(CW: dot gov link lol) From George Washington to Anthony Whitting, 16 December 1792

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1792 is 16 years after 1776, I assume he’s not president at this time. That’s what George Washington seceded from Britain for, so he could obsess over measuring wheat and telling his underlings to kill all but 1 or 2 of the Africans’ dogs—shit he probably coulda done either way. But now he answers to nobody

But anyway, I really saw this pbs article which tells similar dog stories about founding father slavers, but incredibly refers to the enslaved Africans as “African Americans”.

In what sense were Africans held captive in the US in 1792 “Americans”? I understand it’s a common way to refer to people in the contemporary US, but it’s fucking crazy to project that term into the past like that IMO. Extremely powerful ideology