HOLLYWOOD, Md. – Historic Sotterley invites the public to a timely and thought‑provoking lecture examining one of the most enduring questions in American memory: How should we remember George Washington’s involvement in slavery?
Historian and author John Garrison Marks will explore how Americans have debated this issue for nearly 250 years, revealing why Washington’s legacy continues to challenge and shape our understanding of the nation.
More than any other Founding Father, Washington’s relationship to slavery has perplexed generations. He enslaved more people than any of his contemporaries, yet he was the only one among them to emancipate those he held in bondage.
Since his death, Americans have grappled with this contradiction. Their efforts to remember, reinterpret, or obscure this history have profoundly influenced the nation’s collective memory and its ongoing struggle to define America’s identity.
In his new book, Thy Will Be Done: George Washington’s Legacy of Slavery and the Fight for American Memory, John Garrison Marks traces how politicians, abolitionists, educators, activists, Washington’s former slaves and their descendants, and others have remembered, forgotten, and manipulated slavery’s place in Washington’s story, wielding it in the political and cultural fights of their time. He reveals how Americans’ conflicts over our collective memory of the past have always been part of a much broader struggle to define the nation.
This FREE hybrid event requires registration. All attendees are invited to a pre‑reception at 6:30 p.m. with light refreshments and an opportunity to meet the speaker and get a signed copy of his book.
- Date: July 1, 2026
- Time: 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm
- Location: Barn Event Space at Historic Sotterley, 44300 Sotterley Lane, Hollywood, MD
- Register to Attend In‑Person: https://sotterley.org/?ff_landing=58
- Register to Attend Virtually: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_PpL1uv0FRrSx5Mu6IeezSA
About the Speaker
John Garrison Marks is a historian and writer who explores history, museums, and the ways Americans engage with the past. He is the author or editor of three books, and his work has appeared in The Atlantic, Washington Post, TIME, Smithsonian Magazine, and elsewhere. His latest book, Thy Will Be Done: George Washington’s Legacy of Slavery and the Fight for American Memory (2026), explores how generations of Americans have thought, and fought, about slavery’s place in George Washington’s legacy over the past 250 years. Marks also serves as a senior staff member for the American Association for State and Local History, where he leads research, leadership development, and special projects, including nine years of thinking, writing, and speaking about the U.S. Semiquincentennial. He earned a Ph.D. in history from Rice University.