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In 1784, five years before he became president of the United States, George Washington, 52, was nearly toothless.
1784，在52 歲的喬治·華盛頓在成為美國總統 5 年前，牙齒就幾乎已經掉光了。
So he hired a dentist to transplant nine teeth into his jaw - having extracted them from the mouths of his slaves.
所以要請牙醫給他移植九顆牙齒—而這些牙齒是從他的奴隸口中拔來的。
That's a far different image from the cherry-tree-chopping George most people remember from their history books.
這跟很多人在歷史書上讀到過的那個砍櫻桃樹的華盛頓有點大相徑庭。
But recently, many historians have begun to focus on the roles slavery played in the lives of the founding generation.
但是最近開始，歷史學家開始越來越關注奴隸制在美國開國一代人的生活中所扮演的角色。
They have been spurred in part by DNA evidence made available in 1998, which almost certainly proved Thomas Jefferson had fathered at least one child with his slave Sally Hemings.
他們多半是受了 1998 年 DNA 事件的影響。那個事件證明托馬斯·杰弗遜至少和他的奴隸薩利·赫明思生過一個孩子。
And only over the past 30 years have scholars examined history from the bottom up.
學者們從頭至尾地研究歷史還是近三十年的事情。
Works of several historians reveal the moral compromises made by the nation's early leaders and the fragile nature of the country's infancy.
一些歷史學家揭示了早期開國者們的道德妥協和早期國家的不穩定性。
More significantly, they argue that many of the Founding Fathers knew slavery was wrong - and yet most did little to fight it.
更重要的是，他們認為很多開國元勛知道奴隸制是錯誤的，但是大多數并沒有去反抗。
More than anything, the historians say, the founders were hampered by the culture of their time.
最主要的原因，就是建國者們受到了當時文化的束縛。
While Washington and Jefferson privately expressed distaste for slavery, they also understood that it was part of the political and economic bedrock of the country they helped to create.
當華盛頓和杰弗遜私底下表示對奴隸制的不滿時，他們也明白奴隸制同時也是他們努力建造的這個國家的政治經濟基礎的一部分。
For one thing, the South could not afford to part with its slaves.
一方面，南方各州無法認同廢除奴隸制度。
Owning slaves was “like having a large bank account, ” says Wiencek, author of An Imperfect God: George Washington, His Slaves, and the Creation of America.
如《不完美的上帝：喬治·華盛頓、他的奴隸和美國的建立》一書作者Wiencek所描述，擁有努力"就像擁有一筆巨額存款"。
The southern states would not have signed the Constitution without protections for the “peculiar institution, ” including a clause that counted a slave as three fifths of a man for purposes of congressional representation.
如果沒有對于這種"特殊制度"的保護，南方各州不會同意簽署憲法。這種特殊的制度保護包括：在國會代表人數中一個奴隸可以算作五分之三個公民。
And the statesmen's political lives depended on slavery.
政治家的政治生命也取決于奴隸制度。
The three-fifths formula handed Jefferson his narrow victory in the presidential election of 1800 by inflating the votes of the southern states in the Electoral College.
正由于這個五分之三公式，南方選舉團的選票擴大了，杰弗遜才在1800大選中險勝。
Once in office, Jefferson extended slavery with the Louisiana Purchase in 1803;
入主白宮之后的 1803 年，杰弗遜通過購買路易斯安那州擴大了奴隸制度，
the new land was carved into 13 states, including three slave states.
這片土地后來被劃分為了 13個州，其中包括 3個蓄奴州。
Still, Jefferson freed Hemings's children - though not Hemings herself or his approximately 150 other slaves.
然而，杰弗遜還是解放了赫明思的孩子們，雖然沒有同樣解放赫明思和其他150名奴隸。
Washington, who had begun to believe that all men were created equal after observing the bravery of the black soldiers during the Revolutionary War, overcame the strong opposition of his relatives to grant his slaves their freedom in his will.
華盛頓在目睹了美國獨立戰爭中黑人士兵的英勇之后開始相信人人生就平等。于是，不顧親屬的反對，他解放了自己所有的努力。
Only a decade earlier, such an act would have required legislative approval in Virginia.
而僅僅在十年前，解放奴隸的法案才在弗吉尼亞得以批準。
