George Washington tricked the law to keep his slaves — Pennsylvania’s Gradual Abolition Act of 1780 declared that any enslaved person residing in the state for six consecutive months was legally free. Washington, who lived in Philadelphia as president, knew the law and deliberately circumvented it by rotating his enslaved workers back to Virginia before the six-month threshold was reached. He did this repeatedly, systematically, and documented it in personal letters instructing his staff to execute the rotations quietly to avoid public attention.
The full documented scheme — what Pennsylvania’s abolition law actually said, how Washington identified the loophole, what his letters reveal about the deliberate timing and secrecy of the rotations, which enslaved people were moved and how often, what happened to Ona Judge who escaped and was pursued by Washington for years, and why the man celebrated as the Father of Freedom engineered a system specifically designed to prevent the people in his household from becoming free.
Key questions covered:
How did George Washington trick Pennsylvania law to keep his slaves?
What was the six-month rule in Pennsylvania’s Gradual Abolition Act of 1780?
What do Washington’s own letters say about rotating his enslaved workers?
Who was Ona Judge and why did Washington pursue her after she escaped?
Why is George Washington’s slave rotation scheme not taught in schools?
#GeorgeWashington #SlaveryLoophole #InHisOwnWords
