Enslaved Africans of George Washington Depicted as 'Happy and Joyful' in New Children's Book -...
Facepalm. People, it's 2016. Making a children's book about happy and joyful slaves is never a good idea. A better story would have been the true story: "Hercules was not in fact a “happy or joyful” enslaved person, he actually escaped to freedom on February 22, 1797 – Washington’s 65th birthday – which the president celebrated in Philadelphia. According to a diary entry of Louis-Philippe, the future king of the French: The general’s cook ran away, being now in Philadelphia, and left a little daughter of six at Mount Vernon. Beaudoin ventured that the little girl must be deeply upset that she would never see her father again; she answered, “Oh! Sir, I am very glad, because he is free now." The founding fathers were complex. They strove for their freedom while many kept slaves. They did much that was admirable, but they were not perfect.
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