Ron Chernow - Washington: A Life (6)

And finally, what I learned from reading this book is reinforcement of the centrality of George Washington to the founding of this country. Without him there truly would not have been a United States at least at the time and in the way it all came about. No country and no Constitution like we are lucky to have now. Yet I learned for the first time from this great biography that like so many of the other founders, GW professed to be theoretically against slavery, and he kept his slaves and did not free them until after Marth died. He had slaves with him in Philadelphia at the Constitutional Convention and he had them when he served 8 years as our first President. He hunted down his slaves that ran away. I did not know before reading this book how inbred W's life was with slavery. Slave labor built our nations capitol. This country has yet to fully come to grips with the fact that this country was built on slavery.