. That law declared that if slaves stayed more than six months in Pennsylvania they were free. Six of the enslaved had only one name: Austin, Paris, Richmond, Giles, Moll and Joe. Three of the nine ran away. Christopher Sheels failed in his attempt. Two succeeded: Hercules, the chef, and Ona Judge, Martha Washington’s personal slave and dressmaker.
Recognized as an excellent cook, Hercules wanted freedom. Three years after his wife died, Hercules walked out of the house and permanently disappeared. It was George Washington’s birthday. Some think the Quakers helped him escape. He left behind three enslaved children ages 12 to 20 years old.
The ninth enslaved person, Ona Judge, 20, heard she would be given to a granddaughter as a wedding gift. She did not want to go. She made her own plans, served the evening meal, left the house and fled to New Hampshire. She married and had three children. Washington advertised a reward for his runaway slave. She avoided two attempts to return her to slavery. Judge did not live as prosperously as she would have as Martha’s personal slave, but she loved being free to choose.
This year, some fear how people might choose to respond to that information. So they removed the display to quash the possibility of others learning more about our history. I may never see the display. However, through research I broadened my knowledge about those nine individuals’ role in our nation’s history during this year’s Black History Month.