On this day, April 30, in 1789

George Washington took the oath of office, becoming the first elected President of the United States. Washington was a celebrated hero of the Revolutionary War, and he constantly struggled to reconcile the ideals of the revolution and the Constitution with the realities of slavery. As a Virginia plantation owner and lifelong slave-owner himself, Washington was certainly invested in the institution of slavery. While written documents show that he struggled with the morality of slavery, as a political figure he never took the risk and voiced his abolitionist thinking. Instead he signed a great deal of racist legislation into law. That’s politics for you!