I’m inclined to disagree with this take if only for the fact that many of Washington’s contemporaries recognized that slavery was immoral, and the topic of abolition was one of the earliest controversies in the US before Washington was even president.

Just because everyone in power is doing evil, heinous things does not excuse the evil, heinous things. If you want to make the argument that it was normalized, that’s one thing, but the slaveowners of that day knew what they were doing and deserve condemnation because of it.