Landmark Lecture: GW, Slavery, and America's Historical Memory

For nearly the entirety of our history, Americans have been arguing about George Washington and slavery. Drawing on research from his latest book, historian John Garrison Marks will explore how generations of Americans have remembered, forgotten, manipulated and wielded Washington's entanglements with slavery over the past 250 years. As both a prolific enslaver for his entire life, as well as, the emancipator of more than 120 of the people he enslaved, George Washington's complex relationship with slavery has vexed Americans for centuries. Time and again, we've struggled to agree upon slavery's place in Washington's legacy.

In this lecture, Marks will explore how abolitionists, politicians, educators, museum professionals, descendants of slavery at Mount Vernon and countless others have all fought to shape our collective memory of George Washington and slavery over the last two centuries—and what those fights reveal about our ongoing struggle to reckon with the past.

About the author: John Marks is a historian and writer exploring the United States' histories of race, slavery and public memory. He is the author or editor of three books, and his writing has appeared in the Washington Post, TIME, Smithsonian Magazine, among other publications. His latest book, Thy Will Be Done: George Washington's Legacy of Slavery and the Fight for American Memory, explores how generations of Americans have made sense of George Washington's involvement in slavery. Marks currently serves as the Vice President of Research and Engagement for the American Association for State and Local History, the national professional association for public history practitioners and institutions. He earned his Ph.D. in history from Rice University. A New Jersey native, Marks currently lives outside Washington, DC.

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

Get App

Host or Publisher Tudor Place