Met Museum
George Washington at Mount Vernon plantation, illustrated by Nathaniel Currier in 1797.
As an African American growing up in Washington, D.C., I was never ambivalent about Founding Father George Washington. I never visited the Washington Monument in the nation’s capital, or Mount Vernon, the site of Washington’s African slave plantation in Virginia. I was aware of his slave-holding life early on, and, as the rapper Flava Flav might have barked, I did not believe the hype about his moral attributes.
John Garrison Marks’s new book, Thy Will Be Done: George Washington’s Legacy of Slavery and the Fight for American Memory, is all about the grandeur of Washington, who was deeply involved in this country’s original and greatest sin. Marks, a historian, public history researcher, and writer has delivered a book of compassion, courage, and meticulous detail. He does not attempt to settle scores or trash the country’s first President.
The truth is that Washington kept many African people in bondage throughout his lifetime. In his will, he left instructions to emancipate 123 of them after the death of his wife, Martha Washington, but that is only a small part of the story that Marks adeptly tells. The author also recounts the hopeful, yet difficult, aftermath of that request, as well as the ongoing public struggle over Washington’s legacy. I think this is a necessary reckoning.
“Although Washington’s will may have transformed the lives of hundreds of formerly enslaved people,” Marks writes, “for most Americans, Washington’s legacy and his ties to slavery were subjects with far larger consequences.”
The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date: April 7, 2026. The University of North Carolina Press, 304 pages.
Marks concludes that, because of his actions, “there’s no single way to understand Washington’s relationship to slavery,” because though he felt during his life that slavery should end, his developing disagreement with it ran “parallel to his active involvement in the institution.”
Marks dives deeply into these details, which is one of the book’s unique strengths, because it focuses on getting at the truth. He describes Washington’s actions of liberating the enslaved people he held as “remarkable,” but he also acknowledges that many believe the action was “too little, too late.” It suggests both failure and some level of personal growth.
Marks’s story resonates with readers because it describes how Washington’s actions are perceived and, ultimately, protected by a nation examining its most significant historical figure. This brings into question the teaching of U.S. history and its continuing failure to truly address the legacy of slavery and white supremacy.
Some members of the African American community in the United States positively viewed Washington’s decision to liberate his enslaved workers, including Bishop Richard Allen, the founder of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, who was born into slavery and eventually delivered a eulogy for Washington in 1799. Allen stated that, through his acts, Washington had demonstrated that he believed Black people “had a right to liberty,” and the President had wiped “off the only stain [for] which man could ever reproach him.”
Allen’s sermon was published and widely circulated at the time. Washington’s will was also published across the country, delivering a message that the nation’s seminal hero had objected to African enslavement. However, none of this goodwill had much effect on the institution of slavery itself. The average American did not view Washington as a slave holder, Marks writes, and most opinions of the man remained favorable.
The most impressive part of Marks’s book is his decision to consider the lives of those whom Washington emancipated. While Marks concedes that discovering the story of their lives after their emancipation was difficult, he pursued it nevertheless. Marks makes clear that the emancipated Africans “built lives for themselves in freedom marked by resilience, persistence, and in many cases, quiet success.”
Overall, Marks’s significant research and succinct narrative are unlikely to change perceptions of Washington as America’s “incomparable hero.” Still, the author has contributed something meaningful here that could be repeated with other critical historical figures in the founding of our nation.
Washington was a central participant in the evil of slavery, regardless of attempts to deny this history and avoid a reckoning. It would be better for this country to embrace the opportunity to deal with its darkest side once and for all.