Disclaimer: As mythology, no fact checking is allowed! Just repeating what I was taught at school in America:
George Washington (1700s) was:
- the first American president,
- the Father of the Country.
- a Founding Father, so he was, of course, extremely wise.
- Commander of the Continental Army during the American Revolution, winning the country’s independence from Britain.
- one of the three greatest men in history, along with Columbus and Lincoln.
He was honest, brave and wise. He loved freedom and loved his country.
He is from Virginia. His estate is called Mount Vernon. It is unknown how he got it or what he grew there. He owned slaves.
When he was a boy he got an axe for his birthday and cut down a cherry tree. Later when his father found one of his trees cut down, George said he did it – “For I cannot tell a lie.” The story is probably made up, but shows the kind of person he was.
As a young man he was a surveyor. He fought in the French and Indian War, making a name for himself. When America declared its independence in 1776, he became the clear choice to lead the army against the British.
The army had little money. While British generals were enjoying the high life in Philadelphia and New York, he was at Valley Forge freezing in the snow and wind. His (all-white) army did not have proper shoes. Many wore rags. Men were deserting – sunshine patriots! But he kept enough of them together through the winter to hold out against the British.
One Christmas Eve he crossed the Delaware River to take the partying Hessian soldiers by surprise.
He was not able to defeat the British on his own, but he was able to hold out, year after year, till help arrived from the French. They sent their navy and General Lafayette. Washington won the war in 1783 when General Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown.
When asked to be king, he said no.
He was voted the first president by a landslide (by the 20% or so who could vote). He took the oath of office on Wall Street in New York.
As president, Washington put down the Whisky Rebellion.
He did not live at the White House – it was still being built (by white people).
He did not believe in political parties or fighting in European wars.
He got the country off to a good start, making him one of the greatest presidents ever.
He was faithful to his wife Martha Washington. He had no children of his own – which probably saved the country from (de facto) monarchy. He had wooden teeth. Unlike Ben Franklin, he wore a white wig, the custom of the day.
He freed his slaves when he died.
His views on slavery, genocide, blacks and Native Americans are unknown.
Washington’s birthday is February 22nd. He was born on the 11th, but they changed the calendar from Old Style.
See also:
As we now not just know but are more or less free to say (we being all the black ,brown ,female etc) most all of this standard story is straight up bullshit.
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hahah real funny abagond now where’s the real story on this guy. now why did they change his birthday to my birthday. smh lol
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@ Abagond,
You should play Bioshock Infinite on 360; I know that it is a fictional game, but it is quite compelling and shows how whites pretty much think of Washington (A GOD). Why because he owned slaves and kept blacks in their place.
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No mention of his parents naming him after a bridge?
[OK, that joke comes from the comic series Captain Roffa referring to the philosopher Erasmus.]
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You need to “Ask a Slave” about Washington freeing his slaves when he died. Lizzie Mae says differently.
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“He fought in the French and Indian war, making a name for himself(as an indiscriminate burner of villages and prodigious raper of indigenous women)”
That’s about what I think when I hear that, especially after what he did to indigenous peoples during the post-rebellion years.
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I think the fable of the cherry tree is funny as I remember about 25 years ago when I met a woman visiting Washington, DC from Hong Kong and she took her son on a tour to Mount Vernon. Her son went out asking where the cherry tree was that GW chopped down. Apparently they read the myth there too.
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As mythology, no fact checking is allowed! Just repeating what I was taught at school in America:
Well, you’re not big on fact checking anyway. But you sure do love to parody, That way you can put words in others mouths through gross exaggeration. It’s childish. Then, again, we both know this post was a tantrum in response to my comment on your last post. You have no idea how entertaining I find you. You’re my own private minstrel show. 🙂
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Cool kids play video games.
No. They don’t.
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This is a good article and when will we as a people learn the truth about George Washington? He was a slaveholding crook just like Thomas Jefferson and the rest! I don’t see any reason to honor or respect George Washington at all like I don’t see any reason to celebrate Columbus Day.
@Mstoogood4yall, I am with you on this on.
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I hate to admit it but I have found that I don’t care enough about “America’s” history to indulge in it more than I have in my life.
@ Kiwi
“You should play Assassin’s Creed III”—lol man you are way past me. I have yet to finish the first one (preoccupied with left 4 dead)
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@Da Jokah
Why post on a blog site and insult the owner?
It’s indecorous and degrades the discourse.
See here: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7c/Graham%27s_Hierarchy_of_Disagreement.svg
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Yep. That’s what they taught me in school, right down to the last word.
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Randy
Oh yeah? Well, how is that “discourse” working out for ya?
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Yes, “White” history books have traditionally mis-framed, distorted, revised, and ignored whole groups of people.
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@ kiwi
I played assassin’s creed series can’t wait for the new one, I like that it puts history facts in there lol learn as u play.
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Yeah, that cherry tree business. I always sounded corny to me.
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*It* (typo above)
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Hello Abagond. This is ‘I really have to select a username and stick with it’. This is the name I am going to use to comment now. Hopefully it will make it easier to comment even when I am away from my personal computer.
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@ Kiwi
Yes, I watched the whole game story. I loved how they painted GW as a tyrant (which he was) and that they made the Native American protagonist a true patriot hero.
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Da Jokah
You’re my own private minstrel show.
Laughed out loud at that one!
To the body of posters here; Are there any white men from the founding of this country that you have your respect?
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Should have been
“Are there any white men from the founding of this country that have your respect?”
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@ Riverside Rob
Ben Franklin.
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@ Petulant Pandemonium Perpetrating Panda
Well you chose a long one, but congrats on a new name.
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RiversideRob:
I just found this on Wikipedia under “Founding Fathers”:
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So many Northerners owned slaves. How evil and cruel is that!?
And why did it take the election of President Obama for our whole nation to learn that slaves built the capitol and other buildings of D.C.?!
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@Sharina.
Thank you.:-)
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a “white” mythology? how racist of you. Perhaps the “black” mythology is just as much bullshit as this version. Realize that as the printing press was just invented, word of mouth was the method of communication….early Americans relied on stories to generate the interest needed to “pass the word along”.
And as far as so many Northener’s owning slaves, are we going to talk about how slavery was originally brought to us by the North Africans? No, I’ll bet we’ll forget all that now, conveniently…..
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Funny how “Arabs” (who are “white” in today’s America) are transformed into “North Africans”, when it suits white mythologies…
This no more than a combination of Africans-sold-their-own-people-into-slavery + the Arab Trader arguments rolled into one! Cute.
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@ RW
How is it racist? Speaking generally, Blacks, Whites and Native Americans have markedly different views of George Washington. To Natives he was a conqueror who killed women and children and burned down towns. To Blacks he was a slave owner. To Whites he is a hero – because he fought for THEM. Were you expecting something different?
The Black version, it turns out, is far more nuanced than the White or Native American version:
We did not forget that:
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He inherited Mount Vernon from his step brother Lawrence who along with his wife both died and left it to George
He was an avid reader of the Bible and over time concluded slavery was wrong. His slaves were well cared for and they especially loved Martha and her daughter who made their clothes tended to them when sick and held celebrations for them among other benefits. Such a large estate needed workers however he stipulated they were to be freed after Martha’s death two years following his. Aged and elderly slaves were freed but were to be cared for all their needs by the descendants of Washington
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@ Jan Saylor
One “benefit” the slaves of Mount Vernon lacked was the most important——their freedom.
One of the most daring escapes from slavery was from Mount Vernon. George Washington’s celebrated chef, Hercules, slipped away never to be found.
The Philadelphia Inquirer states:
http://www.philly.com/philly/food/restaurants/Inq_HT_hercules.html
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@ Afrofem
I was curious about why Hercules was put on hard labor. I followed your link to the two-part story about Hercules.
http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/craig_laban/20100222_A_birthday_shock_from_Washington_s_chef.html
According to it, historians now believe that after Martha Washington’s maid Oney Judge escaped from the presidential residence in the free state of Pennsylvania, the Washingtons transferred Hercules back to Mount Vernon in the slave state of Virginia to prevent his following Judge’s example.
It isn’t entirely clear, though, why Hercules wasn’t assigned to the Mount Vernon kitchens. Instead:
No wonder Hercules decided to flee.
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@ Jan Saylor
George Washington only freed his slaves.
Martha Washington owned slaves who were part of her dower and who would be inherited by the children of her first marriage (family name of Custis). George Washington could not legally free them, and Martha never did.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martha_Washington
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@ Solitaire
Thanks for going deeper.
I find it interesting when contemporary Americans try to cast slavery as some sort of familial relationship, complete with mutual obligation and respect. They tend to forget that slaves were just high priced livestock to their “owners”. As the article termed them, that “species of property”.
The slaves never forgot that for a moment. The yearning for freedom never faded, no matter how “privileged” a particular slave was from day to day.
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I am always amazed at ignorant apologist of slavery Oh slavery wasn’t that bad they were well fed and had a roof over their heads. (Turns of sarcasm button and rolling my eyes).
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Washington and Jefferson both racist slave owners who didn’t see the humanity of black people.
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The lack of freedom is key to everything.
If Hercules had been a free man and a paid servant, maybe he still would have found himself in a situation where he was taken off of skilled work and assigned to hard manual labor.
But as a free man, he could have quit and looked elsewhere for employment. Or if he’d saved enough, he could have gone into business for himself with an eating establishment or bakery. He might have been able to sue his former employer for breach of contract.
As a slave, he didn’t have the freedom to do any of this when Washington stopped treating him decently.
According to the Wiki entry on Hercules, he was owned by George Washington and was in fact made legally free after Washington’s death (although he may never have known it).
But his wife was one of Martha Washington’s dower slaves. Their children “followed the condition of their mother” and were therefore also legally the property of Martha Washington. They were among the slaves divvied up among Martha’s grandchildren.
So if Hercules had remained at Mount Vernon, he would have eventually been freed, but not his wife or children. Forcibly sundering a family apart like that cannot be considered good or humane treatment.
I don’t know whether or not It’s true that Martha made clothes for the slaves and took care of them when they were sick. But even if she did, it doesn’t make up for the fact that she allowed families to be separated. Martha even did this while alive: she was going to give Oney Judge to a relative as a wedding present, which is why Judge fled when she did.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hercules_(chef)
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Dont forget he was a mason of some significance de americana
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Why do you mention whites built the White House when many people this day and age say black men build the White House as slaves. Who do we believe!
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