I like George Washington. I think he did pretty well considering his time. We like to think that we would have done more against slavery had we lived in his time, but that's just self-flattery. How many of us are doing enough to fight slavery now? It still exists.

Was it in his power to end slavery?

As someone who already owned slaves as a child, it wasn't fully his choice to become a slave owner. He was born into that system and it seems like he tried to care for his slaves well according to the standards of the time. He even gave some guns to go hunting so if they would have hated him that much they could have shot him dead.

Should George Washington count as one of the bad guys? He owned slaves, but he wasn't exactly pro-slavery. I say tear down all of the Confederate statues and the Andrew Jackson one--I'd prefer if they were placed in a museum, but they don't deserve that, really. But Washington shouldn't be seen as a part of that.