{"id":64978,"date":"2026-08-09T13:12:26","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T17:12:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=64978"},"modified":"2026-08-09T13:12:26","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T17:12:26","slug":"getting-history-right","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=64978","title":{"rendered":"Getting History Right"},"content":{"rendered":"

On July 28, RealClearPolitics<\/a> posted an article about some new signs the National Park Service hung at the President\u2019s House Site in Independence Park, where George Washington lived as president while Philadelphia was the nation\u2019s capital.<\/p>\n

The article reports:<\/p>\n

The site\u2019s previous exhibit, opened during the Obama administration, was spurred by leftist activists like the Avenging the Ancestors Coalition.\u00a0As ATAC (pronounced<\/a> \u201cattack\u201d) said<\/a> in an amicus brief filed in federal court, it \u201cembedded\u201d itself in the site\u2019s \u201cdevelopment.\u201d\u00a0ATAC has sponsored<\/a> \u201cAnti-July Fourth Day\u201d events, while its founder, Michael Coard, says<\/a> that \u201cJuly Fourth is a celebration of \u2026 rapes, castrations, lynchings, and enslavement,\u201d and those who celebrate it are \u201ctraitors\u201d who \u201cembrace whiteness\u201d and \u201cthe 1776 birth of the racist American nation.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

…The new signs suffer under no such illusions. Instead, in the words<\/a> of Third Circuit Court Judge Thomas Hardiman, \u201cThese new panels are full of historical context.\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

But Americans should judge for themselves.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The old signs described<\/a> Washington\u2019s actions as \u201cdeplorable,\u201d \u201cprofoundly disturbing,\u201d and as having \u201cmocked the nation\u2019s pretense to be a beacon of liberty.\u201d\u00a0The new signs observe that Washington \u201coften expressed discomfort\u201d with slavery and \u201ca desire to see it abolished,\u201d yet \u201cas a Virginia plantation owner, his wealth and livelihood were deeply tied to it.\u201d\u00a0They note that he \u201csigned legislation that both upheld and limited slavery,\u201d including banning it in the Northwest Territory (the current Midwest).\u00a0They highlight that he \u201chelped draft the Fairfax Resolves at Mount Vernon,\u201d calling for putting \u201can entire Stop\u201d to the \u201cwicked\u201d slave trade.\u00a0They observe, \u201cAmong all of the Founders, Washington carried out the largest manumission of enslaved people\u201d through his will.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The old signs essentially ignored the Civil War\u2019s existence, even omitting it from a \u201cSlavery Timeline.\u201d As the new signs note, Abraham Lincoln said that most Americans, like the founders, viewed slavery as \u201ca vast moral evil.\u201d But it \u201ctook Lincoln and a bloody Civil War to finish the work that the Founders had begun and end slavery in the United States once and for all.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

The article concludes:<\/p>\n

No one can reasonably say that the new signs neglect slavery, or lack nuance.\u00a0For example, the signs note that slaves living there were at times \u201cable to explore the city and sometimes even attend the theater, with Washington buying the tickets.\u201d\u00a0ATAC\u2019s Coard finds<\/a> this claim particularly objectionable, yet it\u2019s true:\u00a0Washington biographer Ron Chernow writes in \u201cWashington: A Life\u201d that slaves at the house enjoyed \u201ca modicum of freedom to roam the city,\u201d citing financial records: \u201cHousehold accounts for June 1792 disclose expense money doled out for \u2018Austin, Hercules & Oney to go to the play.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

In truth, it is the woke left that eschews complexity in its telling of America\u2019s history.\u00a0By embracing nuance and accuracy at the President\u2019s House Site, the Trump administration has done the American public \u2013 and George Washington \u2013 a great service.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yes, slavery is part of America’s past as it was part of most nations at that time. Yes, slavery is wrong, and it would have been nice for the U.S. Constitution to have outlawed it, but that would have prevented the U.S. Constitution from ever becoming the law of the land. Our past is not perfect, but we need to work toward a more perfect future.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On July 28, RealClearPolitics posted an article about some new signs the National Park Service hung at the President\u2019s House Site in Independence Park, where George Washington lived as president while Philadelphia was the nation\u2019s capital. The article reports: The … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[19930,3841,407,19928,19929,879],"class_list":["post-64978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-avenging-the-ancestors-coalition-atac","tag-george-washington","tag-national-park-service","tag-philadelphia-pennsylvania","tag-presidents-house-site-in-independence-park","tag-realclearpolitics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=64978"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64979,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64978\/revisions\/64979"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=64978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=64978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=64978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}