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He was "cold-blooded" when giving instructions on purchasing slaves and favored adolescent females "who could maximize the number of slave children," Chernow added.
切爾諾補充說，他在指導購買奴隸時很“冷血”，而且偏愛“能最大限度地增加奴隸子女數(shù)量”的青春期女性。
Washington considered himself a kind master, but he also felt entitled to the maximum amount of work from his slaves, often complaining about slaves he considered lazy or who stole in letters. Referring to a slave named Betty, Washington wrote in one letter that "a more lazy, deceitful and impudent hussy is not to be found in the United States."
華盛頓認為自己是一個善良的主人，但他也覺得自己有權讓奴隸為他進行最大限度的勞動，她經(jīng)常在信中抱怨他認為懶惰或偷東西的奴隸。在提到一個名叫貝蒂的奴隸時，華盛頓在一封信中寫道：“在美國，再也找不到一個更懶惰、更不誠實、更厚顏無恥的粗野女子。”
"He never regarded such behavior as a rational response to bondage," Chernow noted. His wife, Martha Washington, treated the slaves well, but also refused to tolerate shirkers and expected loyalty and affection from her favorite slaves.
切爾諾指出：“他從未將這種行為視為對奴役的合理反應。”他的妻子瑪莎·華盛頓對奴隸們很好，但也拒絕容忍推卸責任的人，并期望得到她喜愛的奴隸的忠誠和愛。
Ellis has said that the Founding Fathers—wrongly—assumed that slavery would "die a natural death." He has argued for the Founding Fathers to be humanized, saying they were flawed men who are too often put on a pedestal.
埃利斯說，開國元勛錯誤地認為奴隸制度會“自然死亡”，他主張開國元勛應該人道，并表示他們是有缺陷的人，但經(jīng)常被人奉為偶像。
"To be sure, the founders thought they knew that slavery was incompatible with the values on which the American Revolution was based. Nobody disagreed with that... nobody said slavery was a positive good. Nobody," Ellis said in a 2017 speech. In another speech, he noted that although the founders were incredibly imaginative, one thing they could never picture was America as a "biracial society."
“可以肯定的是，開國元勛們認為他們知道奴隸制與美國革命所依據(jù)的價值觀是不相容的。所有人都同意這一點……沒有人說奴隸制是積極的。”埃利斯在2017年的一次演講中說。在另一次演講中，他指出，盡管開國元勛們有著難以置信的想象力，但有一件事他們永遠無法想象，那就是美國是一個“混血社會”
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