'Birthday Cake for George Washington' Book Cooks Up Controversy

IMAGE of the cover of “A Birthday Cake for George Washington” by Scholastic

___________

ALEXANDRIA, VA -- A book called “A Birthday Cake for George Washington” is cooking up controversy. Published Jan. 5 by Scholastic, the book was pulled Sunday by the publisher after questions were raised about how slaves are depicted in the picture book.

Washington lived about 10 miles south of Alexandria, at his Mount Vernon estate; he was a frequent visitor to the City--attending church at Christ Church and attending celebrations at Gadsby’s Tavern. Alexandria will celebrate Washington’s birthday when it puts on the annual George Washington Birthday Parade on Feb. 15.

The book was intended to “serve up a slice of history in a picture book narrative that will surely satisfy,” Scholastic said on its Web site before the controversy. The book was written by New York Times food writer Ramin Ganeshram and illustrated by Vanessa Brantley-Newton.

But scathing reviews of “A Birthday Cake for George Washington” on Amazon.com say it was disengenious to portray slaves as being “happy.” Some 150 reviews on the Amazon.com site give the book a rating of 1.5 out of 5 stars, although it’s uncertain whether those are reviews or simply protests.

“Young readers without sufficient background knowledge about the larger context of American slavery may come away with a dangerously rosy impression of the relationship between slaves and slave owners, and those with a deeper understanding are likely to find this depiction offensive,” writes School Library Journal’s Kiera Parrott.

On Sunday, Scholastic issued a statement to the Associated Press about why it decided to pull the plug on “A Birthday Cake for George Washington.”

“While we have great respect for the integrity and scholarship of the author, illustrator and editor, 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can provide, the book may give a false impression of the reality of the lives of slaves and therefore should be withdrawn.”

Mount Vernon states on its Web site that Washington had 318 slaves when he died. Descendants of some of those slaves still live in Fairfax County near Mount Vernon at Gum Springs, according to the Gum Springs Museum. “Today, Gum Springs has more than 2,500 residents and as many as 500 are descendants of the original families,” the museum states. Gum Springs was purchased by a former slave named West Ford, who had managed the Mount Vernon Estate, according to a plaque at the community.

The fictional story, “A Birthday Cake for George Washington,” is based on a real slave, Hercules, who served as a chef for Washington. The irony: “He escaped from Washington’s grasp on Washington’s 65th birthday — February 22, 1797 — while at Mount Vernon and remained free at some unknown location until his death,” Mount Vernon writes on its Web site.