Can I express a couple of observations:

To be nit picking this isn’t an elephant in the room. To be so it would need to be something everyone was aware of but didn’t want to broach. I’m just aware that this phrase is overused and often redundant.

On the normality of slave ownership, I think we should see it through the lens of history but only to understand the mindset, not excuse it. In that sense we ought to judge ourselves and question if we could possibly have been slave owners in that time. From that perspective we can better evaluate how decent we truly are.

In Washington’s case he clearly went beyond the norm (cruel and wrong as it was) and almost certainly justified his wickedness by the same standards those in power today hold to. In that case, this story is eminently relevant to today and those who harp on about modern day slavery are disingenuous. Slavery always has, and probably always will, exist.

That isn’t the point. What is important is to understand how the principles behind slavery drive our systems and, as such, become normalised. To challenge that puts you at odds with the status quo and will mean that being critical of Washington makes you the bad apple.