THE PRESIDENT's HOUSE SITE WAS DISMANTLED BY THE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE 1/22/2O26 BUT WE CAN ENSURE THIS HISTORY IS INTERPRETED HERE IN NYC.

Chef Hercules Posey was the enslaved chef of George Washington. Famous in his own time, Hercules lived with the Washingtons in the President's House in Philadelphia where the First Family kept Hercules and up to 9 other African Americans enslaved over the Presidential terms. The Washingtons even worked around a Pennsylvania Law that granted enslaved persons freedom after six months in the state.

Chef Posey self-emancipated in 1797 eventually making it to NYC. He died in 1812 and was buried at the 2nd African Burying Ground ion the Lower East Side.  In the mid 19th century the Burying Ground was disinterred and moved to Brooklyn but some burials that had been paved over remained. Hercules was likely among them. Today the site is an apartment building and the New Museum.

We are trying to get NYC Parks to place a memorial plaque/info panel about Hercules on the fence of Sara Roosevelt Park which faces the burial site. The site of the original Burying Ground itself is private property and outside of the purview of any city agency.

Chef Hercules and the other enslaved by our First President deserves to be memorialized. He seized his own liberty from a man who fought for the freedom of a nation but denied it to other human beings. Hercules' story sheds a light on hidden truths of American History.