By Tim Fox
Mount Vernon was the home of George Washington, the first president of the United States. It was also home to hundreds of enslaved men, women and children who lived there under Washington’s control. Explaining and understanding Washington’s troubled relationship to race and slavery is a passion for Matthew Van Horn, ’03.
Van Horn was recently selected for a residential fellowship at the Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington. Van Horn is one of five teachers selected for the opportunity. “People try to deify the Founding Fathers, but historical figures are more complex than that,” said Van Horn, who teaches social studies at Saeger Middle School in St. Charles, Missouri. “At the end of my program, students won’t think Washington was a great guy, but they will see him as torn. I offer a reading of Washington’s life that shows there were no easy decisions for him, especially when it came to slavery.”
Washington has long fascinated Van Horn. For many years, he has facilitated a workshop at Mount Vernon called “Slavery in George Washington’s World” for the George Washington Teacher Institute. Now, the fellowship will allow him to expand his program for K-12 students. Van Horn will research what a year in the life of a slave might have been like on the Virginia plantation, and provide teachers with the tools they need to explain “Washington the Slaveholder” to students.
“The workshop focuses on giving Washington’s slaves identities,” Van Horn said. “Washington had hundreds of slaves, but we don’t know much about them as individuals or about the diverse slave culture that existed.” Van Horn will put together a workshop for teachers that lets them follow in the footsteps of the enslaved people at Mount Vernon. After participating in the workshop, teachers are prepared to return to their classrooms, where they can replicate the process for students.
“Students go through a condensed workshop that features images of 19 slaves from the historical records at Mount Vernon,” Van Horn said. “Students walk around the room and look at the images. When they flip the images over, they see information that tells them about the person. My goal is to help the students understand that they are reading about people — not just ‘slaves.’”
Van Horn said his alma mater is the foundation of his success. “I teach a different subject today than what I studied 16 years ago, but the programs offered at Maryville University ensured that I had the tools to succeed regardless of the content I was teaching,” he said.