Africans in America; 102; Revolution; Interview with John Ferling, Professor of History, University of Georgia

ok and journalist in his father worked hard on the landing own presumably alongside his slaves watch he left his son an inheritance inland slaves and wash and brothers have an eye toward three wheels that would be out the ohio company itself or was talking about what landed and were possibilities that afforded eighteenth century america i think for someone and the who aspired to be in the upper class part of the iliad or the aristocracy in virginia possession land was absolutely crucial it was the key to be coming a planned terrorist recruiter it meant that that person had an opportunity not only to be the most powerful individual and in his low cal but a powerful individual within the colony of virginia the more land that one owned the more powerful than individual committee i found that out you know with all new sleaze afford it in all aspects of life

require a lonely lose business or post well because and the ownership of slaves in colonial virginia was was together with what ownership of land crucial to being a planter a risk or encrypt crucial to being a member of the elite an average and so from the very beginning when washington what's a surveyor stolen adolescent actually he began acquiring land used his first paycheck in fact to acquire land and also they began acquiring soyuz he inherited ten slaves and his father's well when george was only twelve or thirteen years old his father passed away but by that time washington married and was in his late

twenties he had already acquired more than twenty stories so that he was his slave he was beginning to acquire more and more soy sterling from the times at the time he was a late teenager until a time he married at about the age of twenty seven and the letters he's a sleaze his father owned slaves and they were you know kind of what we know about washington's early experiences in his back i don't think washington probably like most white slave owners and virginia ever seems to have given much thought to the tone and slopes to two to them or relative of owning sort of has his parents' own story too his parents owned slaves his grandparents have been slave owners his older brothers were slave owners slave owning was common here on the northern edge of virginia where washington

grew up it was just a custom part of life and i don't think washington ever confronted the morality of slavery there's absolutely no evidence that washington thought in terms of the more olive uranium or olive slave owning before he left virginia to become commander of the continental army during the revolutionary war as opposed to grips with this is through something he urges material on a warship slavery or what my eyes and washington didn't leave much of a record with regard to its racial thanking before the revolutionary war so

i think we have to extrapolate from washington's behavior washington looked upon soyuz slave owning as a vehicle toward rising in virginia society and so he purchased soyuz scooter continuously was purchasing slaves from the seventeen sixties until he left to take command of of the revolutionary army during the american revolution and washington was so it was a difficult task there's at least one one instance before the revolutionary war and during which washington sold one of his slaves who were so recalcitrant slave to the washington coast causing problems he sold the soyuz to this desolate to the west indies which was tantamount probably to a death sentence for this one with his attitudes towards jews and i don't think there's any any indication he just

doesn't say anything and here's in his letters about his attitudes toward his endangered services difficult extrapolate from what was going on in virginia at the time some indentured servants were work very hard work to demonstrate justice lawyers were was no indication that washington did that but there's there's no indication in washington's lawyers of what he felt toward any particular story more toward an indentured servant we're generation or more oh he's got this decidedly strong admiration for english society and in western election we talk about his origin well i think washington conley wasn't too on typical of virginia a wrist aggressor or aspiring aristocrats and seventy and fifties

he lived in the colonies the province's the metropolis the metropolitan area and the empire was great britain and people from virginia for most of the other colonies didn't look toward other college that looked across the atlantic toward bridge and that's where the styles were certain washington i think was was not untypical in that respect washington tried to dress in a manner that was appropriate for gentry or aristocracy and again in one and he wanted to model his house along the lines of gentry is states and anyone he wanted to furnish its house as a gentleman and furnished his house and then when he was a mayor of things in and one has were probably most wealthy americans so in most wealthy virginians at that time tony snow towards lighter sentences

and the candidates did not look toward one another but their gaze was directed across the atlantic toward the mother country through the seventeenth and the eighteenth century the mother country was once the metropolitan center of the empire it was the area that they traded with far more than they traded with water so manet and ideas and fashions flowed from it apparent state across the atlantic to the college rather than from one call me to another today i'm talking about washington's lack of formal education and his awkward awkwardness of expressing ideas and essentially is an evolution into this fall silent washington had very little formal education and a dusty probably have one year of formal education so he was a self educated person i think probably the turning point for washington

was his contact with the fairfax family and particularly with his older half brother lawrence washington who would have the benefit of so years of education and hang on and had had me the benefit of some military experience during king george's well and it was his older half brother lawrence who inherited what he renamed mount vernon the state of washington racial gap and washington went to mount vernon to visit lauren at a visitor lawrence on numerous occasions and lawrence married into the fairfax family and fairfax is lily's george way in fairfax live next door to mount vernon at an estate car named belvoir and so washington from the time he was twelve or thirteen years old spanned a large portion of times each year have both mount vernon and i both or in those with those who reportedly large who were his role models he saw educated we

find sophisticated people for the first time and i think he tried to model his behavior on their behavior he saw what they were owed and began reading sense that they were reading he'd began taking dancing lessons and friend of fencing lessons and all of that was part of the training of a sophisticated cultured individual washington also when he was a very young man who acquired a book called rules of civility courtroom of yourself development he adds prepared by jesuits in seventeenth century france that made its weight in london and the english colonists and washington was influenced by their many of the the self help us were were pretty commonplace don't pick your teeth and

public don't scratch or cellphone public don't spit into the fire but many of the hints were hints about how to deal with other people even if somebody was in a lower economic station and you are treat that person in a civil manner and it became in a part of washington's behavior you don't have to watch and miles because it is he who really looked forward we're talking about the rules you can count one one washington was a young man still an adolescent he picked up a book called rules of civility that had been prepared by french jesuits in the seventeen century and it made its weight in london until the colonies in washington read that very closely took notes on it and for and to many have it was a self help book and many other suggestions were pretty commonplace

suggestions and don't scratch yourself in public don't spit into the fire don't pick your teeth and public but among the suggestions were suggestions about refining yourself improving yourself and how to get along with other people and in particular how to to get warm are treating other people even someone who was and in your social rank as in a sensible manor and work in washington's time the society was very structured there was is as one historian put it a place where everyone and everyone knew his pocket and washington was i think learned from that book to treat those who were in the lower social order and a soul manner that was certain the behavior that i think he tried to exercise throughout his life by working towards living

there were definitely than certainly oh it was through so many things including how we understand washington's view of how american society catholic washington lawyer floyd money aristocrats the college was influenced by what was fashionable in angola and then as he was rebuilding remodelling adding on to mount vernon which he did in those seventeen seventies when the seventeen eighties washington would write to people and ankle and asking them what were the fashionable colors and what kind of furniture was fashionable what was fashionable to be placed on mantles what was the proper style mantle it's in washington tried to

incorporate all of that and mount vernon he wanted to make mount vernon resemble the house that would be owned by gentry menuhin and one and so washington's lack of formal education and how that affected who he was and how he interacted with people in our public servants and they're in a formal situation washington was very self conscious of the fact that he had virtually no formal education and as he rose in power and he was of course dealing with people who were much better educated and then he wants people like john adams or alexander hamilton or thomas jefferson were college graduates most were warriors for

example and washington could not match three or four more education i mean i think when washington was a young man still in his teens and was influenced by lawrence washington was associated with the fairfax is who it had had been trained in the yangon washington and it felt self conscious about the fact that he had little formal training and so as a washington and he developed a manners m that remained was censor out his wife and he remained very quiet around other other people i think fearing that if he said something he would perhaps say the wrong for it was such a classic manner of keeping people at arm's length so that they would not discover what he read he thought were perhaps false and his character and in the long term i think washington's manner became the manner of somebody who was very appeared outsider jewelry to be very cold very reserved very good

grave individual someone who said very little and i think in part it was because of this insecurity that washington felt as a young man can you tell me more about the american colonies slave society wanted me to live and slices it if you don't own slaves even if you're in a region where there's slave population a small cacao a process that could be used you can help me understand what it means to live in slave society is you don't say it's even if your region with no i'm not a lot of work is now are safe why think that slavery existed of course in all thirteen colonies by the time of the american revolution was a it was a fact of life people realized that that

slavery existed and i think a good influence people's lives in a couple workers in the south where there were most of the stores for example i think quite workers are quite skilled workers found it more difficult to make a living and skilled laborers found in the north they found that they couldn't compete against slave labor and in fact there are some pamphlets and essays written as early as the american revolution our which attack slavery on the grounds not that that slaves are injured but on the grounds that quite skilled laborers are an injured by being unable to to compete and then of course there was always the possibility of slave insurrection concerns should something like that occur no one would say so that slavery was a fact of life

virtually everywhere energy into college i think it depended though in on where one whale as to how many soyuz one would say if you weren't for example almost anywhere in virginia you are likely to see more soyuz then you would if you had in pennsylvania you an intensive than you are likely to see more stories and if you have the philadelphia the nephew lived out in the rural area to chester county west of philadelphia for example as for george washington with george and then martha customs married an early january seventeen fifty nine george had just resigned from the virginia regiment metal long ride from fort pitt present a whisper back to virginia for his wedding he arrived at martha's home about a week before the wedding and you're probably

have some business to have to work out she was bringing a dowry to to the merit she was the wealthiest willow supposedly in virginia sue abramowitz and business negotiations the transport washington as mineral time was martha literally only a few days and all of his life with mark so ago we wanted to get to know her ll she had a sign by previous marriage and john parke custis or jackie it was called was about four years old and a daughter and named after herbert call passive by everyone who was about two years old george bravo we wanted to get to know the two children as well the wedding took place in early january seventeen fifteen bitterly cold day friends were invited and came from all over virginia to the ceremony and it was a festive occasion for them an opportunity for them to get out of the isolation which they lived and manga with other balls

so at that time weddings or are court sessions or sessions of the colonial so you're even funerals could be a festive occasion because again an opportunity for adults to meet with other adults for a couple and so they began coming in a day or so before the wedding and there was a dance a ball on the evening before the wedding then the wedding took place performed by an anglican priest at one o'clock in the afternoon and after the wedding and there was a great feast followed by another ball that evening it was her i think great fun great entertainment great past time for the gas attack for the slaves and servants at martha's plantation it was just another hard day of exceedingly difficult work because they probably spend days and days and days probably preparing

for the festivities and just in terms of the few details morgan's dress with candles in return of all the little things that go into it content for martha ordered her dress from enron and it was so yellow soaked her ascension or a red and white and pink ribbons with darius washington war of blue velvet suit that he ordered for the weather there was just enormous preparation that would go into something like that was preparing food preparing the banquet table preparing all of the facilities arranging for our guest quarters for numerous people who were coming in from outside the festivities lasted about three days but the worker would have gone into it for the workers at martha's

plantation would have required days and days of preparation and probably days and days of work cleaning out fall kate washington's marriage to martha was extremely important to george washington from an economic point of view because martha was reportedly the wealthiest willow in virginia at that time and the loss of virginia her properly transferred to her husband although she was free to leave her property whomever she plays an she did leave most of her soyuz to her son john jackie or john parke custis you after other parts of her property to her daughter patsy but washington's is possession of stores are increased enormously shortly after that the marriage washington owned about twenty

stories at the time he married an early and seventeen fifty nine he acquired thirteen soyuz that first year that he married and i suspect it was probably mostly from the money that martha bought brought to the marriage and in fact by the end of seventy and sixty two years after washington had mary washington home to about forty nine slaves so we can see martha have probably married george washington one can only guess at this point i suspect but martha saw washington as somebody who was an up and coming number of the virginia aristocracy he had been a dashing soldier in the virginia regiment commander of that regimen for for over the past five years he had led virginia

to two military victory during the french and indian ward least in the sense that they had acquired what they were shooting for the possession of the headwaters of the ohio rhode island washington was in possession of mount vernon by that time so he was not a terribly well they plan to aristocratic but an individual so it had the potential for being a wealthy alum planter and a political power in virginia as well streets were transformed george washington merry are moving up and that higher echelon

of society george washington's marriage to martha was really crucial because from an economic standpoint because of the wealth that she brought to the marriage washington had inherited about counselors when he was still an adolescent unknown about wanting slaves at the time that he married more but he acquired their chancellor's during the first year that they were married and i think at the end of about twenty four months of their marriage washington's slaves numbered about fifty altogether so that her wealth made washington who was well known in virginia as a soldier potentially wealthy planter and then he used her wealth to embarrass them one and two in boston stories and his wild goose statue steadily through seventeen sixties and seventies no

way now i think it's just difficult to get an amorphous mind and no one more so than we wanted them there and watch and precisely or whether we can probably guess in washington was in his late twenties and he was a very impressive figure but sixty three inches tall wife and tram weighed about a hundred and ninety pounds at that point was a well known figure in virginia because he had commanded the virginia regiment are for four of five years during the french and then in war ultimately year his army had succeeded in taking french positions at the hotel the ohio river washington had enormous potential not just as a planter aristocrat but as a power in virginia that he already was a member of the colonial so in the house the burgess is in virginia

so watermarks i think must have been attracted to washington both for him for his physical attributes and for his his potential but i think washington had gradually become a better educated person a refined person and those qualities in washington might have attracted martha to have that stature with people around washington was extraordinarily tall for the time he was sixty three inches tall and at that time at born american management to really stood about five feet seven inches tall wears a european born male that literally stood only about five feet four inches tall so washington literally power over his contemporaries there are a number of descriptions of washington by contemporaries that indicate washington was a very powerful and a virtual men with broad shoulders

enormous upper body strength tiny waist probably weighed about a hundred and ninety pounds when he was in his mid twenties for example he was a graceful individual number of eyewitnesses describe washington an athletic times and their judgment of a couple episodes i'm in the eighteenth century was the grace with which he comported himself in particular has horsemanship a number of virginians including thomas jefferson said that washington was the most graceful a horseman in eighteenth century virginia so i think washington carver figure that'll where the number of people are live most virginians to stand in all of them and early in his career plans in the traditional question about himself that emergencies

nominee is part of the larger settlements how these events contributors since the us and between the colonists are beginning to present us and then congress and and washington was an extremely bright farmer washington had difficulty with his tobacco early on and initially washington responded on is if he couldn't couldn't determine what was happening what was causing yes even blaming people in animal and for his difficulties is a farmer the washington learned from his problems as a farmer and as a tobacco plant and very quickly converted from tobacco planting over to her growing wheat and i was an astute move by washington who isn't there rape smart farmer most virginia planners did not make a move until after the revolutionary war and many of them

lost their shirts financially as a result washington was not in debt at the time the revolutionary war broke out at least in part because he hadn't made the switch to producing we'd rather than tobacco as early as the mid seventies and sixties there was the only reason that washington wasn't under his stepdaughter patsy died of an epileptic seizure audience in the early seventies seventies and washington was able to sell her assets and use the money that he acquired from those sales to retire his debt what we went through again it was washington converted to growing wheat he probably needed fewer saw this it was a less labor

intensive activity than was tobacco farm oh what washington did was to diversify his business interests he not only produced cuidado little bit of tobacco and mount vernon but how he also developed a fishing industry he bought a couple of fishing vessels which you used on the potomac river and soyuz were employed in that industry to produce what he had some of his slaves at mt vernon who were working in the fields and spinning and sewing and producing fabric out what she's so i became interested in trying to develop a canal that would like the chesapeake to the ohio river and washington use lawyers and dad and are so washington was really more than just a former you as a businessman and i had been may have moved in the direction of being a businessman because he had a labor

support that he could use more interested in washington's size instead barron george washington was a very impressive individual for the physical he's still about sixty three engines tall at a time when maybe born american man at literally stood about five feet seven inches tall and a european born male that literally stood only about five feet four inches tall to washington literally tower over his contemporaries he was impressive to from the accounts that that are left in that that he was a very powerful individual number of accounts describe washington as a young man as he has been

very broad shouldered having a tiny waist her manner considerable upper body strength of the charles wilson peale the painter painted washington and his family and mount vernon are nearly seventeen seventies when washington was about forty years of age and he'll describe a day when he had a number of workers at the plantation were trying to throw some heavy object to see who could throw out the first loser the washington came out on the porch and watch them laughter and came over and picked up the object and through it much further than any of them had been able to win them said to them how one one of you could be then i'll come back and try again here's a message i think in the sense that he was regarded as an athletic terms by members of his own but by his contemporaries and they didn't judge f letter so some in the sense of being a baseball player or football player obviously but in the sense of the

grace with which one walk and particularly in one's capabilities as a horseman and many regions including thomas jefferson described your washington as the most graceful horsemen of his age and that was situated on the potomac river washington is making carson plans going into our way talking about training the dismal swamp region water norway's life everyday life waterways were always extremely crucial for the columnist even in the great migration along puritans to new england for example the beginning of the seventeenth century we're historians talk about the landing field up by twenty thousand immigrants and annan says obviously not every

square inch was so that was filled up in the sense that people wanted to sell mayor koeser one of the subtle waterways so that so much of the good land was taken that people moved out of the boston area rather quickly had to move around to find good land along other water wars and other column insurgents as connecticut and rhode island and new hampshire about and waterways were crucial because that was those were their highways those were their legs to the outside world today how a modern city like atlanta develops not because of the chattahoochee river that runs through the city but because three interstate highways our run through the city but in the eighteenth century water was the high water lanka america to europe for lent one colony to another or appoint one part of a colony to another part of that

same province and water was extremely crucial for washington who envisioned blanking the atlantic to the west while waterways the chesapeake was like to the atlantic the potomac river was like to the chesapeake and what washington wanted to do was like the potomac river to the ohio river and in fact i think if you stand at mount vernon you can walk and see the beginnings of the mountains and you can see the vista that might have influenced washington as he thought about linking the potomac and the west and washington became a businessman an investor and eventually after the revolutionary war the prisoner of something called the potomac and now company that endeavored to make that dream come true he didn't succeed because the technology that would make him our successes in the nineteen century wasn't

present in the eighteenth century it was an idea that was really ahead of its time and washington's time there's some concern in washington becoming a few more and i think by the by the late seventeenth sixties i think there's an enormous transition that occurs in washington i think it occurs and seventeen sixty eight and seven and sixty nine when the british levy the townsend duties on america by that time washington has spent a great deal of time in the west his vision is to ward the west he wants to play a role in the opening of the west and washington i think increasingly feels hey a bird by the british not just by british tax is in fact not even so much by british texas as by the british government that wants to tighten its control

over america washington i think was moving rapidly in the direction half american autonomy he was beginning to see himself not just as a virginian who live in america which is the way most virginians have looked upon themselves for the past hundred and fifty years but as an american who lived in america and i think that was a transition that can gradually for washington through the seventeen fifties and the seventies and sixties but i think he has made the transition about a half a dozen years before the declaration of independence duties mr kelly a situation with a win will be like a black submarines we have such voters slick and seventy three genes i can see it clear as a columnist for slate and british and can explain the province of the

references to slavery within the revolutionary rhetoric i think an increasingly as you move through the weight seven and sixties another the early seventies and seventies colonial pamphleteers and colonial essayist began to draw an analogy that twain did the slave system with that that that there were people who owned slaves and victimized those people who were slaves and they drew an analogy to what they believed the english were attempting to do to the calmness and they were attempting to oppress the college they were attempting they said to you to make slips of the calmest it was an idea that began to grow and was an idea that george hw washington expressed he talked to all the mistreatment of slows and use that as an analogy him describing what he regarded as the mistreatment of the columnist

by the british back in seventeen sixty nine washington made a revealing statement he wrote a letter to his neighbor george mason and he talked to call our lordly masters and anyone who were attempting to oppress the americans and one can almost feel the venom dripping from washington's pan when he uses that expression our lordly masters washington did not want to be subservient to anyone and washington i think was at that point moving in the direction of becoming a revolutionary effect he had not already become a revolutionary by seventeen sixteen washington seems to help when i don't want to the continental congress were you selected this as the hug it says that i feel kind of portugal thing where he was the center of attention to be a leader but

is that hangs back and well as well unless you have the wonders of the new show that the continental congress passed an authorization for his own design john and senate and are looking for a one size tampa to be near to energy one washington can a second camel congress and i have seventeen seventy five he came dressed in his military uniform she was a none too subtle suggestion to his colleagues that he wanted to be chosen as an officer probably as the commander of an army that would be right three weeks before congress gathered the first shots of the revolution have been fired at lexington and concord in massachusetts war was on bloodshed have already occurred there was a little girl what the congress would create an army and washington wanted i think very badly to be and officer pressed

the leader in that i mean he was a logical sure to soldier for five years and the french in an end in war he had considerable military experience and i think the first kind of congress other congressman had spoken with washington about that so isn't it was a little surprised to him i think that he would be considered as an officer grabbed the commander and an army so get an abortion those selected the commander colonel army for several reasons you need to do and i think when one washington and congress refused to accept african americans into the condo army and late seventy five early seventy six and it would have had a

devastating impact on african americans because in virginia and seventy five the last royal governor of virginia oregon who had issued a proclamation promising freedom african americans who fled behind british alliance and help them fight against the rebels in virginia and about eight hundred african americans very rapidly came across a large probably ten or twelve percent were brought by loyalist but that means about ninety percent of those eight hundred came because they wanted to to fight and they so freedom and so as their goal for four five and obviously they were african americans in washington's army they were already there they had fought infected at a lexington and concord in a bunker hill before washington a rod serling many african americans were anxious to serve in the army and i suspect that many of them were caught up in the revolutionary rhetoric on this rhetoric that

spoke of the british attempting to enslave america the evils of slavery and that obviously stem from that kind of the way dish rhetoric revolutionary rhetoric i think must have caused many african americans to billy that is they have the geology of the revolution scary to its logical conclusion that this could be a war and revolution and which slavery would would be destroyed so many african americans were anxious to serve in the summer and bitterly disappointed at their inability to serve beginning and seventy six was as a what is the idea of the ban on them and say well america is what i think probably because washington was a politician and washington had to be aware of what the service of the african americans might mean to

to white americans there was a great fear amongst certain certain areas and white america african americans to observe storms might provide arms to slights that could lead to a slave insurrection it could set in motion a train of events that would destroy slavery and the destruction of slavery meant the destruction of property owned by by a white slave owners so there was apprehension i think within at least certain quarters of the white community and seventy and seventy five and seventy six about slaves participated or blacks participating in the continental army the washington i think once you are done more issued his proclamation and seventy and seventy five inviting blacks to fully inviting slaves to foreigners to flee the hybrids want washington i understood at that moment that that

nature of the war had changed because as washington put it this could be a war that turned on african american participation and of all the african americans or ensure the african americans fought for the british because they thought that they could gain freedom from the british this would give the british theater could be decisive and so washington i think from that point on probably was already moving in his mind toward the use of african americans and mcconnell army he was hamstrung by by congressional loss and resolutions at the airport but in seventy and seventy a while washington was at valley forge general james farnham from rhode island came to washington with a proposal this proposal was but rhode island had to regiment both were under stress and barnum

proposed them one of the road trip that the two regiments be combined together and that the officers from the regiment which no longer existed he sent back to rhode island to recruit african americans this would have broken obviously with a congressional resolution washington sent a resolution to the governor of rhode island he didn't send it with a message or was an endorsement but he did send a message and i think the meaning was clear washington was now endorsing at the beginning of seventy and seventy eight the use of african american so mcconnell are rhode island immediately passed a law permitting african americans to enlist including slaves into and worse and before the end of seventy and seventy eight there were about eight hundred african americans serving in the continental army from all over new england state

university ok before independence i think the canvas were fighting for reconciliation with great britain and they wish to be reconciled essentially on the terms of what had existed in their relationship with great britain before seventeen sixty three for it and untaxed the columnist the imperial yolk was very light armored columnist there were few imperial officials fear little regulation of colonial trade no taxation and i think economists were trying to return to those days and own them talking more and then more corporations and steelers quarterback

the recognition that this is a juror's in washington has dismissed a moment a most noble king help me understand the intensity of people's reactions or ok and it won one word on more issues proclamation and seventy and seventy five there was outrage particularly in the south about this great fear that placing arms and the hands of storage would incite slave insurrection promising freedom two story wooden spot would be the spark for slavery cancer actions throughout the cell washington used the expression snowball are snowballing effect of done morris proclamation and that there would be a snowballing effect in the sense that perhaps thousands of slaves might rushed the british arms and in the next few years and that

there was this would present at a military crisis to become alarmed john rutledge of south carolina made a comment that don morris proclamation did more to push the cells too ward independents than any other single act that what ever saw the nurse thought about great britain and many of them probably them the majority and seventy five still wanted to be reconciled with him because of the long standing trade patterns between the south and a gun was proclamation of rutledge is correct and i think it is changed all of that britain now what hated himself because of its attempt to use lawyers and potentially spark a slave insurrection that he probably just write move the south more rapidly than any other side will ensign and toward independence by

july of seven and seventy six do you people and a million listens well was washed and what is going on how to the two events were some of the ways in which the composition and washington have had problems recruiting and a new army from the beginning his army and seventy five melted away at the end of the year but he had to raise another army composer who enlisted for only one year and seventy six and it melted away to washington's commercial solution to the problem was to ask congress to have known him list for longer periods of time for three years or the duration and john adams led the fight in congress in the fall of seventy

six to get congress to enact so beginning in early seventy seven and this was in the army very different army then had existed previously it was an army of man who would be in for a very longterm unless what that meant that these were not property owning farmers who served in the army so much as men from the lowest economic classes who often came into the armies to get cash payout is orlando who's who saw this as their only opportunity to become a land owning farmer to washington tried dad expedient but by seventy and seventy eight at valley forge there are many lawyers declined as well difficult war it was difficult to get people to in lewiston an unarmed german army that was underpaid he'll cleared he'll host and had been defeated

on numerous occasions and so washington i think big amen in his mind by seventeen seventy moving in the direction of permitting african american and lessons he saw that as perhaps the answer the pink insulation washington was sort of an icon of congress to command that cannot warm and seventy and seventy five for a variety of reasons part of course is military experience in the french and indian war part was his wealth seem to be making a great sacrifice by leaving that wealth behind and risking life and women i hope others work would follow in his footsteps and there were two factors more than any other the dictator in washington short one was the congressman who washington because he had attended the first continental congress as

well as those cubs they've talked with family had spoken with other members of the virginia delegation were very fearful i've given control an army to anybody too many times in history somebody in command of an army and misuse then army had used it to become a despot or a tyrant and i wanted to be certain as certain as they could possibly be that that wouldn't happen in this case and i felt pretty confident with washington that that wouldn't occur because they felt that they knew something about washington the other factor was a washington was in a new englander and at this point the war was a new and one wore all the bloodshed that occurred in new england the british sawmill and one is the cockpit of the revolution they were trying to suppress the rubble into the rebellion in new england new and wondrous wanted to make this a national water they wanted other columnist from the other southern and noble college to join him so they wanted someone who isn't on new englander to be the commander if there had been an

inappropriate choice from south carolina our puzzle when you're in new york they might've selected an individual or washington was the one new englander who have it the one non immigrant who had attended the first congressman who have military experience whose name leak out the congressman is the logical choice and how significant that was because there was no united states formally nominate patty they each county has its own ties with great but there were even border disputes this wrote the columnist and at this point still a potentially upon themselves as caucuses and watchman who lived in america and they identified with the particular column in which they live and in fact thomas jefferson the years after he had been president of the united states still use the expression my country for jen so there was a great deal of of attachment to one's particular problems and no real

attachment to this point to the notion of the united states or even united colonies to all this was changing and the first continental congress and such a common cause the realization developed that this was a national struggle that people had to join together if they were to succeed and that really foster the growth all of the united states which would eventually emerge after seventeen seven that serves to talk to me about how the selections you have plays in the washington center renditions since even it is gay washington agrees boys' an ambitious person he had started as the third son of his father's father had been married twice that the eldest son

normally in virginia received the lion's share of inheritance and was the most likely individual to become a rich and powerful and an elite family to washington started with some disadvantages and i think in washington saw his older step brother lawrence who was more wealthy more powerful than him washington wanted that for himself and he was an ambitious artist ramin young men driven to be a surveyor when he was still an adolescent driven the hazardous lifers of soldiers during the french and indian war drummond to carry a message to the french that the editor the governor of virginia and sent him on and seven and fifty three wins only twenty one years of age watching was a very young girl she's person and it was natural i think for somebody with his ambitious as washington to want to be a commander can arm i couldn't really fall

when you think about washington's selection as commander in chief had on his fellow virginians and on the other southerners who were not initially supported the revolutionary cause well i think probably the major impact of washington's selection was outside of virginia primarily among new englanders her daily walk and washington or wanton on new englander to be the commander of the new continental army but i think in virginia it's certainly resonated with aristocrats it had a great deal of pride in the fact that it's on a virginia was the commander of the army but otherwise the war was fought outside the cell in the early years we didn't come to the south until after seventeen seventy eight then one virginia was pressured with the possibility of an invasion by cornwallis and then the actual invasion by

cornwallis and seventeen eighty one virginia leaders like jefferson and richard henry lee and others were importing washington to come personally to virginia and take control of the army richard henry louis in fact at one point and seventeen eighty one even proposed that washington be given to dictatorial powers in virginia if he would come and take command of the army there as a nation well i think washington was mesmerized by a new york his army was sitting outside new york and had remained posted outside new york essentially from seventy and seventy eight on a washington saw this war and i you know mostly european sense where there was one great

decisive battle that ordinarily decided the war in europe and washington thought that the most likely site for that one great battle would be in new york and ran it was a french army had landed in rhode island and washington want to cooperate with that french army and score a major victory over the british forces in new york the french are not washington arranged for a french fleet to counter the chesapeake and washington was virtually brought to virginia by that name but washington and they didn't have greater nashville a greater sense of the national scope of those oregon did state leaders much greater understanding that then governor thomas jefferson in virginia for example and washington would write to jefferson and seventeen at ten and seventeen eighty one urging jefferson to

make a greater commitment to have virginia make a greater commitment that point the war was not being fought in virginia was being fought in the carolinas and washington tried to explain to jefferson that virginia had to send a man and materials to carolina that this was a war for america and for the american revolution and not just a war for the province of virginia the police because yeah dr two weeks after washington arrived in cambridge and her command of the continental army and july of seventy and seventy five the adjutant general of the army horatio's gates who would later be the hero of the battle of saratoga issued an order that no vagabonds strollers where neighbors be enlisted in

the continental army and that fall washington now where the council of war is primarily general officers to take up the question of whether or not african american should be permitted to serve in the army or the council wore recommended that no more african americans be promoted to serve in the army and i think washington at that point probably had two things on his mind washington was a slave owner unaccustomed to saying african americans carrying arms and washington i think was it was just so shocked by what he had seen and he had never observed anything like this but washington was also a politician as well as a general and he you know he felt that the site housed a

former soyuz or of african americans bear arms might have an adverse effect in deep southern states he was still trying to the old national army assistance from colleagues such as georgia and south carolina and other southern colonies with large slave populations there was a moving carnival army to ban all african americans who are already in the day the army to come out of congress did not go that far he had ruled that they could remain in the army but no more no additional african americans could be enlisted in the army and washington i gave orders at the beginning of seventy and seventy six to them for and alonzo and say it's an hour one was

show aqua net one that you war broke out the revolution broke out the emphasis was on republicans which meant many things to too many people one aspect of republican ideology asked for a belief in a common he quality people jefferson expressed that and the declaration of independence with a statement of all men are created equal that can mean many things to too many people many people that were right jefferson during his lifetime asking him what he met by that statement i don't think he ever gave a very satisfactory explanation to what really mattered i think was what other people thought and as the revolution begins to to develop from seventy five seventy six and onward i think what she began to say gradually emerging is a breakdown can do that class structure that had existed in the old british empire

there is a breakdown in the sense that more greater opportunities become available for more people and i think that begins to be true in the continental army as well the whites who come under the continental army in order to cash in order to get the land because it offers an opportunity for them to become land owning for is the only opportunity for them to become land owning farmers and for and for african americans i think it offers a chance of freedom and at least hope of greater inequality than anything that exist no one knew where all of this was going to lead but by the end of the american revolution you begin to see republican assent an egalitarian assigned to a degree that had never existed in the seventies sixties or earlier in the colonial period

and i think washington lawyers time to give them on my thoughts how does this opening up of the army support affecting what would your question in terms of the commons and inequality i think washington's attitude toward egalitarianism changed drastically during war ii except in him one fundamental sense washington i think probably shared with jefferson the idea of opening the west and providing greater opportunity for white america but i don't think there's evidence in the mid seventy and seventies that washington had yet begun to think in terms of the quality of african americans or even other quality full

equality hour with who was most white americans washington wanted to break from enron to provide greater autonomy for america and washington wanted to the to bring african americans into the army for reasons of just military necessity but washington otherwise i think remained largely third just stationary in his view regarding the nature of society believed and republicans and they believed that people should be the basis of coverage he was opposed to a monarch equals flavor a title nobility and society of the washington was not a socially don't tear it we want to change is the end of the war he seems to have undergone a transformation of slavery and sourcing about in moral terms how's your

letters get washington's attitudes toward slavery changed during the course of the revolution and they're probably two or three factors that that might want one one factors is woven in the north during march or and a society in which slavery had them legal and was still legal for that matter but in which the slaves were were far less visible than i wore him money and so another factor that perhaps influenced washington after seventeen seventy eight he saw african american soldiers and he saw that they could be very good and responsible soldiers and some way those soldiers were less troublesome than white soldiers four years old there's probably a smaller desertion rate among african american soldiers and among white soldiers but i think perhaps the biggest influence on washington may have come

from the aides who surrounded washington during most of the war washington had six or eight days and they were mostly young men in their early point x men like alexander hamilton for example or joseph week and became the first president of pennsylvania and during the war and washington was influenced by the ocean and he developed an easy for washington rather informal relationship with those individuals when the workday ended about seven or eight o'clock in the evening washington sat with those men paid some not strike a glass or two while let his hair down and talk about all kinds of subjects and i think without a doubt one of the subjects that came up was the subject of slavery oh like hamilton people agreed or anti slavery and there their views and i think they helped to reshape washington's views on slavery and i

think washington who's worked through two stages the first stage was a washington began to question the economic volatility of slavery he began i think to see a free labor system as perhaps a better labor system of them was selected but by the end of the war in fact in the last year of the war jefferson washington writes a letter to lafayette and was for the first time he addresses the immorality of soybeans sold by wars in washington well it was thinking in terms of slavery as being not a very good system economically had a system that was pressure no more also some and both of those views were new movies for washington to said he had never countenance prior to the revolution and he's right

is that what you do well i think washington found himself on the on the horns of a dilemma he he was by the end of the war a man getting toward his his mid fifties or so and he came from a family in which man historically been liver and on his for his father died when he was a mission and forties he attended a couple brothers who died at a relatively early age washington was convinced that he would not live a very long life either he felt that he had sacrificed easily have sacrificed during the war he did the way from mount vernon at once true for about six years without ever seeing an associate had exposed himself to danger and he had lived very modestly throughout the revolutionary war and in the what he thought were just a few years left to him he wanted to live as comfortably as possible on the only way he could live comfortably he felt at least as comfortably as he wanted to live

our was awful labor of his slaves to washington found himself on the horns of a dilemma and had to make a choice and his choice obviously was to simply retain his slave labor system it was in washington men in america and her job and as the president and he freezes slaves and beginning to consume in lafayette regions do and he doesn't know why i think washington is an individual who's kind art is always layered with political realities and he recognized that he was the most influential american no one was close to washington and prestige following the revolutionary war so that anything that what did he do with the notes it would have an answer paul recognized and people

besieged washington and the seventeen eighties to liberate mosul is knowing that if he took that step others moines today mr pierce as well conversely washington knew that the union was shaky threw seventeen eighties before the new constitution i was ratified and seventeen ad at their worst you were stresses and strains on the union there was talk of secession and tissue union in both the north and in the us and even after the new constitution went into effect and seventy and eighty nine it was a very fragile union and washington realized that if he the most and noble most enamored of all americans liberated his lawyers could have an adverse adverse effect and in georgia and south carolina and now i think those were senators that guided washington state but i think the primary reason that

washington did not liberated slaves were his own personal reasons that we were reasons of statesmanship there were reasons of how he would le pen and he made a conscious decision that he wasn't alone well henry was that he couldn't live as well as we wanted to live if he did not help his lawyers and he wanted during the seventeen eighties the marquis de lafayette a french volunteer who had served with washington and have been virtually the song to washington during the revolutionary war her road washington on two occasions about schemes for liberating slaves one proposal was that land might be acquired somewhere in the west and the

washington might freeze some or all of his slaves who would then moved here in washington its response to last was that sounds like a good idea and it certainly reflects the humanitarian and some time and your character and we get together will talk about and it was about a year before last in washington did get together what they said and no one knows but nothing came of that skein about three years later lafayette wrote to washington this time from france and indicated that he was willing to use his money to by an island in the caribbean and perhaps they could then he and washington together could then buy some slaves of washington didn't want to agree to disarm and transfer those now friedman to that area and what life here was particularly interested in was that area be coming a model community to

demonstrate to people that former slaves were capable of developing a community justice white's war and were capable of becoming productive farmers justice white's were capable the washington once again pushed law fiat's idea aside and nothing came of that idea what washington did however devised by the early seventies and nineties was a plan of policing mount vernon and he wanted to lease mount vernon which consisted actually of five separate farms he wanted the least four of those forms he would remain on one of the forms and that the primary for melbourne itself and the other four would be released and he wanted to lease them to english farmers who would come over and washington would liberate his slaves and those

former slaves would be free laborers on those for farmers it was in a sense i think an impractical idea from the standpoint of getting four people who were willing to do that in washington was never able to compose for people to do that so the plan never bore fruit it is philadelphia ok i think washington was somewhat embarrassed of being president of a republic pledged to freedom again egalitarianism and whatever and at the same time to be a slave owner and i think it was also a practical concern for for washington and that was pennsylvania had test the first

gradual emancipation laws among the state and like the first gradual emancipation along the western world and seventeen ad and while that law did not free in a soyuz immediately the log ian state that a slave that was brought in under pennsylvania from the outside was to have his or her freedom at the end of six months residents to washington was concerned he brought slaves from from mount vernon to philadelphia which was the capital from seventeen it on hannity and so his letters washington expressed concern that those slaves might be freed under pennsylvania's law so i think he was deposed and both embarrassed and a pragmatic slave owner and his response and now the end of his life he reworked wages will and maintenance facility that i'm able to the networks that i mean where workers on the syrians over into his

later life questions plus pages and i think washington that i had had grown to believe by the early seventeen eighties that slavery was more but made a conscious decision too to continue to hone his slaves through his lifetime but i think he was haunted through the seventeen eighties and seventeen nineties about his behavior and and seventeen ninety nine washington re wrote his well it couldn't touch all of his slaves the dow or slaves were slaves that had belonged to martha had become had been willed first to her son jackie and then following his days just after the battle of yorktown they passed to his son washington stepped grandson george washington park cost but washington could deal with his own supporters and they totaled slightly more than two hundred of the approximately three hundred and fifteen

sailors at melbourne and seventeen ninety nine so he rode it changed as well and the will now stated the while his personal body slowly billy louis was to be immediately freed upon washington's death the other slaves were to be freed up on his death or martha's to whichever tam last month washington probably felt that he would outlive morath he seemed to be in good health more of that seem to be in declining health in the late seventies nineties and it seems apparently not to have occurred to washington that she would be left there with the soyuz herself as a turned our washington died in december how seventy ninety nine and martha outlived him for about two and a half years so that martha was surface actually sitting on a powder keg and eighteen hundred at no one waiting to and in

fact abigail adams john adams as well as a first lady in any adams administration came to mount vernon candies summer of eighteen hundred just about one year after washington's and she described mount vernon is already beginning to go the rack and run she indicated a number of saudis had simply wanna was a but there were still many slaves there and she also indicated water that some people had told martha that it had occurred to the slaves that they would be better off if she was done away with and she indicated that it was martha's and tension at the end of eighteen hundred to simply liberate all of the remaining slaves that existed more as they eventually didn't do they should deliberate saw but all of those slaves do get their their freedom when martha died and made you know to you

and i think the indian nationals who were active in the movement to do away with the articles of confederation replace it with a new constitution which provides for a stronger central government took great pains to see the george washington and benjamin franklin for that matter i wore an attendance at the philadelphia convention which began in most southern and eighty seven washington came to that convention because he too was a nationalist and there had been talk of this year and into the seventies eighties it's the national problems of the national government and the articles of confederation could not be rectified northerners and southerners were talking to wading knee and there was talk of north america perhaps going way of europe and several new nation's emerging here rather than just one united states washington obviously sacrifice during the revolution in the hopes of creating

one strong united states that could be truly independent and say from europe it could spread across north america and washington came to the constitutional convention to to work for the establishment of a stronger central governor the constitutional convention and it was composed primarily of merchants and finance years from the north and slave owners themselves and obviously washington came from the slave are thirsty himself but in a sense i think washington transcended the two groups i think his primary motivation at the constitutional convention was the establishment of a strong government that could hold the north and the south to gather and survived into the nineteenth century was that arguably its infancy would be

a strong perhaps permanent and government offices is very low you washington was the presiding officer president of the constitutional convention and he said virtually nothing probably had hiv gavel of the warner recognize speakers from time to time and and at the very end of the convention made only one statement regarding representation counting representatives and the house for the house of representatives but i think this was a pattern many of washington's behavior that had occurred when he was a representative in the virginia colonial assembly when he was a congressman at the first and second time around congress and i think he felt very comfortable speaking on the floor at that time to gather he wasn't well as your formally educated i think he was certainly the intellectual equal the other delegates but they were mostly lawyers formally educated and washington was was

hesitant to speak out so as a kind of roland way in which he was comfortable and i was in a sense kind of the role that was envisioned for him i'll buy though the leaders people like james madison and alexander hamilton and i think bubba seventy nine it's one washington as president of his correspondence reveals that he's having considerable problems with his labor system at mount vernon if you look at his correspondence he describes the stories using terms like slaughter deceitful dishonest robes he writes in his letters about the small show and coming in the house and breaking some of the children tramped when his plants down and

his gardens he writes about sawyer says small lenders to feign illness and war where he complains about the overseers that he hires and in part he says good manners has two put it wouldn't go into that kind of pursued both for a good man happened to stumble into it you would be corrupted by the soyuz he would become lazy as washington thought this lawyers we're so washington was having considerable problems with with his labor system which in and reinforced his notion that slavery was not a viable economic system was not the best economic system that was that was the room giving increasingly in his attitude toward his slaves at one point washington learns that one of his female slaves had died and washington shows no

no remorse at the news of her death whatsoever he simply dispatcher someone who had caused problems for everyone who was around her and seemed just as happy to see dead tissue is no longer there to washington was a tough task master he wrote to his managers at mount vernon that he expected his lawyers to be at work by side up he expected them to work until sundown and he expected them to work very hard he authorized punishments for the scholars including corporal punishment force lawyers he gave instructions to his managers of the house lawyers fainting owns burger washington and took great pride in being able to determine what a slave was really ill and when the slave was was cellophane washington told hers is managers to check for

fevers or check for any sign of pulmonary disorders those were the two dangers they didn't shows signs washington same feel that they probably we're not really ill but he told his managers given the benefit of the doubt wants but after there'd be more careful so washington worked his slaves very very hard and spend very much money of providing for clothing for slims infected so we spent about five times as much money clothing the slaves who were with him at the presidential mansion in philadelphia and he did on the soyuz back at mount vernon says at his house in mount vernon is out there are isolated and it is a large plantation in virginia in

the eighteenth century resembled a small village more than three hundred people lived at mount vernon in addition to washington and washington's family there were about a seventy nine is over three hundred slaves living and working there were indentured servants worked in the soil the concept of mount vernon in eighteenth century virginia where the eighteenth century so plantations often resembled villages mount vernon itself consisted of five working farms and these were farms inhabited by hundreds of people to washington and his family where there are more than three hundred slaves lived there overseers and managers live their indentured

servants lived there we think of the slaves moreover as being field hands and probably most were filled but many slaves had other kinds of occupations or skills select who had learned skilled trades who were drug brick masons or carpenters for example a walk work in the male that washington billed at mount vernon who worked in the fishing industry on the potomac river that washington owned and operated many of the female slaves worked and there were some side by side and for a connotation with martha washington spanning call call for worse are used to clothing stores would say so some stores worked in in in the small gardens and near mount vernon or in just the variety of occupation so while it didn't actually

resemble necessarily a new england village which would have had a church and shops and whatever it was never the last of a village type arrangement in which hundreds of people live them and war it's all things considered and within that villager of mount vernon washington was the lord of the manor he was the owner he was the person who had absolute control quiz washington was during the seventies nineties and there in a seven and seventies the revolutionary war was absent much of the time during the revolutionary war launder washington who was a nephew of washington managed mount vernon and rather successfully during a seven and nineties when washington was away for nearly eight years as president he hired a succession of managers some of whom are more successful than others

washington correspondent with them on a regular basis getting reports from them indicating what he wanted on that mount vernon and troubleshooting problems that they wrote and wrote him about oh without question washington was the manager at mount vernon and martha washington i think was really the manager inside mount vernon the person who managed the females boys who worked inside and that raza to suppress some of the male slaves to work inside the residence as well what this reaction is correspondent one that tells a lot about the british invasion now virginia that they excel at the right moment in itself and slaves escaped with that's right a one point lead the british or the british warship didn't come up the potomac and it did come to mount vernon came to several other infected various times

british photos sale at the james and other rivers in virginia and liberated are literally hundreds slaves from plantations and sometimes caused great destruction on those those plantations when the british show warship arrived at mount vernon washington of course was a y la and washington was his manager his nephew and his manager at mount vernon at the time i'm on an effort to save no arm and say this menace lawyer says as possible from playing on british raj went aboard the british warship to go food and beverages help to them to try to curry favor he did say melbourne there was no destruction but about a score of washington's slaves were taken away by the british and one washington learned what was wanted on washington was outraged and wrote a law and a letter telling him that he should never have gone this was

demeaning acts and washington was afraid that there were before on his shoulders are as a result of one's behavior long time as unique opportunity you really are performed there is american but people are becoming americans in washington will win this is innocent with the timing well we think of the change today is dangerous on the precipice is going so rapidly unsettling change probably does occur more quickly today than it did in washington's lifetime in the sense that that washington was still riding a horse or if he traveled he traveled by boat for example there were no airplanes or or a railroad spike at the end of his lifetime but in many respects

washington between seventy and thirty two he was born in seventy nine in nine when he died wetness just enormous and changed america broke away from england and became an independent country changed its first national constitution washington help replace it with another constitution and seventeen and eighty nine washington what must they believe the gradual step stabilizing of the united states during the seventy nine years old washington's light also saw one really significant change and there was that the revolution made enormous inroads into slavery there was virtually no discussion of slavery in america until the very few images to start with you there are

enormous changes have occurred and slavery during washington's lot of washington's born and seventeen thirty two and aside from a the occasional quaker publication and slavery it's just not being discussed open it's not until the very eve of the american revolution then he began to find some pamphlets and some newspaper as thomas paine wrote an essay for example attack in slavery and a philadelphia newspaper and seven and seventy four clergy in new england began to preach are attacking slavery during during that time period our all of the northern states abolished slavery least provide for gradual emancipation and become a couple of vermont a mass and massachusetts a lemonade slavery immediately during washington's lifetime during revolutionary war in some respects it it seems minuscule it seems as though more could have been done that was done for

example pennsylvania passes the first abolitionist legislation of any state and seventeen ad but it's structured so that no slave would be freed until we early part of the nineteenth century twenty years after the legislation was passed still i think if you are gathered in a broader sense harm how many states do provide fernando slavery warrant was gradual emancipation and the percentage of free blacks living in the united states increases dramatically probably only of the six or seven percent of the african american population was free and seventy and seventy five but by eighteen ten about fifteen percent of the african american population is free and the percentage of african americans who are free hulu are free roma living in virginia troubles between about

seventeen seventy six and eighteen ten there may have been as many as a hundred thousand slaves who fled the high end british lines during the revolutionary war no one will know for sure jefferson estimated thirty thousand slaves from virginia david ramsey contemporary and a historian of the revolution in south carolina estimated twenty five thousand slaves freed or have fled from south carolina behind british want probably more than six thousand african americans former slaves were taken from the united states by great britain when the british army lab and seventeen eighty three so there really is i think a sweeping change that occurs and within washington's lifetime but in one respect i think there's certain i was there was room for more change that didn't occur i think that

washington went to his death and seventy nine and i'm convinced that slavery was dying was a and the united states i think washington believed that fifty years later by the middle of the nineteenth century the north and the south would resemble one another slavery would either search both so much manufacturing centers with text all males and whatever and that obviously didn't happen in fact following washington's doe in the twenty five or thirty years after washington still slavery grows more pro possibly then it had never grown before it sweeps from the older colleagues older states that exist along the atlantic out across the mountains and two new states in alabama and mississippi and we see hanna an arkansas and tennessee and kentucky and texas washington didn't foresee there

and the tragedy of the american revolution for all of the demand for slavery was that by not bringing slavery to an end it enabled slavery is slavery to grow pro possibly and the early part of the nineteenth century times is in a new jersey and then the other thing is just it's one of washington's self consciousness about is the oh there is something that completely understand the martians can't you tell me a little bit about his mental wounds in and how it affected how the prisoners and support the country and his position i suspect that washington must have had some sort of drummed

says he mentioned that john adams one time that you ruined his teeth over your memoir trying to crack walnuts were tasty but i suspect he probably had some sort of gum disease and he lost several of his teeth says as a young man and eventually he began wearing false teeth made of hippopotamus ivory unleashed by the time of news of his presidential years you have a very good fit for dentistry wasn't then what it is today in washington have all kinds of problems with those teeth and he was very self conscious first i think about the portly thirty years younger man i'm very self conscious about his dentures slurping when he spoke so that when washington spoke he often cover his mouth something like that and it became a habit on washington's part and that he probably wasn't aware of even with that you continued to do even when he was president of the united states he

says both celine dion and washington apparently by the accounts of a number of contemporary jefferson and one of them was a man of enormous temper who battled all of his life to control his temper and he generally succeed in keeping his temper under control as a public official or one or two times when as jefferson put it simply worked himself into a state where he acted with some irrationality a battle of monmouth i think as a case of a sort where he removes general charles lee from command on the battlefield and takes command himself but there is also some haven't and some of it comes from very good sources like the artist gilbert stuart for

example which suggest that washington did not keep his temper under control in his private life and that they tended to lose says his temper with his chapel that sometimes in fact washington be rated them even perhaps if stuart try to attack them physically as just someone who is absolutely unable to keep his blind fiery volatile violent temper under control