this post was submitted on 05 Mar 2025
71 points (90.8% liked)

Memes

48447 readers
3624 users here now

Rules:

  1. Be civil and nice.
  2. Try not to excessively repost, as a rule of thumb, wait at least 2 months to do it if you have to.

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] remotelove@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 week ago (3 children)

The history of Washingtons teeth is uncertain. The evidence that those were slave teeth seems to show that the teeth were purchased.

Internet pictures with words are fucking dumb.

[–] Confidant6198@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

Washington owned slaves. He was not some moral high ground individual. The only reason why they even got independence from Britain was that Britain wanted to stop the expansion of the territory and the people in the colonies wanted to continue it and kill all the natives.

Edit:

In 1784, Washington paid unnamed “Negroes” for nine teeth. We don’t know the precise circumstances, says Van Horn: “The president’s decision to pay his slaves for their teeth may have been a recognition on his part that teeth were something sacrosanct and personal.” On the other hand, being enslaved meant that any economic exchange was inherently not fair.

He literally took advantage of enslaved people to get their teeth and you consider it as just “bought”. Top tier cracker mindset. I guess that to you it was also fair for him to own his slaves because he “bought” them.

https://daily.jstor.org/were-george-washingtons-teeth-taken-from-enslaved-people/

[–] remotelove@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I didn't suggest anything about his character, and we could probably have an entirely separate discussion about imperialism.

What is important is how you source information when it comes to dental prosthetics.

[–] Confidant6198@lemmy.ml 0 points 1 week ago

Oh please, criticizing the meme because “the teeth were bought” Is an attempt to save his caharacter. And then saying that images with words are all dumb. People can see through your attempt of white washing.

[–] lath@lemmy.world -1 points 1 week ago

Wow that's such a dumb thing I didn't expect to read today. I can see why you would think so, but still... Wow.

[–] cheers_queers@lemm.ee 0 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I'm 30 and this is the first I've ever heard about this. my southern Baptist homeschool curriculum told me that his teeth were made of wood and it was never something i thought to fact check as an adult.

gotta love homeschooling 🙄

[–] lath@lemmy.world -1 points 1 week ago

According to a documentary I watched in passing on tv some years back, he had several types of dentures and most of them caused him great pain. One could even say his need for teeth helped in small part advance denture technology in the US.

[–] lath@lemmy.world -1 points 1 week ago

Washington's teeth were made of diamonds and you can't convince me otherwise.