Scholastic pulls children's book depicting George Washington's 'happy' slaves
In A Birthday Cake for George Washington, there's a crisis in the kitchen. It's the general's birthday — "Oh, how George Washington loves his cake!" — and there's a sugar shortage. Lucky for Washington, Chef Hercules, cooking alongside his daughter Delia, heroically overcomes the obstacle and bakes a delicious dessert... for his master.
The children's book is meant to be a historical look at Washington's real-life slave and chef Hercules and his daughter Delia, who lived on Washington's Mount Vernon plantation in Virginia in the late 1700s. The book's lighthearted depiction of slavery unleashed a torrent of criticism and publisher Scholastic Press announced Sunday the children's book would be pulled from distribution.
In the book, author Ramin Ganeshram and illustrator Vanessa Brantley-Newton provide appended notes with historical information about Hercules (He fled Washington's plantation home the morning of Feb. 22, 1797) as well as an explanation for the slaves' "happy" expressions ("research indicates that Hercules and the other servants in George Washington's kitchen took great pride in their ability to cook for a man of such stature," Brantley-Newton wrote).
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Editors at Scholastic Press defended the book's nuanced approach to slavery as a "way in" for adults to talk to children about the subject, adding that Hercules' search for sugar was a metaphor for the slaves' desire to "savor the sweet taste of freedom."
But critics called the book historically inaccurate, citing documentation that shows Washington was a demanding and unyielding master to anyone who worked for him. Reviewers on Amazon, giving it the minimum 1 star, were "enraged," "horrified," and "appalled" that such "bold racism" could be published in 2016.
"We believe that, without more historical background on the evils of slavery than this book for younger children can provide, the book may give a false impression of the reality of the lives of slaves and therefore should be withdrawn," Scholastic Press said in a statement.
