Judge Quotes George Orwell’s 1984 in Order to Restore Slavery Exhibits
A judge ordered Interior Secretary Doug Burgum on Monday to restore a slavery-related exhibit at the President’s House in Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia.
Burgum ordered the National Park Service last month to remove the Philadelphia exhibit at the former residence of President George Washington, which still contains remains of the quarters in which he held enslaved Black people.
Now, Judge Cynthia Rufe has ordered Bergum to put the exhibit back up, after a lawsuit from the city of Philadelphia.
Rufe began her ruling with a quote from George Orwell’s 1984: “All history was a palimpsest, scraped clean and reinscribed exactly as often as was necessary. In no case would it have been possible, once the deed was done, to prove that any falsification had taken place.”
She then turned her attention to the matter of enslaved Africans at the President’s House.
“At the turn of this century, historians identified the location of the first official residence of the President of the United States, where Presidents Washington and Adams lived during their terms,” she wrote in her order. “This historical research also identified information about nine enslaved Africans whom President Washington owned, brought to the official presidential residence, and rotated in and out of Pennsylvania, a practice which prevented enslaved individuals from petitioning for their freedom under Pennsylvania law.”
“It is not disputed that President Washington owned slaves,” Rufe continued. “And yet, in its argument, the government claims it alone has the power to erase, alter, remove and hide historical accounts on taxpayer and local government-funded monuments within its control. Its claims in this regard echo Big Brother’s domain in Orwell’s 1984.”
This is one of the first blows to President Trump’s culture war on national parks. His “ Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” executive order was an ahistorical attack on virtually any mention of Black, LGBTQ, or women’s history.
Burgum has yet to respond.
This story has been updated.