In the middle of the eighteenth century, however, its evils were not appreciated, either from an economical or a moral point of view.

This is not the place to discuss the subject of African slavery in America.

But it is important to know Washington's opinions in regard to an institution which was destined to have such a powerful influence upon the country, and it seems most appropriate to consider those opinions at the moment when slaves became a practical factor in his life as a Virginian planter.
Washington accepted the system as he found it, as most men accept the social arrangements to which they are born.

He grew up in a world where slavery had always existed, and where its rightfulness had never been questioned.

Being on the frontier, occupied with surveying and with war, he never had occasion to really consider the matter at all until he found himself at the head of large estates, with his own prosperity dependent on the labor of slaves.