Echoes of slavery at Liberty Bell site

Philadelphia Inquirer ^ | March 24 2002 | Stephan Salisbury and Inga Saffron

[Fintan]

Historians say George Washington kept slaves there.

They've asked to have the site studied, but the Park Service says no.

In a year, when visitors enter the new $9 million pavilion to view the Liberty Bell, they will tread directly over ground where George Washington's slaves toiled, slept, suffered and plotted escape during the eight years of his presidency.

When the pavilion was designed, no one knew the exact location of the old President's House, where Washington and successor John Adams lived from 1790 until 1800.

And no one apparently considered the possibility that the pavilion would be on the soil where Washington kept his human property.

Now that soil is yielding caustic debate.

New historic research shows the presence of slaves at the heart of one of the nation's most potent symbols of freedom.

The National Park Service says the Liberty Bell is its own story, and Washington's slaves are a different one better told elsewhere.

But some historians insist slavery is an integral part of this piece of ground.

They are irate that the Park Service has refused to halt construction and excavate the site, to hunt for artifacts that would give a more complete picture of the nation's birth and slavery's role in it.

Mayor Street has joined those critics.

"This is brand-new information to the city," Street spokesman Frank Keel said Friday, referring to the relation of the new bell site to slave quarters.

"We think the issue is too important and too sensitive to ignore," he said. "The city is not about to let this slide by."

Street wants "to begin a very earnest dialogue with the Park Service" about how to address the issue of slavery on Independence Mall, Keel said.

Park Service officials could not be reached late Friday for comment on Street's views. They said in earlier interviews that the Park Service was not distorting the nation's past.

"I wouldn't paint the Park Service as doing anything bad with history," said Phil Sheridan, a Park Service spokesman. "Obviously we knew there was slavery. Obviously we know there were Africans living there. We are following what the vast majority of people wanted on that block - interpretation of the Liberty Bell."

In a less-racially charged debate, other critics are raising another issue about the pavilion. They complain that the Park Service's plans do not adequately commemorate the fact that the pavilion will be built on the site of Philadelphia's presidential residence.

The entire debate was set in motion by the painstaking archival research of local historian Edward Lawler Jr. Lawler - for the first time - has mapped the location of the house.

Moreover, he produced a floor plan showing the slave quarters built on Washington's instructions - quarters that were at what will be the entrance to the new pavilion.

Historians such as Gary Nash of the University of California at Los Angeles and Randall Miller of St. Joseph's University suggest that the Park Service is literally burying an unpleasant past by not allowing an archaeological dig of the area.

In the absence of that, they say, the Park Service should at least mount an exhibition telling the complete - and messy - story of the site.

Park Service officials, however, say their mission is to showcase the Liberty Bell.

Beyond that, they say, federal policy bars excavation unless a site is threatened with destruction, which is not the case with the slave quarters.

Privately, some park officials say that as construction on the pavilion has begun at Sixth and Market Streets - after innumerable public meetings to discuss the design and focus of the renovated mall - it is too late to turn back. The design will not be altered; the site will not be excavated.

When the new pavilion site was selected and the building design was approved several years ago - all part of a major overhaul of the Independence Mall area - the precise location of the President's House and its utility buildings was not known.

In a lengthy discussion of the President's House in the January 2002 issue of the Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Lawler, an independent historian, demonstrated that Washington's slaves were housed in the stable area at the back of the house.

That area is within a few feet of what will be the new location of the bell, which at the time of the American Revolution hung in Independence Hall.

The bell is now most commonly seen as a symbol of the Revolution, but it became famous only after abolitionists fighting to rid the nation of slavery adopted it as a symbol of their cause.

In the 1840s, opponents of human bondage used the inscription incised on the bell as a rallying cry: "Proclaim Liberty throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants thereof."

It is that juxtaposition of slave site and bell, Lawler wrote, that "will echo as one approaches the new building on Independence Mall."

But will it echo if few are aware of the archaeological and historical facts?

Miller, who teaches American history, points out that the Park Service rangers remind visitors of how the bell was embraced by the abolitionist movement.

Now, Miller says, the Park Service seems to be turning its back on its own telling of the history of its greatest icon - all in the interest of "getting a building up."

"While this is one of the most important historical sites not only for African Americans but for the nation, they are simply moving ahead in a rush to finish the project," Miller said.

"Here is an opportunity to tell the real story of the American Revolution and the meaning of freedom. Americans, through Washington, were working out the definition of freedom in a new republic. And Washington had slaves.

"Meanwhile, the slaves were defining freedom for themselves by running away. There are endless contradictions embedded in this site."

He and several other historians believe the Park Service should stop construction and perform an extensive archaeological exploration, which could yield important information about Washington as a slave owner and the President's House, where Washington and then John Adams (who adamantly opposed slavery) lived until the White House, known as the Executive Mansion, opened in Washington in 1800.

UCLA's Nash, a professor of American history and a scholar of the American Revolution and Philadelphia history, believes the Park Service was remiss in not excavating "one of the richest sites in Philadelphia."

"My argument is that the National Park Service is burying history," he said. "Our memory of the past is often managed and manipulated. Here it is being downright buried."

Nash noted that the Park Service oversaw preliminary archaeological work in the area and uncovered a pit used to store ice for the President's House. They also discovered what is known as a "shaft feature," a deep columnar hole that could have been a well or a privy.

If it is a privy, Nash says, it could yield invaluable information about the daily lives of Washington's slaves - how they lived, what they ate, and what they discarded.

But the Park Service covered up the ice pit and shaft, "preserving them in place," as a park official said.

Jed Levin, the Park Service archaeologist who has overseen all excavations on the three blocks of Independence Mall, said the shaft was excavated to four feet and yielded only modern construction debris. He said it was covered over and preserved.

Privy notwithstanding, spokesman Sheridan said that the first block of the mall is "about the Liberty Bell" and not about the President's House or Washington's slaves.

"You have to think in terms of, are we to dig up everything no matter what?" Sheridan said. "We don't deny knowledge is good. But it has been our practice to preserve in place."

Nash calls the presence of slave quarters beneath the new home of the Liberty Bell a "delicious irony."

Washington brought eight of his dozens of slaves to Philadelphia from Mount Vernon, including his cook, Hercules, and Martha Washington's personal servant, Oney Judge.

Both slaves ran away after tasting freedom in Philadelphia; slavery was illegal in Pennsylvania, but out-of-staters could bring their property with them.

"Washington couldn't understand it," Nash said, referring to his slaves' escape.

That kind of history must also be aired, according to Nash.

"Maybe the National Park Service feels it would besmirch the Liberty Bell to discuss this, and that the Liberty Bell should be pure. But that's not history. . . . People deserve to know."

Sheridan said there would be some kind of display within the bell pavilion that explores the site's history. But he said the content of that display and whether it would address slavery had not been determined.

As for the complaints that the house overall will not be properly commemorated, Park Service officials said a placard will note the President's House. Critics have urged outlining the perimeter of where the house stood.

"But how democratic is it to pick out one property and give it such treatment?" asked David Hollenberg, a Park Service architect.

 

[Fintan]

...and so it begins.

[End Times Sentinel]

"We think the issue is too important and too sensitive to ignore," he said. "The city is not about to let this slide by." …Street wants "to begin a very earnest dialogue with the Park Service"

John Street at his finest. I’ve never understood why our City Charter stipulates that the village idiot would be the Mayor, but there you have it.

Don’t let historical context get in the way of feeling umbrage. I’m glad that we’re viewing things in a logical perspective as well. I mean, what’s really important, the history of the United States, it’s principles or the sacrifices made by The Patriots who established this country, or the fact that there were slaves there?

Perhaps the NAACP can organize a protest against George Washington all together. Yes, perhaps we can re-write the history books to have Kwazie Mufumbly-wumbly named our first President. Just so long as everyone feels good about themselves, or if not everyone, at least “oppressed minorities”.

Owl _ Eagle
“Guns before butter.”

[Fintan]

Yes, perhaps we can re-write the history books to have Kwazie Mufumbly-wumbly named our first President.

I think the whole idea is to corrupt children's minds into believing U.S. history started in 1992.

For example, using their mindset (and I use that term loosely), we're now in the Dark Ages between Clintons.

[Puppage]

Gee, last time I looked at the Wshington /Adams moment in time, slavery (no matter how vile an ideal) WAS LEGAL!!!!

[CaptRon]

I'm finding it more and more infuriating that there is a move afoot to make the existence of slavery the defining issue in the creation of America. It was not, and the fact that some of the Founding Fathers practiced it, while unfortunate, does not diminish the fact that it was because of them we ALL live in the most free country in the history of the world.

[INSENSITIVE GUY]

Slavery never happened!The people who were here had their freedom bought and were transferred here at great expense.I think it was only right for them to work off the debt.

[Harrison Bergeron]

Washington's birthday

The holiday we have just celebrated, now called "President's Day," was within living memory called "George Washington's Birthday." It is our loss that we no longer have any sense of this great man, who had more than anyone else to do with our being a free people today.

Part of the reason is this generation's sheer ignorance of history. Worse, it is also due to misconceptions of the world borne of that ignorance.

For many of the politically correct today, it is enough to dismiss George Washington because he was a dead white male -- as if he had anything to do with any of that. Others condemn him because he owned slaves. But the slaves were here before George Washington was born and there was nothing he could do about slavery, even when he was president. The most he could do was advocate the abolition of slavery in general and free the particular slaves he had inherited -- and he ended up doing both.

George Washington was generations ahead of his time on this issue in the Western world, and centuries ahead of his time as far as non-Western civilizations were concerned. People grossly ignorant of history -- and that includes graduates of our leading colleges and universities -- have no idea that slavery was not even a controversial issue before the 18th century, and only in Western societies beginning then. Everywhere else in the world, it was as widely accepted as it was widely practiced -- and it had been for thousands of years.

It was not slavery that was unique, it was freedom that was new and rare. George Washington was the key figure in the creation of the first major modern nation with an elected government, which was to become a model for the creation of other such governments in the centuries to come. Even now, however, free nations remain the exception, rather than the rule.

Governments with autocratic rulers were so prevalent in George Washington's day that it was assumed by many that he would become king after the American revolution succeeded. However, he said that he had not fought against George III in order to become George I. He not only threw his weight behind the creation of a constitutional republic, he set the precedent of voluntarily leaving the presidency after two terms, in order to forestall a tradition of one-man rule that has ruined so many other countries, even those with republican governments.

There have been many insurrections and revolutions in history, but the American revolution was one of the few that did not end in tyranny, like the French, Russian and Chinese revolutions, for example. George Washington was a big part of the reason why American freedom not only persisted but spread, both internally and internationally.

As late as Abraham Lincoln's time, the United States was still an experiment. As Lincoln said in his Gettysburg Address, the terrible war then going on -- the bloodiest ever fought in the Western Hemisphere -- was testing whether government of the people would perish from the earth.

We cannot take for granted the hard-won blessings of this country -- created by the wisdom and character of people like George Washington, as well as the blood and deaths of the patriots who supported them -- and then also demand that their words and deeds mirror our notions today, in a time with much easier choices.

No one called the United States a superpower in George Washington's time. The big question was whether it could survive at all, in a world of bigger and more powerful nations, all on the lookout for more prey for their empires.

Putting the country together and keeping it together was the key to whatever chance it had for survival. To act as if the Constitution of the United States could have been written as if it were an exercise in abstract principles, discussed around a seminar table, is to betray both ignorance and moral hubris.

We should never forget that British troops marched through the capital of the United States in the early 19th century and set fire to the White House. But of course millions of Americans cannot forget that because they were never taught it in the first place. What they have been taught is silly political correctness about dead white males. When you lose your national memory, you risk losing what you need for understanding your own time -- and you risk losing the future as well as the past.

Received via e-mail - Author unknown.

[Tired]

I have never read that before but it sums up perfectly how I feel and more eloquently than I could ever say. Thanks for posting it.

[arthurus]

No piece of ground that ever saw slavery should have any structure on it nor should it be ever used productively. It is hallowed ground! Humans should not be allowed on any ground that ever felt the foot of a slave except for scholarly study by suitably left thinking academics .

[rebdov]

When does the US start becoming Yugoslavia? Will there be race wars?

[Pharmboy]

In a year, when visitors enter the new $9 million pavilion to view the Liberty Bell, they will tread directly over ground where George Washington's slaves toiled, slept, suffered and plotted escape during the eight years of his presidency.

This is very sloppy historical writing by the Inquirer. The General was inaugurated in New York City on April 30, 1789 and served in this city--the first national capital--until August of 1790. So, the General did not serve in Philadelphia 8 years as president.

The General grew to hate slavery,and predicted a North/South War over it (one of the numerous things he was right about).

One year before his death, he told the actor John Bernard: "I can clearly foresee that nothing but the rooting out of slavery can perpetuate the existence of our union, by consolidating it in a common bond of principle." (See page 485, Flexner IV, George Washington.

Further, the General freed many slaves during his lifetime, often using the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to do it (he did not, as a representative of Virginia and a national figure want to be seen as a divisive personality). The laws in PA at the time allowed freedom to slaves if they stayed there for more than two weeks.

And, as is well known he freed all his slaves when he died; early in his life, he forbade slave families from being broken up by selling families apart (a common practice).

Again, from Flexner: "None of the three other Presidents of "the Virginia Dynasty," not Jefferson or MAdison or Monroe, followed Washington into freeing more than a few especially privileged slaves."

And remember folks: slavery was legal then. As a matter of fact, it was legal in New York as late as 1827.

[Pharmboy]

One more thing: the writers should visit Mount Vernon--it's not that far from Philly. There they can walk through the slave quarters all day long. There has never been any attempt to hide the truth about the General's slave holdings. But truth is unknown to leftists, as is historical context and accuracy.

[Pharmboy]

This country was founded upon the character of George Washington; without that, sir, we would all be Canadians today.

[VOA]

However, he said that he had not fought against George III in order to become George I.

IIRC, George III, upon hearing that Geo. Washington was stepping down from the
Presidency, said that Washington was either the greatest man alive or the craziest.

What an under-rated President and human being.

[wingnuts'nbolts]

So what! It was legal and accepted, wrongly, but history can't be judged or changed from 2002. George Had a Plantation where he openly kept slaves. No need to investigate!

[End Times Sentinel]

No piece of ground that ever saw slavery should have any structure on it nor should it be ever used productively. It is hallowed ground! Humans should not be allowed on any ground that ever felt the foot of a slave except for scholarly study by suitably left thinking academics .

LOL! That should fit nicely into my leftist costitution!.

Owl _ Eagle
“Guns before butter.”

[T. P. Pole]

You know, it is crap like this that is putting our country in the shape it is in. I'm almost of the mind to tell them to do the digging they want, if only to prevent the stupid protests that would accompany the site if not done.

Where were these idiots when they were knocking down the underground railroad site that was in the way of Clinton's library?

[Irene Adler]

"I'm finding it more and more infuriating that there is a move afoot to make the existence of slavery the defining issue in the creation of America."

And it's just gettin' started, believe me. The Declaration of Independency has no value; the Constitution has no value. There's no reason to adhere to either, because there were some slaveholders involved in their creation. Democrary, the republican form of government, honesty, decency, hard work, fact-based truth: all those are just creations of evil Western slaveholding white people. The U.S. will to be turned into a banana republic, third world country if at all possible with "people of color" (the silly phrase gags me) ascendent over evil honkys who will be forced to pay reparations. How do Zimbabwe and South Africa look to you? Get ready. There are those who absolutely can't wait to bring them right to your doorstep.

[Ole Okie]

When does the US start becoming Yugoslavia? Will there be race wars?

America balkanized? Naw.

Well, on second thought........