Trump Admin Quietly Softens Slavery Exhibit at George Washington’s Home to Say the People He Enslaved Enjoyed Some ‘Autonomy’

“People often talk about fascism, and they talk about it being creeping,” said a Philadelphia attorney who helped create the original exhibit. “It’s not creeping anymore; it’s sprinting”

NEED TO KNOW The Trump administration dismantled and replaced an exhibit on the nine people whom President George Washington enslaved at the Philadelphia house where he lived during his presidency The new exhibit was installed by the National Park Service in the early morning hours on Wednesday, July 15, according to Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker Parker said the Trump administration's decision to update the exhibit at night "shows it understands this action is shameful, that it violates community trust" The Trump administration dismantled and replaced, "under the cover of darkness," an exhibit on the nine people whom President George Washington enslaved at the Philadelphia house where he lived during his presidency.

The new exhibit was installed by the National Park Service in the early morning hours on Wednesday, July 15, according to Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker, who called the action "shameful" and an attempt to "erase American history." Now, the exhibit, in compliance with President Donald Trump's March 2025 executive order "Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History," argues life for the slaves was not as bad as one might think. Slaves living in the President's House — which was home to Washington and later President John Adams when Philadelphia was still the U.S. capital during the nation's early years — "experienced a greater modicum of autonomy than elsewhere in the South, such as to explore the city and sometimes even attend the theater, with Washington buying the tickets," the new exhibit states.

The new information panels also note that "Washington rotated enslaved persons into and out of the state in acknowledgement of a Pennsylvania law requiring slaves to be set free after six months in residence" and that the United States' first president "placed national unity above immediate abolition." The Interior Department, which oversees the National Park Service, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from PEOPLE on Thursday, July 16. Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

In a statement to The Guardian on Wednesday, a spokesperson said the exhibit acknowledges "the evils of slavery, including its injustices and hypocrisies" and "the price our nation paid to finish the work that the Founders had begun and end slavery in the United States once and for all." "Through President Trump, we have encouraged Americans to visit our cultural and historic sites and engage in meaningful conversations about the moments that have shaped our country," the spokesperson told The Guardian. Trump's March 2025 executive order aimed to reverse what he described as "a concerted and widespread effort to rewrite our Nation's history" by "casting its founding principles and historical milestones in a negative light."

The executive order directly referenced Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia, which housed the President's House exhibit. It also denounced exhibits and events at Smithsonian Institution museums, including the National Museum of African American History and Culture, which have been subject to heavy-handed oversight by the Trump administration. "The Museums throughout Washington, but all over the Country are, essentially, the last remaining segment of 'WOKE,' "

Trump wrote on Truth Social in August 2025. "The Smithsonian is OUT OF CONTROL, where everything discussed is how horrible our Country is, how bad Slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been — Nothing about Success, nothing about Brightness, nothing about the Future." A battle over the Philadelphia exhibit has played out in the courts for months, with the city of Philadelphia suing the administration over initially removing the exhibit in January.

It had originally opened as a memorial to the enslaved people who lived there in 2010 after a campaign by Avenging the Ancestors Coalition. A federal judge ordered the original exhibit restored in February, but an appeals court ultimately ruled this month that the Trump administration could install a new exhibit. "Overnight, under the cover of darkness, the federal government removed panels at the President's House that told a thorough history of Philadelphia," Mayor Parker said in a statement.

"It was allowed to do this by the decision of the federal court, but that it did so at night shows it understands this action is shameful, that it violates community trust. Which it is, and which it does." Parker noted the city just marked the 250th anniversary of the nation's founding by "imperfect humans" who "came together to recognize the universal search for freedom and for dignity, while at the same time these same leaders perpetuated the heinous institution of slavery."

"This paradox reveals core questions we still live and struggle with today," the mayor, 53, continued. "I will continue fighting on behalf of everyone who supports the core belief: All of our history must be told." Michael Coard, a Philadelphia attorney and founder of Avenging The Ancestors Coalition, said at a Wednesday press conference that the rewriting of history was comparable to the censorship and obfuscation of the Ministry of Truth in George Orwell's dystopian novel 1984.

"I don't care whether you're a Republican or Democrat, liberal or conservative, right-wing or left-wing: This is some scary s---," he said. "People often talk about fascism, and they talk about it being creeping. It's not creeping anymore; it's sprinting."

"What are you going to do about it?" he asked. Read the original article on People