Though Morri News Today

Florida officials want public school educators to misleadingly emphasize Washington’s efforts to abolish slavery.

Despite the existence of voluminous public records that reveal Washington’s treatment of Morris and other human property he owned, Florida officials want public school educators to instead emphasize Washington’s efforts to abolish slavery.

In this 1853 painting, George Washington stands among Black field workers. Buyenlarge/Getty ImagesIf there was anyone who knew the rewards of slavery, it was George Washington. Over a period of about 50 years, the nation’s first president enslaved about 577 Black Americans, starting when he was 11 years old. One of them was a Black man named Morris who was skilled in carpentry and became an overseer of other enslaved men and women working on a farm at Washington’s Mount Vernon esta...

George Washington’s efforts to free Black people pale in comparison to how he fought to keep Black people enslaved.

Florida’s new standards for teaching social studies include throwbacks to an interpretation of slavery as benign or inconsequential.