What Happened, and What Did Not, at the President’s House on Independence Mall

ABSTRACT Briefly summarizing the history of George and Martha Washington holding enslaved people in the capital of the “new nation, conceived in liberty,” the article explores the long public and scholarly struggle to bring this story to the public on the original site of the President’s House in Philadelphia. Examining the coalition of activists involved, the author narrates official resistance to interpreting slavery at the site and offers published sources for probing the ten-year effort in detail. The article looks at the meanings and impacts of bringing Washington as an enslaver into the light, comments on what was lost in the flurry of compromises among multiple stakeholders during the exhausting effort, and reflects on the deep threats posed by current federal censorship of this and other histories.