Wikipedia talk:Featured article candidates/George Washington and slavery/archive1
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George Washington was a slaveowner and Founding Father who became uneasy with the institution of slavery but provided for the emancipation of his slaves only after his death. Most of his slaves worked on his Mount Vernon estate. They built their own community around marriage and family, and resisted the system by various means, from feigning illness to absconding. As a young planter, Washington demonstrated no qualms about slavery. His first doubts about the institution were economic, prompted when the transition from tobacco to grain crops in the 1760s left him with a costly surplus of slaves. After the American Revolution, he privately expressed support for the abolition of slavery by a gradual legislative process but never spoke publicly on the issue. In the mid-1790s, he considered plans to free his slaves, but his business remained dependent on slave labor. He stipulated in his will that his slaves were to be freed on the death of his wife. (Full article...)
977 characters, including spaces.
George Washington was a slaveowner who became uneasy with the institution of slavery and provided for the emancipation of his slaves after his death, the only Founding Father to do so. He was economically dependent on slave labor, and at his death in 1799 there were 317 slaves on his Mount Vernon estate. He provided them with basic food, clothing and accommodation comparable to general practice at the time, which was not always adequate, and with medical care. He expected them to work diligently from sunrise to sunset over the standard six-day working week of the time. Washington allocated slaves to farms without regard for their relationships, causing many husbands to live separately from their wives and children. Washington was constantly disappointed when they failed to meet his exacting standards. Politically, Washington was concerned that such a divisive issue as slavery should not threaten national unity, and he never spoke publicly about the institution. (Full article...)
Hi Factotem and congratulations. A draft blurb for this article is above. Thoughts, comments and edits from you or from anyone else interested are welcome. Gog the Mild (talk) 00:16, 30 April 2020 (UTC)
- Thanks Gog the Mild. I think it's better not to start with George Washington in bold, lest people think the article is about him and not him *and* slavery. I also wonder about the focus above on the slave condition, which accounts for around one third of the article, when a key theme is the evolution of Washington's attitudes to slavery and the contradictions between sentiment and action. I suggest the following is a better summary for the blurb:
George Washington was a slaveowner and Founding Father who became uneasy with the institution of slavery but provided for the emancipation of his slaves only after his death. Most of his slaves worked on his Mount Vernon estate. They built their own community around marriage and family, and resisted the system by various means, from feigning illness to absconding. As a young planter, Washington demonstrated no qualms about slavery. His first doubts about the institution were economic, prompted when the transition from tobacco to grain crops in the 1760s left him with a costly surplus of slaves. After the American Revolution, he privately expressed support for the abolition of slavery by a gradual legislative process but never spoke publicly on the issue. In the mid-1790s, he considered plans to free his slaves, but his business remained dependent on slave labor. He stipulated in his will that his slaves were to be freed on the death of his wife. (Full article...)
- 977 characters. Note that slavery is linked twice, the first time to slavery in colonial North America, the second to slavery after independence Factotem (talk) 10:49, 1 May 2020 (UTC)
- Factotem, that seems better to me. (I'll need to do a few checks once we finalise it, but they should be strictly behind the scenes issues.) Thanks. However, the first link has to be bold and has to give the exact title of the Featured Article (before the pipe, if any). Also, ERRORS people will intervene if the text (i.e., after the pipe) doesn't seem to them to accurately represent the topic of the article. Hence my "George Washington was a slaveowner".; perhaps all of that should have been in bold? Suggestions welcome. Gog the Mild (talk) 11:01, 1 May 2020 (UTC)
- If I might make a suggestion, why not start, "George Washington was a slaveowner and Founding Father who became uneasy...". This is exactly what Factotem wrote but with Washington's position as a slaveowner mentioned first. This allows it to be bolded and indicates that the article is about Washington as an owner of slaves.--Ykraps (talk) 12:22, 1 May 2020 (UTC)
- That's a mighty fine suggestion. Works for me. Factotem (talk) 12:35, 1 May 2020 (UTC)
- Excellent. How does it look now? Factotem's version, that is. Gog the Mild (talk) 13:30, 1 May 2020 (UTC)
- That's a mighty fine suggestion. Works for me. Factotem (talk) 12:35, 1 May 2020 (UTC)
- If I might make a suggestion, why not start, "George Washington was a slaveowner and Founding Father who became uneasy...". This is exactly what Factotem wrote but with Washington's position as a slaveowner mentioned first. This allows it to be bolded and indicates that the article is about Washington as an owner of slaves.--Ykraps (talk) 12:22, 1 May 2020 (UTC)
