Note: I wrote this using roughly equal parts Black, Native and White American sources. Words are colour-coded accordingly. See below for sources.
Hanadaguyus (1732-1799), better known as George Washington, was an American president, general and slave owner. Having become famous as an Indian killer, he won the nation’s independence from Britain during the so-called American Revolution.
1750s-1760s
Washington fought the French and Indians in the Ohio River valley to defend the land claims of wealthy Virginian planters. He showed great courage: as he tried to rally the troops, two horses were shot from under him and four bullets pierced his coat – yet he escaped unharmed.
Washington bought and sold Indian lands without tribes’ permission, fought and killed Indians without mercy. The father of his country massacred men, women and children.
Washington owned black slaves like his father did before him and his father’s father before that. He gave them his castoff plates and cups. He buried them in unmarked graves behind an outbuilding.
1770s
The revolt against Britain, while cast in a language of universal rights and freedoms, was also a blow against royal protection of Indian lands; and the revolt was led by those, such as Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington and Patrick Henry, with considerable financial stake in the acquisition of such lands.
Washington was fighting for the freedom of “whites only”. Rich whites, at that. After the so-called Revolution, you could not vote unless you were a white man and you owned a plot of land. It didn’t have anything at all to do with freedom, justice, and equality for all.
Some of Washington’s own slaves ran away to fight with the British, who promised “Liberty to Slaves”.
When his army entered the country of the Six Nations (Iroquois), the Seneca called him Hanadaguyus (“Town Destroyer”). Even years later when that name was heard, women looked behind them and turned pale, and children clinged close to the necks of their mothers.
1780s
Time and again, Washington’s tactics against the British saved his smaller, weaker force to fight another day. With French help, he defeated the British at Yorktown in 1781. Washington blocked the beaches with soldiers to prevent the escape of runaway slaves who had fought with the British.
The entire nation idolized him. Adoring soldiers crowded near him just to touch his boots when he rode by.
Washington slept with a black woman named Venus, his brother’s slave. She gave birth to his only son, West Ford.
Washington presided over the writing of the Constitution. He remained silent on the subject of slavery.
1790s
After the rebellion Washington became president. He waged war on Indians in the land now called Ohio. After a disastrous loss of an army under General St Clair in 1791, Washington sent a new army in 1794 under “Mad Anthony” Wayne. Wayne won the war at the Battle of Fallen Timbers.
He made treaties with Britain (1794) and Spain (1795) to help secure American claims to the land east of the Mississippi River.
Political parties grew out of the split in his cabinet: between Jefferson (Southern, democratic, states’ rights, pro-French) and Hamilton (Northern, capitalist, strong federal government, pro-British).
Sources: Notes towards a Black, White and Native history of George Washington.
See also:
- George Washington as a being of White Mythology – what my White American education taught me about Washington
- framing:
- The White Default – Whites as the unnamed centre
- The three pillars of American white supremacy – the real deal
- multiracial frame – what we should move towards
- Iroquois
- American slavery
- West Ford
- Mount Rushmore
Awesome, Awesome, Awesome. Darn it, Abagond, you should write a US history textbook! 🙂 Maybe the “mainstream” school system wouldn’t like it, but more high-minded schools just might…!
But in lieu of that, I’m curious: what is the best one can do right now to get this kind of amazingly-balanced picture of US history in general?
LikeLike
Would it make sense to replace “Washington” with “Hanadaguyus” in the red parts after the first paragraph?
LikeLike
Once again, abagond attempts to hide is racism behind a feigned concern for Native Americans. Most of this is a rehash of the same tripe I’ve debunked in earlier posts about Washington. But I’ll take a shot at one claim I haven’t addressed yet.
“Washington slept with a black woman named Venus, his brother’s slave. She gave birth to his only son, West Ford.”
There’s absolutely no evidence Washington was Ford’s father. Washington had a number of white staff as well as white indentured servants, any of whom could have fathered Ford. In fact, it’s widely believed Washington was unable to father children as a result of having contracted smallpox as an adult. That’s why he and his wife never had children. His wife had four children from a previous marriage. So she obviously had no problems in that department..
LikeLike
Great work!
LikeLike
And once again Da Jokah is upset that abagond is not writing a post about something he approves of. They cycle continues.
LikeLike
The color-coding on this report on Washington is a nice touch.
Sharina,
Da Jokah hates it when white people are cast in a bad light, even when their actions have been documented. But he delights when black people are criminalized and sees no hypocrisy in that kind of thinking. This is coming from a guy that thinks black racism is worst than white racism. lol
LikeLike
Concerning West Ford
http://www.westfordlegacy.com/fordbio.html
LikeLike
Did you mention that Washington also struggled with the issue of slavery, and at the end of his life fulfilled his promise to free his slaves? Apparently, in his time and for generations afterward he was regarded by all Americans as one of the greatest men, or, if you prefer, figures, in world history. Given the opportunity to choose their own names, a large number of American, newly freed slaves, chose the name “Washington” in his honor. Unless, you believe they were just simpletons who picked the first name that came to mind or the only one they knew, other than their former master’s family name, this has to be taken as a token of the esteem Washington was held in.
Nevertheless, many whites thought Washington was stuffy and not really of first rate intellect compared to figures like Jefferson, Adams and Madison, among other. Whites today still hold this view.
One Native American chief after fighting Washington expressed the view that Washington was a special man under divine protection, who could not be harmed in battle.
King George III in conversation offered the view that he might be the greatest man of the age. Maybe Washington is viewed unrealistically in the American context, but held too low in the world context.
One offshoot of the American independence movement, however, was that the issue of slavery was not given enough attention. The North may have fought for independence. The South fought to preserve slavery against the possibility of future British legal restrictions on the institution. The constitution gave Southern property owners representation they did not deserve based on their own numbers. The trouble between North and South existed before the American Revolution. It continued on not only after the Civil War but after the end of legal segregation and the end of any significant sentiment in South for restoring legal segregation.
LikeLike
@ Anonymike
Struggled? Oh please. Do not make me vomit. That was great news for his 227 slaves, certainly, but it was too late for the millions in chains, for a country he set adrift towards civil war. While in office he sided with slave owners. He opposed Ben Franklin on ending the slave trade. He called the Underground Railroad “oppression” against slave owners. THAT is the kind of MAN he was. Being such a big hero to WHITE PEOPLE he could have DONE SOMETHING. But he did not DO SHIT.
His wealth depended on Dead Indian Land and Black People in Chains. He practised both genocide and slavery and kept them structurally IN PLACE for the country. That is YOUR hero.
LikeLike
With one broad sweep you seem to be flattering George Washington at the expense of those ex-slaves’ use of symbolism and independent thought.
It seems you are saying Washington was being consciously “honoured” because numbers of freed slaves were choosing “Washington” as their last name. How do you know for certain that “honouring” him was their intention?
How do you know these ex-slaves were even thinking of George Washington when they named themselves?
I doubt if anyone knows for sure, but it a flattering assumption to George Washington to fancy this was the reason the surname was chosen.
Couldn’t they, as thinking and informed people, have thought of ways to forge an American identity for themselves instead, and have chosen something symbolic of their own struggle?
As for Booker T. Washington, in his autobiography he says something like he picked the name Washington because it was the first one that came to mind when the teacher asked what his surname was. At that point he only knew himself as Booker. He didn’t do that because he was a simpleton…perhaps the name was famous and familiar to him as a schoolchild. He doesn’t say why.
LikeLike
The above comment for Anonymike.
LikeLike
“Washington had a number of white staff as well as white indentured servants, any of whom could have fathered Ford.”
_ _ _
Yes, that one guy among Washington’s white employees who looked an awful lot like George himself.
*
“In fact, it’s widely believed Washington was unable to father children as a result of having contracted smallpox as an adult. That’s why he and his wife never had children. ”
_ _ _
That widespread belief is neither proof nor evidence of Washington’s infertility.
*
“His wife had four children from a previous marriage. So she obviously had no problems in that department. ”
_ _ _
Problems sometime do arise, though, don’t they? And female infertiliy, especially in women from their mid to late 20s and onward, was not an uncommon “problem” during the 18th century.
Martha Washington (and for whichever possible reason) may very well have been infertile by the time she married George.
And who is to say, as well, that their marriage was not a sexless one?!
LikeLike
another great post that reexamines american history (currently the most dominant due to this being a global empire) and includes the voices of those (black and native american) traditionally ignored.
And of course “white” commentors that just can’t confront the fact that many if not most of their alleged greatest achievements and hero’s are just theft and murder by thieves ,lairs and murders.
LikeLike
and I also like that smack down abagond just gave to one of the usual suspects…
LikeLike
The Father of our country(LULZ) and i too think the color coding is special. Naturally the perspective of the white man is a sanitized version.
LikeLike
Anonymike wrote:
“Given the opportunity to choose their own names, a large number of American, newly freed slaves, chose the name “Washington” in his honor. Unless, you believe they were just simpletons who picked the first name that came to mind or the only one they knew, other than their former master’s family name, this has to be taken as a token of the esteem Washington was held in.”
_ _ _
Yes according to my sources freed slaves generally chose a surname for themselves rather than being forced to take on their last massa’s surname as is widely and erroneously believed (some “freedmen”, though, did choose to go by their slaveholder’s name). A surname from a famous person or family, whether nationally or locally known (and for whichever reason) was on the menu of choices.
The surnames “Washington” and “Jackson” (most likely after the 7th POTUS, Andrew Jackson) are just two examples.
LikeLike
Scientist & inventor George Washington Carver seems to be an obvious example of a Black person named after the first president, though not in regards to his surname.
LikeLike
“Yes, that one guy among Washington’s white employees who looked an awful lot like George himself.”
West Ford was not born on Washington’s estate but on the estate of his half brother who lived 90 miles away.. a two day ride. However he did apparently look like one of George Washington’s nephews, Bushrod. (Who left property to West Ford in his will..) Given his light complexion, his close relationship with the Washington’s brother’s family, and the fact that he was the only slave freed on the plantation I’d say it’s very likely West Ford was related to Washington but more likely the child of one of his nephews.
“That widespread belief is neither proof nor evidence of Washington’s infertility.”
True but having children to pass on your legacy was very important in that age. George Washington married Martha when he was 26 and she was 27. She was a widow who have born children with her previous husband so it is unlikely she was infertile at the time of her marriage to Washington.
“It is not impossible that West Ford’s father was one of Hannah’s three sons, all of them young, unmarried men at the time of his birth: in 1784 Bushrod was 21, Corbin 19, and Augustine 17.
Bushrod, who later inherited Mount Vernon and became a Justice of the United States Supreme Court, is an obvious candidate. He took West Ford to Mount Vernon, where he served as a carpenter and foreman. Bushrod also left West Ford a tract of land in his will.
”If you compare pictures of West Ford with Bushrod Washington, they look a lot alike,” said Philander Chase, who followed Dr. Twohig as editor of Washington’s papers.
Ms. Thompson suggests another possibility. When Augustine, the youngest son, died in the gun accident, his parents were distraught. Augustine ”possesed as sweet a disposicion as ever a Youth did,” his father wrote to George Washington, adding ”I wish to God Mrs Washington could have borne this loss as well as myself — but the shock was too great for her infirm frame to bear with any tolorable fortitude, upon the first communication she fell into a Strong Convulsion which continued for some time, and when that went of, she lay for near four hours in a state of insencibility, when her reason returned her grief did also and she had a return of the Fit.”
Could Hannah have freed West Ford because she believed him to be Augustine’s son? Oral traditions often have large elements of truth ”but sometimes things get a little skewed,” Ms. Thompson said.”
For another, there is no evidence that Washington ever met Venus. Unlike Sally Hemings, who was a personal attendant of Jefferson, Venus lived on a distant estate belonging to Washington’s half brother John Augustine Washington. The plantation was at Bushfield, one and a half to two day’s hard riding from Mount Vernon, Washington’s home.
To relate their family tradition to known historical facts, Ms. Bryant and Ms. Allen have suggested that George Washington visited his brother in April 1784 for the funeral of John Augustine’s 17-year-old son, also named Augustine, who was killed in an accident.
”We believe that is when he had the relationship with Venus,” Ms. Bryant said. ”Venus was made available to him for his comfort.”
Historians disagree. Mary V. Thompson, a research specialist at Mount Vernon, said she had consulted many records but could find no evidence that Washington and Venus were ever in the same place at the same time.
West Ford, Venus’s son, seems to have been born before June 1784, or possibly before November 1785, according to an ambiguous statement in the will of Hannah Washington, John Augustine’s wife, Ms. Thompson said. Only the later date allows any possibility that George Washington was the father: he was away fighting the Revolutionary War and did not return home to Mount Vernon until Christmas Eve 1783.
LikeLike
It is interesting that you directed your responses to my comment rather than Da that of the Jokah, which mine was in respone to in the first place, Uncle Milton.
The first remark of mine about the servant who looked like Washington was meant to be facetious for your information.
And earlier proof /evidence of fertility is not proof of continued fertility, it just isn’t. Infections in her reproductive tract can effect a woman’s ability to conceive, even nowadays, but most especially 300 years ago, well before the advent of penicillin.
Otherwise than that, thank you, as your comment was quite informative.
LikeLike
“The first remark of mine about the servant who looked like Washington was meant to be facetious for your information.”
Yes, as I did manage to catch the part in Abagond’s article where it is stated that West Ford’s mother was Venus, a slave held by not by George himself but by George’s brother.
LikeLike
To Pay it Forward
“The first remark of mine about the servant who looked like Washington was meant to be facetious for your information.”
Yes.. I understood that.. but …Venus didn’t live on Washington’s plantation but on the plantation of his half brother who lived more than 2 days away… and as I noted West Ford did look like a Washington.. Bushrod Washington…who left land in his will to West Ford.
“And earlier proof /evidence of fertility is not proof of continued fertility, it just isn’t. Infections in her reproductive tract can effect a woman’s ability to conceive, even nowadays, but most especially 300 years ago, well before the advent of penicillin.”
True.. but as Abagond notes … aside from Martha to have children with.., George Washington had over 200 slaves on his plantation and apparently this is no record of him fathering children with any of them. Of course it could have happened and we never heard about it.. but an absence of any record of children with his wife or any of his slaves.. raises further doubt in my mind that he could produce children.
Quite unlike the situation with Jefferson and Sally Hemmings were one has to go through many twists and turns to rationalize how Jefferson could not have fathered children with Hemmings.
LikeLike
To Pay if Forward…
“Yes, as I did manage to catch the part in Abagond’s article where it is stated that West Ford’s mother was Venus, a slave held by not by George himself but by George’s brother…”
Ahh ok…
LikeLike
My apologies for the typos in these last few comments.
LikeLike
This post is a stroke of genius. It literally turns a two-dimensional page into a three-dimensional object.
LikeLike
Milton “Quite unlike the situation with Jefferson and Sally Hemmings were one has to go through many twists and turns to rationalize how Jefferson could not have fathered children with Hemmings.”
Rumors during Jefferson’s lifetime centered on Thomas Woodson, who was said to have been one of Hemings‘ children. But tests of three Woodson descendants failed to show a link to Jefferson family DNA. Also, no documentation supports claims he was even Hemings‘ child.
Oral tradition from Eston Hemings’ family initially said he was not the son of the president, but rather of an “uncle” — which the scholars think is a reference to Randolph Jefferson, the president’s brother, who would have been referred to as “uncle” by Jefferson’s daughters.
There’s a letter in the archives at the University of Virginia written from Thomas Jefferson to his brother on August 12, 1807 inviting Randolph to Monticello. That was nine months before Sally hatched Eston who was the DNA match.
LikeLike
I want to put up an omnibus reply to all of the people who responded to my comment about George Washington. More than anything, I wanted to make note of the idea that there were other possible takes on Washington, white, native and black. My view of Washington falls more into the idea that he was stuffy and not intellectually on par with figures like Adams, Jefferson, and Madison. I don’t call him one of my heroes, but he was important, one of the greats of world history really. A lot of new ideas right here in this forum. What were the various reasons why so many freed slaves chose the name “Washington”? How did the circumstances of American independence put America on the path to an apocalyptic resolution of the slave question and on the path to brutal showdowns over so many other social issues, later civil right issues and other issues as well right up to this day? What was the place of Washington in a world context, not just an American context. All important.
Back to the name, since that seems to be so important. I am sure there were many reasons why individual freed slaves chose the name “Washington”. Some may have considered him a great. Others may have had more prosaic motives. I always go back to the idea that we all breath the same air. The idea of Washington as one of the greatest men who ever lived, maybe in the minds of some Americans, the greatest , was in the air back then. Not that we believe that. But that’s not the point. The people of the time in America believed that. That’s why I think people often were honoring the idea, if not the man, in choosing that name.
How can someone not think that Washington struggled with the idea that slavery was inconsistent with the stated ideals of the new republic? Maybe not as hard as some others. But he had to have struggled. Why would he have freed his own upon his death if he hadn’t considered that there was a moral dilemma in the institution?
LikeLike
This is not a comment to George Ryder, but an appeal to the others to explain his comments to me.
I don’t get that at all. Washington was POTUS when Franklin died. Washington turned 58 (1790-1732) when Franklin died. Who would call that “very old”?
The transatlantic importation of African slaves was legal for almost 10 years after Washington died and legal slavery continued for 65 years after his death. He certainly left his successors to deal with it. The problems that led to the civil war were already there when he “founded” the nation and became the first President.
He didn’t struggle with it too much. What he had was likely “cognitive dissonance” – he knew that there was something not quite right with owning slaves, but he certain acquired more of them throughout his life and enjoyed its benefits. After all, he was born and raised in Virginia and it was already a way of life by the time he was growing up.
LikeLike
@Pay it Forward
Since many slaves were fathered by the slaveowner or by men in the slaveowner’s household, is it possible that many took the surname of their actual father?
LikeLike
Yes it is possible, Jefe, and it probably occurred much more often than is assumed. I have a suspicion that this was the case with at least one maternal great, great grandfather of mine.
I myself have noticed a tendency for those who write off the European surnames of Black Americans as being alien and having been in some way or another forced on freedmen, never seem to take into consideration that a portion of those freedmen might necessarily have been carrying the surname of their own father.
LikeLike
George Ryder “what does it matter what they did? it matters what we do.”
You’ll get no argument from me. But others have an agenda they wish to justify through historical revisionism.
LikeLike
The excerpt below concerns secondary infertility, a term for infertility in women who have already given birth one or more times. It has MULTIPLE possible causes.
As it is not uncommon today, I sincerely doubt it would have been all that UNcommon an occurrence centuries ago.
“Angie, 29, checked in with her obstetrician, who diagnosed secondary infertility — the inability to get pregnant after having given birth one or more times. “When he told me this was a common problem, I was shocked. I didn’t think infertility applied to people who’d already had kids.” In fact, according to RESOLVE, the national infertility association, secondary infertility accounts for more than half of all infertility cases. And as the Malchoses discovered, the struggle can take a devastating toll on moms and dads.”
Source: http://www.parenting.com/article/why-cant-we-have-another-baby
LikeLike
@ George Ryder
Washington was president then.
In 1786 in a letter to Robert Morris. He said what the Quakers were doing (the Underground Railroad) was inhumane. It was an act of “oppression” against slave owners. It made slaves discontented and unhappy and “seduces” them to run away.
LikeLike
@ Jefe
I thought of calling him Hanadaguyus throughout, but thought it best to stick as close to what the sources said, including their terminology.
LikeLike
@ mike4ty4
Read about American history by reading books by White, Black, Asian, Latino and Native American authors. Here some that I use:
Unfortunately, most American authors mainly just write about the history of their own race in America. Other races appear only to the degree that they affect that history.
LikeLike
I wrote a post on West Ford. There I concluded that, based on what we know at this point, George Washington is the most likely father, though I could not rule out Bushrod or Corbin:
LikeLike
@ George Ryder
George, you keep testing people’s patience, and it’s quite irritating. Is appearing here some type of joke to you?
You wrote: “what does it matter what they did? it matters what we do.”
What you do today, is what others used to do yesterday/yesteryear, or semblance thereof; it called CULTURE – It’s the language you speak; it’s the god you worship; it the farming technique one employs; it’s the music to which you listen; it’s what George Washington and men of his era thought and did, which was later passed to the next generation and the many generations after them – CULTURE! CULTURE! It’s the connected dots; it is a continuum!
As I commented on another blog a few weeks ago, – a very long post, I might add – will excerpt portions of it with a few modifications to answer your question and comment:
“What many white men,” and some others, “fail to understand is: a culture can never be obliterated and discarded on thrash heap of antiquity in one, two, three or even four generations.This could only happen if the people from said culture ceases to exist. Most of the white males responding to the author’s article, it is clear, see themselves as “just a white man/guy, who is supposedly culture-less or is trying their utmost to deconstruct white men from the culture they created and sustained for over half of a millennium against “Blacks/POC” in the West and West-Like societies, even when they (white men/white women) constitute a minority in those (West-Like) societies.”
As I’ve indicated to you (George) on another topic on this blog, “being white/pale skin IS NOT THE ISSUE, but what is symbolises in the Americas, possibly less so in Europe and other western-like societies. Whites will pretend, or actually do believe, that they are an empty shell, has a “sepulchereous” (my word) existence, devoid of thought, a culture, perniciously brutal in the past, with nothing of that culture being passed to, and having any effects on future generations, and how the culture manifests itself today.”
Do you believe that the way white people view black people isn’t the legacy of slavery? For over two hundred years, and possibly eight, nine, ten generations, Whites were schooled that Blacks were inferior; they created umpteen dogmas, performed deeds, and even developed so called science, to postulate that inferiority – their thoughts and actions became the CULTURE. They were so sociologically mired in it, that after slavery was abolished, they could not conceive them (former blacks slaves) to be their equals – to me that is understandable – a culture just doesn’t disappear, as I’ve posited above.
Why is it so hard to grasp the concept of “culture” Why are you so hell bent on being “white,” and, are you learning anything from being here?
This is not meant to belittle you, but are you an adult? If you aren’t, then I’ll understand.
LikeLike
@ George Ryder
Thanks for responding.
“But I suppose I am child like because I’d rather believe in myths, this “reality” non-sense is not fun at all. Give me the blue pill, ignorance is bliss”
Not sure what you’re talking about, but we’ll let sleeping dogs lie.
LikeLike
it called CULTURE – It’s the language you speak; it’s the god you worship; it the farming technique one employs; it’s the music to which you listen:
Should read:
…it’s called CULTURE – It’s the language you speak; it’s the god you worship; it’s the farming technique one employs…
LikeLike
@Pay it Forward
I honestly believe that under the conditions they gave birth back then that it could have been more common. Though I guess it can be said that discussing these things with men is like discussing it with a wall.
LikeLike
You’ll get no argument from me. But others have an agenda they wish to justify through historical revisionism.
I agree, Jokah. And thank you very much for being a prime example of that. 🙂
LikeLike
@George Ryder,
“what does it matter what they did? it matters what we do.”
Are you serious? By that “logic”, one could claim that history doesn’t matter which would be rather strange reasoning in general and also in this case because “what they did” had actual consequences that we are still dealing with today.
LikeLike
What I don’t yet understand about George Washington is what motivated him.
He had wealth.
He had position and power, and is famous for declining it.
That seems noble and quite “Roman”.
Is that it — he wanted to be seen as having moral authority?
LikeLike
@ Bulanik
By the 1750s he and other Virginian planters had land claims in the Ohio River valley, in what is now the states of West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky and western Pennsylvania. In the French and Indian War he fought with the British to defend those claims. But then in 1763 the British made peace with Native Americans by not allowing White settlers west of the Proclamation Line of the 1763, which roughly ran along the Appalachian mountains:
That invalidated the land claims and investments of Washington, Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry and many others. Not only that, they were taxed to help the British maintain that line. It was not the only issue, but one of the big ones. Probably the main one as far as Washington was concerned.
By defeating the British, the Line was gone. Then, when he became president, he spent 80% of the government budget to fight Natives in what is now Ohio to open it to White settlement. He made treaties with Britain and Spain to get them to pull out of the region between the Appalachians and the Mississippi. They both had Native allies in that region and were keeping their fingers in the pie.
LikeLike
pay it forward “In fact, according to RESOLVE, the national infertility association, secondary infertility accounts for more than half of all infertility cases.”
Yes. But it’s not distributed equally among all ages. By 40 most women suffer secondary infertility. In ones early twenties few do. Men are just as likely to be the cause of a couple’s infertility as women. Considering Washington had not one but two diseases known to cause sterility — smallpox and tuberculosis — and he becomes the most likely reason for their inability to have a child.
As for Venus, she lived at his brother’s home 90 miles away. Not only is there no record of Washington having been there during the time she would have conceived but there was hardly a period during that time in which Washington’s was unaccounted for long enough to make the journey. The journey was described as a “two days hard ride.” So he would have had to ride 4 days, 180 miles round trip, to his brother’s house then immediately turn around and go home for the sole purpose of having sex with a slave whom there’s no reason to believe he even knew.
When you add Washington’s probable sterility to the journey and timing It all seems very unlikely that he’s Ford’s father. I find it utterly amazing anyone would think otherwise.
LikeLike
next thing he’s gonna tell me Larry Bird was a clansman.
Extreme, childish non-sequitur.
LikeLike
@ Abagond. Thank you very much for this information.
The map is an eye-opener, too, as US geography is a bit vague-sounding otherwise.
Maps are so helpful.
LikeLike
Destroyer of Towns the Native Americans nicknamed Washington. Hanadaguyus.
LikeLike
“When you add Washington’s probable sterility to the journey and timing It all seems very unlikely that he’s Ford’s father. I find it utterly amazing anyone would think otherwise.”
_ _ _
Da Jokah,
I have neither a dog in this race nor in the Jefferson-Hemings one; not in the way you and other white racialists apparently do. As far as I’m concerned, so what if G.Washington was Ford’s deadbeat daddy?! It is what it is. The sun will not stop shining on that basis alone.
And furthermore, anyone who would have known for sure is long dead. Conjecture, postulation and theorizing on this topic neither prove nor disprove West Ford’s paternity. My response to your comment was simply for the purpose of highlighting the very obvious flaws in your argument.
LikeLike
[…] "Note: I wrote this using roughly equal parts Black, Native and White American sources. Words are colour-coded accordingly. See below for sources.Hanadaguyus (1732-1799), better known as George Washington, was an American president, general and slave owner. Having become famous as an Indian killer, he won the nation’s independence from Britain during the so-called American Revolution…." […]
LikeLike
The portrayal of Washington is about as balanced and accurate as I’ve ever seen. What I find interesting is that the biggest outrage / discussion / brouhaha is over whether or not he fathered a multiracial child. sigh…
LikeLike
To Scott:
What I find interesting is that the biggest outrage / discussion / brouhaha is over whether or not he fathered a multiracial child.>/i>
I am not outraged.. I just think that the evidence does not support it unlike with Jefferson and Sally Hemmings.
LikeLike