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George Washington slave book pulled after criticism
A children's picture book about George Washington and his slaves has been pulled by publishers Scholastic.
A Birthday Cake for George Washington tells the story of Washington's slave Hercules, a cook, and his daughter.
It had been criticised for its images of smiling slaves, and described as being "highly problematic".
Scholastic said in a statement that without more historical context, the book "may give a false impression of the reality of the lives of slaves".
The book, telling the story of Hercules and Delia making a cake together, had been released on 5 January. It was met with a barrage of one-star reviews on Amazon, with readers describing it as "disgustingly inaccurate", and one writing: "I can't believe people are celebrating a children's story that depicts happy, joyful slaves."
Scholastic's description of the story had read: "Everyone is buzzing about the president's birthday! Especially George Washington's servants, who scurry around the kitchen preparing to make this the best celebration ever. Oh, how George Washington loves his cake! And, oh, how he depends on Hercules, his head chef, to make it for him. Hercules, a slave, takes great pride in baking the president's cake."
(Score: 3, Insightful) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Friday January 22 2016, @05:05PM
At first I assumed this book was a few hundred years old, which would have been understandable, but it turns out it's recent. Seems a bizarre kind of a book to write in this day and age.
The uncomfortable truth is that even in a lifetime of oppression and misery, there will still be moments of happiness and contentment, and in some cases genuine affection from the slaves towards their owners. People are people, and they make the best of shitty situations, particularly if that situation is the long established status quo and doesn't look likely to change soon.
Did slaves live their entire lives, from birth to death, with a permanent look of anguish on their faces? Of course not. Did they never laugh? No. Did they laugh and smile as much as they would have done had they been free? Almost certainly not. Can you explain all this to a small child without confusing them about the abhorrent nature of slavery...? Not sure about that one. Depends on the child I suppose. I don't approve of censoring this book, but I certainly wouldn't want my kids reading it until they were old enough to understand the context.
The other uncomfortable truth is that slaves didn't always hate their masters. People are complex, relationships are complex, feelings are complex. Plenty of slaves hated their owners, but I don't doubt that some of them had genuine affection for the families they served, particularly when you consider that much of the child-raising was done by slaves. Many of them probably loved and hated their owners at the same time. The idea that Hercules might be proud of the cake and the fact that he made it for the president isn't entirely impossible.
Really good non-fiction book that describes some of these issues: https://archive.org/details/twelveyearslave00nort [archive.org]