Category Archives: Hercules Posey

Advocacy, Hercules Posey, President Trump, The President's House

Appeals Court Pauses Restoration of President’s House Site

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In the wake of U.S. District Judge Cynthia M. Rufe’s order to restore the President’s House Site to its physical status as of January 21, 2026, the National Park Service began to reinstall the interpretive panels that were yanked from the walls.

The deadline to restore the President’s House Site was February 20, 2026 at 5:00 PM. The Department of the Interior and the National Park Service appealed Judge Rufe’s order to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.

With an hour to go before the 5:00 PM deadline, Judge Thomas M. Hardiman granted a stay of execution. The federal government does not have to fully restore the President’s House Site for the duration of the appeal. Judge Hardiman ordered the federal government to preserve the slavery memorial’s physical status as of February 20, 2026.

The federal government cannot remove the 16 interpretive glass panels that were reinstalled or turn off the four functioning video monitors (the fifth monitor was nonfunctional prior to January 21, 2026). So, for the foreseeable future, the President’s House Site will be a mashup of the original glass panels and signs of creative resistance.

I spent the first day of Black History Month at the President’s House Site. Twenty days later, I was back at the slavery memorial leading a Truth in History Teach-In organized by the Association of Philadelphia Tour Guides. I shared stories about the nine Black enslaved people who worked and lived in the shadow of the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. I told the history that President Trump wants to whitewash, including Ona Judge who “absconded from the household of the President of the United States” on May 21, 1796.

Nine months later, President Washington’s enslaved chef, Hercules Posey, self-emancipated from Mount Vernon on February 22, 1797, Washington’s 65th birthday.

Like Ona Judge, Hercules was never caught.

I am nominating Hercules Posey, the nation’s first celebrity chef, for a Pennsylvania historical marker.

If the nomination is approved, Hercules will join Ona whose marker was dedicated in 2023.

For updates, send your name and email address to phillyjazzapp@gmail.com.

Advocacy, Hercules Posey, President's House.ai, The President's House

Philly Fights Erasure

President Trump likely has not read George Orwell who warned us: “Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.” Trump wants to control the American narrative. So on his directive, the National Park Service is acting like it’s 1984.

On January 22, 2026 – without notice to the City of Philadelphia – the National Park Service unilaterally removed artwork and interpretive panels from the President’s House Site that “tells the story of the paradox of liberty and enslavement in one home – and in a nation.” The story reflects decades of scholarly research about the nine enslaved Africans who were brought by President George Washington from Mount Vernon to work in the executive mansion.

The panels and artwork were unceremoniously tossed in the back of a pickup truck and taken to a “secure location.”

Before the signs were unloaded in the still undisclosed “secure location,” the City of Philadelphia filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

The City claims the Department of the Interior and the National Park Service violated a 2006 cooperative agreement that “through a series of amendments, detailed the design of the President’s House Project as well as the rights and responsibilities of the parties.” According to the complaint, “the City has an equal right with the NPS under these agreements to approve the final design of the President’s House Project.”

The City asks the Court to declare that the Defendants’ removal of the artwork and interpretive signs violates the Administrative Procedure Act. The City argues the Defendants “have provided no explanation at all for their removal of the historical, educational displays at the President’s House site, let alone a reasoned one.”

The City further argues “there is no statutory or other authority for the Secretary to remove and destroy [National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom] sites after designation and doing so runs counter to the express purpose of the Administrative Procedure Act.”

The bottom line: The City seeks “An order restoring the President’s House Site to its status as of January 21, 2026.”

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro posted on X that “Donald Trump will take any opportunity to rewrite and whitewash our history. But he picked the wrong city — and he sure as hell picked the wrong Commonwealth. We learn from our history in Pennsylvania, even when it’s painful.”

Shapiro said he will file an amicus brief in support of the City’s lawsuit.

Facts are stubborn things. On May 23, 1796, Frederick Kitt, steward of the presidential household, placed an ad in the Philadelphia Gazette and Universal Daily Advertiser offering a ten dollar reward “to any person who will bring [Oney Judge] home. Oney “ABSCONDED from the household of the President of the United States” on May 21, 1796.

The National Park Service designated the President’s House a National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom site in 2022.

Trump’s attempt to alter the facts and whitewash the history of the President’s House will not stand.

Advocacy, Artificial Intelligence, Hercules Posey, President's House.ai, The President's House

The President’s House

The President’s House: Freedom and Slavery in the Making of a New Nation, an open-air installation, was dedicated on December 15, 2010. The National Park Service site pays homage to the nine enslaved people in the household of President George Washington – Austin, Christopher Sheels, Giles, Hercules, Joe, Moll, Oney Judge, Paris and Richmond.

The President’s House at Independence National Historical Park was born out of protest.

In a sign of the times, the President’s House is in the crosshairs of President Trump who wants to sugarcoat and whitewash American history. The Philadelphia Inquirer reports the site has been flagged for content review:

The President’s House Site, where Presidents George Washington and John Adams once lived, came under particular scrutiny with six exhibits flagged for review. The exhibit focuses on the contradictory coexistence of liberty and slavery during the founding of America and memorializes the people Washington enslaved.

For instance, park staff commented on a display titled “Life Under Slavery,” flagging that it “speaks of whipping, depriving of food, clothing, and shelter; as well as beating, torturing, and raping those they enslaved.”

[…]

Thirteen specific items spread across six exhibits at the site were identified for review.

This includes components of displays titled: “Life Under Slavery,” “History Lost & Found,” “The Executive Branch,” “The Dirty Business of Slavery,” “The House and the People Who Worked & Lived In It,” and an illustration with the words “An Act respecting fugitives from Justice,” in reference to Washington’s signing of the Fugitive Slave Act, according to an internal form, reviewed by The Inquirer, where employees were directed to submit their reviews.

In 2002, the NPS had planned to ignore the full and accurate history of the site. The Liberty Bell Center, then-under construction, is in the footprint of President Washington’s slave quarters (circled).

Attorney Michael Coard, a founder of Avenging The Ancestors Coalition, was a member of the President’s House Project Oversight Committee which oversaw development and construction of the site. Coard led the charge to tell the full story.

We will resist any attempt to erase the complicated history of this memorial site.

As we protest to preserve the physical structure and interpretive panels, we also will use digital technologies and 3D modeling to reconstruct the President’s House and outbuildings without constraint or compromise.

The President’s House.ai will be accessible to visitors on any device or browser anywhere in the world.

We will create AI-generated avatars of the nine African descendants enslaved by President Washington, including Ona Judge (1773-1848) and Hercules Posey (1748-1812).

Visitors to the President’s House.ai will be able to hold real-time conversations with the AI ancestors. The avatars’ training will be grounded in trusted primary and secondary sources.

AI Ona will spill the tea on how she escaped from bondage.

President Washington placed an advertisement in the May 24, 1796 edition of The Philadelphia Gazette and Universal Daily Advertiser offering a $10 reward (roughly $365 today) for the capture of Oney Judge.

As activists, historians, architects and technologists resist President Trump’s efforts to censor uncomfortable truths, the witless president unwittingly triggered the Streisand Effect.