This president brought his slave, hercules, with him to philadelphia as his cook, despite pennsylvania's emancipation laws, which freed slaves who resided in the state for six months

President Washington brought Hercules with him. He was brought to Philadelphia because it was set up as the temporary national capital. However, due to the Gradual Abolition Act, slaves had the ability to free themselves after 6 continuous months in Pennsylvania: for many of Washington's slaves, this meant rotating them in and out of the state back to Virginia as a way of ending their residency short of the 6-month mark.