“The unfortunate condition of the persons, whose labour in part I employed, has been the only unavoidable subject of regret.”

—  George Washington

Comment of late 1788 or early 1789 upon his slaves http://www.mountvernon.org/george-washington/slavery/the-only-unavoidable-subject-of-regret/, as recorded by David Humphreys, in his notebooks on his conversations with Washington, now in the Rosenbach Library in Philadelphia&lt;!-- as quoted in &quot;Housing and Family Life of the Mount Vernon Negro,&quot; unpublished paper by Charles C. Wall, prepared for the Mount Vernon Ladies&#x27; Association (May 1962), prefatory note]. --&gt; <br class="br">1780s <br class="br">Context: The unfortunate condition of the persons, whose labour in part I employed, has been the only unavoidable subject of regret. To make the Adults among them as easy &amp; as comfortable in their circumstances as their actual state of ignorance &amp; improvidence would admit; &amp; to lay a foundation to prepare the rising generation for a destiny different from that in which they were born; afforded some satisfaction to my mind, &amp; could not I hoped be displeasing to the justice of the Creator.

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George Washington186
first President of the United States 1732–1799

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