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Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Commemorating Enslaved Africans from Mount Vernon

I've copies the data from the web linked in my heading -- herein. 

This large-scale quilted art-piece has been in the making for about 2-3 months.   I'll have it up and done in just a few more days!  It is an evolving - emotional piece of my soul.  I laid the word HUMANITY as my last lettered statement.

I've pulled far and wide from my fabric stash and UFO's (orphan blocks - :) unfinished patchwork blocks...now finding a perfect home!!!

 My choice if wording has been sometimes almost too blunt and painful (but not in comparison to the inhumane rapes and whippings suffered by my enslaved ancestors).. so I've tried for a balance of truth in depicting my 18th century President.  Did I mention rich, landowner and planter... off the black backbones of African men and women?


.........In 1790, Philadelphia was named the national capital for a ten-year period while the Federal City (now Washington, D. C.) was under construction. Morris volunteered the house to serve as President Washington's residence.
Many Philadelphians were convinced that once the Federal Government moved from New York to their city, it would never leave. Why build a new capital on the banks of the Potomac when the largest and most cosmopolitan city in America was here? An enormous mansion for the President (about two-thirds the size of the White House) was begun on Ninth Street in Philadelphia, although Washington showed his preference for a Potomac capital by arranging to be away on the day of the groundbreaking. The President quietly worked behind the scenes to bring the permanent capital of the United States to Virginia. He insisted on paying rent for Morris's house, and the initial lease was for a 2-year period. Except for trips and stays in Germantown to avoid yellow fever, Washington occupied the Market Street House from November 1790 to March 1797.
Following a 16-month stay in New York City.

John Adams occupied it from March 1797 to June 1800, then became the first President to occupy The White House. For nearly a decade, the Philadelphia mansion served as the seat of the executive branch of the federal government, housed the public and private offices of the President, and was the site of the official entertaining of the nation. Washington's presidential household included nine enslaved Africans from Mount Vernon. John Adams was never a slaveholder. The intertwined history of freedom and slavery is part of the story of the President's House, and of the United States. 

At the Liberty Bell Center's opening in October 2003, Philadelphia's Mayor John F. Street pledged $1.5 million toward making the President's House commemoration happen.

The site of the President's House lies directly across Market Street from the entrance to the Independence Visitor Center. A public bathroom was built on the site in 1954, and stood squarely atop the footprint of the main house until its removal on May 27, 2003. In 2002-03 the Liberty Bell Center was built, partially covering the footprint of the house’s backbuildings. Under the porch of the Liberty Bell's Center, just 5 feet from the main entrance, is the site of the quarters for the stable workers, two or three of whom were enslaved.


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