
Originally Posted by
a completely inoffensive name
I am saying this is why we should not judge people based on the time that they lived in but instead based on our own modern ideas. Otherwise we let too many people fall through the cracks. In his time George Washington was beloved by almost all. If we simply judge based on the standards of his own time, then yeah he was a great man for doing all the things he did including letting his slaves go which was unheard of at the time. However, this completely lets the key point go unasked which is "Why did he take so long to let his slaves go?". This is a question that stems from our own conceptions of slavery (AKA it is wrong an no one should ever have slaves for any amount of time period) whose answer may put Washington in a more unfavorable light but an overall more realistic one.
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