New exhibit revealed for President’s House Site

Civil rights lawyer Michael Coard called the new exhibit “maliciously outrageous.”

“If George Washington had some discomfort with slavery, what do you think those 316 black men, women and children at his Mount Vernon, Virginia plantation had? What do you think the nine held illegally in Philadelphia had?” he told WHYY News. “So to talk about George Washington’s discomfort is offensive and outrageous.”

Coard was similarly incensed by another panel describing the people enslaved at the house as having “a modicum of autonomy” and the ability to “explore the city and sometimes even attend the theater.”

“When you talk about a human being who has no control over his or her own body, everything about that individual legally belongs to somebody else who can buy and sell and trade you, beat you, whip you, rape you, murder you at a whim — and you’re talking about a ‘modicum of autonomy?’” he said.

In a statement sent to WHYY News, a Department of Interior spokesperson defended the renderings saying “this administration has been committed to celebrating and acknowledging the full breadth of our nation’s history.”

“The hard work and sacrifices of the men and women who built this nation deserve to be remembered and honored,” the statement said. “By telling the full story, every triumph, every challenge, and every step towards a more perfect union we strengthen our shared understanding and ensure that future generations inherit not just the land we love, but the truth of the journey that brought us here.”

The new renderings also go deeper into the old house’s history, explaining that the widow of Philadelphia mayor William Masters had the house built in 1767, and was later occupied by Pennsylvania Lt. Gov. Richard Penn, the grandson of William Penn.

“This site marks the home of colonial governors, a British general, traitors, and patriots alike, and it served as the executive mansion for the first two presidents of the United States,” the panel reads.

Text on another panel says that, as the executive mansion, the house received many dignitaries, including federal officials, foreign ambassadors and “many delegations from Native American Nations,” including Iroquois and Chickasaw leaders.

Like the earlier panels, the new replacements do include some information on the nine people enslaved by Washington, including Oney Judge, the personal maidservant and seamstress of Martha Washington, who the new exhibit notes “ran away from the President’s House and escaped to freedom in 1796.”

Whereas the old site made clear that Washington rotated his servants out of Philadelphia back to his Mt. Vernon estate in Virginia so they couldn’t claim freedom under Pennsylvania law, a new panel instead says he did so “in acknowledgement of a Pennsylvania law requiring slaves to be set free after six months in residence.”

Coard said he would not approve of any of the new displays.

None of it “is acceptable because you got to consider the source,” he said. “The source did this maliciously, so I accept nothing from it. Let the historians tell history.”