Wow
Happy Presidents’ Day
Shit they leave out of the textbook #4838821
Actually there are records of Washington purchasing 9 teeth from African Americans for 122 shillings, but it’s not clear if he intended to use these teeth as implants or within a new set of dentures or whether he even used them at all. (Trust me, I looked for the slave teeth info, I did, but this is what I found instead)
Most of his dentures were actually made from bone, hippopotamus ivory, human teeth (including his own that he pulled before they rotted out too), brass screws, lead, and gold metal wire.
If you want to bring awareness about George Washington and slavery, that’s fine, but make sure you are using facts.
Like how he first became a slave owner at the early age of eleven.
Or that he frequently used harsh punishments against his slaves, like whippings and very hard labor. Frequently, as a severe punishment, he would sell a slave to a buyer in the West Indies, ensuring that they would never see their family or friends at Mount Vernon again (what a douche).
Or when he died he left in his will for his slaves to be freed, but the slaves given to him and Martha as a dowry couldn’t legally be freed (because in addition to slavery itself being fucked up, there was also a fucked up law that stated that the slaves given by dowry were to go back to Martha’s parent’s estate and be divided among the grandchildren because apparently no one could understand that people aren’t meant to be fucking property)
And that his wife Martha only set the rest of their slaves free after his death not because it was the right thing to do, but because “she did not feel as tho her Life was safe in their Hands, many of whom would be told that it was [in] their interest to get rid of her–She therefore was advised to set them all free at the close of the year.”
So yeah, even her setting them free was out of self interest… but yeah, land of the free and all that… or not.
