GEORGE WASHINGTON'S FIRST JOB He had maybe a sixth grade education. And not in the same way we go to classes. His father died when he was eleven, leaving him as the oldest child, to care for his mother and siblings. But he set about learning with a focus on fulfilling his ambition. He wanted [...]
Category: George Washington
George Washington’s Slaves
GEORGE WASHINGTON'S SLAVES He inherited his first humans when his father died. Ten slaves. He was eleven. That was in 1743. And he wasn't living in Mt. Vernon then. That would come later. Mt. Vernon was his stepbrother's place. He was living with his mother near Fredericksburg, near the geographic [...]
The illnesses of George Washington
THE ILLNESSES OF GEORGE WASHINGTON What is it about our first President, George Washington? At times, we seem to glorify him as though he was a superhuman. He lived in tough times, to be certain, perhaps more than you have considered. But without him, our nation would not have started. He was born at Pope's [...]
Bouquet and Washington, not Forbes, but the other Grant
BOUQUET AND WASHINGTON, NOT FORBES, BUT THE OTHER GRANT In 1755, Braddock's defeat and Washington's retreat left the backcountry of Pennsylvania and Virginia open to French and Indian attack. Deprivations for three long years. Washington and his Virginia militia patrolled the close-in frontier settlements, but were powerless to help those [...]
George Washington Went Back!
GEORGE WASHINGTON WENT BACK! What would you think if you were a hero and just 22? And you know the truth of those others who died. Died under your charge. Under your command. Like Jumonville under the hatchet, whose death led Washington to Fort Necessity. And then to even more misery and ignobility. "Assassinated!" That's what [...]
George Washington at 22
GEORGE WASHINGTON AT TWENTY-TWO George Washington had returned to the Western Pennsylvania wilderness. He was with forty of his men and a few Indian warriors of the Mingo Half-King, Tanacharison. They were hiding on the bluffs surrounding thirty-five sleeping Frenchmen, one of whom might have been a French diplomat. It happened so fast. Fifteen [...]
George Washington at Twenty-One
GEORGE WASHINGTON AT TWENTY-ONE Do you remember when you were twenty-one? When you thought you were so incredibly strong. You soon enough began to feel the power in your future begin to weaken, as you prepared yourself for the long run. George Washington of the monument was once twenty-one, and a provincial officer set to [...]
George Washington Before the War
GEORGE WASHINGTON BEFORE THE WAR Before that later, more famous war. The revolutionary one. I'm talking here about the earlier, less talked about war. The one not as well known. The"French and Indian War." James Fenimore Cooper wrote about it in "The Last of the Mohicans." You saw the movie. You remember Hawkeye. "No matter [...]
George Washington Getting Ready to Go!
GEORGE WASHINGTON GETTING READY TO GO! The year is 1732. George Washington is born to his father, Augustine, and his second wife, 23- year-old Mary Ball. The home is simple, along Pope's Creek off the Potomac River. Not far upstream is the Fall Line where our interior eastern rivers "fall" off their higher Piedmont basement [...]