Along with many other plats, Washington drew A Plan of Major Law Washington's Turnip Field. In the mid-1740s, Washington surveyed five acres for A Plan of a Piece of Meadow called Hell Hole, Situate on the Potowmack near Little Hunting Creek. The formal training Washington received in surveying was complemented by practical experience in the field. Some exercises, such as the Art of Surveying and Measuring Land, provided instruction for practice surveys and included samples taken directly from William Leybourn's The Compleat Surveyor of 1657. Learn Moreĭuring George Washington’s early teenage years, he completed many school exercises in penmanship, comportment, and mathematics. Unable to extricate himself from slavery during his lifetime, Washington chose to free the 123 enslaved people he owned outright in his will. Economic and moral concerns led him to question slavery after the Revolutionary War, though he never lobbied publicly for abolition. Washington’s views on slavery changed over time. By 1799, the number of “dower slaves” at Mount Vernon had grown to 153 through natural increase, as children inherited the status of their mother. She retained life rights to these people but did not legally own them. When he married widow Martha Dandridge Custis in 1759, she brought 84 enslaved people to Mount Vernon as part of her “dower share” of her first husband’s estate. He would go on to inherit, purchase, rent, and gain control of more than 500 enslaved people at Mount Vernon and his other properties by the end of his life. Slavery was an integral part of Washington’s life from an early age.Īt age 11, he inherited 10 enslaved people from his father. The economy and social structure of Washington’s native Virginia depended on the labor of enslaved Africans and their descendants to cultivate cash crops like tobacco. The vast network of 18th-century transatlantic trade involved the flow of manufactured goods from Europe, enslaved people from Africa, and raw materials from the Americas. Like most elite Americans, the Washingtons were deeply entangled in a global commercial system that revolved around slavery. In addition to reading, writing, and basic legal forms, George studied geometry and trigonometry-in preparation for his first career as a surveyor-and manners-which would shape his character and conduct for the rest of his life. Private tutors and possibly a local school in Fredericksburg provided George and his siblings with the only formal instruction he would receive. However, after the death of their father, the family limited funds for education. His two older half brothers, Lawrence and Augustine, attended Appleby Grammar School in England. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Washington never attended college or received a formal education. There he learned the importance of hard work and efficiency. As the oldest of Mary's children, George undoubtedly helped his mother manage the Rappahannock River plantation where they lived. The income from what remained was just sufficient to maintain Mary Washington and her children. When he was eleven years old, his father Augustine died, leaving most of his property to George's adult half brothers. Little is known of George Washington's childhood, and it remains the most poorly understood part of his life. In 1738, they moved again to Ferry Farm, a plantation on the Rappahannock River near Fredericksburg, Virginia, where George spent much of his youth. Ferry FarmĪround 1734, the family moved up the Potomac River to another Washington property, Little Hunting Creek Plantation (later renamed Mount Vernon). George was the eldest of Augustine and Mary's six children: George, Elizabeth, Samuel, John Augustine, Charles, and Mildred. George's father was a leading planter in the area and served as a justice of the county court.Īugustine Washington's first wife, Jane Butler, died in 1729, leaving him with two sons, Lawrence and Augustine, Jr., and a daughter, Jane. George Washington was born at his family's plantation on Popes Creek in Westmoreland County, Virginia, on February 22, 1732, to Augustine and Mary Ball Washington.
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