An Act for the Gradual Abolition of Slavery

The second count concerns the president's household, and Martin writes it slowly, because this is the one the marble was built to hide.

The Capitol sits in Philadelphia for most of Washington's two terms, and Pennsylvania has a law, the Gradual Abolition Act, humble as laws go, but it holds that an enslaved person kept in the state six months becomes free.

The president's solution is rotation.

Every few months the enslaved members of the household are cycled back to Virginia or out on errands across the state line, and the clock resets.