George Washington: Humble Man Or Humble President

In the biography “His Excellency: George Washington” the author Joseph Ellis wrote a detailed look inside Washington’s life while trying to express his thoughts in a clear and concise way. George Washington was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia on February 22, 1732. He was born to Augustine Washington and Mary Ball. George got his first job when he was 16, which was surveying land for William Fairfax, which took him three years to complete. During his time surveying, he also bought his first plot of land with money he had saved while working.

In 1752 at age twenty, we see young Washington petitioning Governor Dinwiddie for the adjutant general post. George had two major influences in making this happen, first the passing of his older brother, which opened up a slot in the Virginia Militia, the second was William Fairfax’s influence on Governor Dinwiddie’s decision by saying that George was the right candidate for this position. Governor Dinwiddie eventually accepted him and he was given the rank of Major. This was his first experience with the military. “Instead of going to college, Washington went to war.” as was stated by Ellis.

In the spring of 1754, the Virginia House of Burgesses raised a small army of three hundred men to protect settlers in the Ohio Country from the French threat. Washington’s mission was to safeguard a fort in the process of being built but before he had even arrived he received news from his Indian ally Tanacharison, also known as “The Half King,” that the French had already overtaken the fort. Washington began building a new fort in a different location and named it Fort Necessity, a weirdly apt name. On May 28, 1754, Tanacharison along with a group of Indians reported a French threat coming their way. Washington gathered some men up along with the Indians and went to intercept the French force headed their way. When Washington found a smaller patrol group of about thirty they engaged in battle. Upon Washington’s victory and return to Fort Necessity, he felt that if the French were to attack he would be able to easily hold the fort until reinforcements arrived. He also knew that if he could get the Indians on his side he would have nothing to worry about. Together with The Half King, they brought all the Indian tribes together for an assembly on the English objective in the Ohio Country in which Washington tells them “that the sole purpose of the English military effort was “to maintain your rights to make that whole country sure to you,” which was a lie.

In 1758, Washington retired from the Virginia Militia. He marries the wealthy Martha Dandridge. Martha had gathered her wealth, like many other women at the time, being a widow. She had inherited all the land from her previous husband. One of the personal ordeals that Washington went through in his early marriage was going in to debt with Robert Cary, a merchant from London. Robert would bring fine clothing, furniture, food along with many other fine goods from London. When Washington kept spending lavishly and started to run low on personal funds he accrued a large debt with Robert because of his spending habits. George realized that he, like many other people in the colonies, he had become a “slave” indebted to the strong, demanding British economy. Washington solution to his debt was to start to grow and build his own things. It also helped that he was married into wealth. He started to grow wheat, then he had a mill constructed to make the wheat into flour. He purchased a fishing vessel, caught his own fish, and would sell it to other people locally and as far as the Caribbean. George eventually bought his own shipping boat to transport all of his corn, fish, and flour. He also started his own linen and wool lines to create clothes for himself and his slaves. He was one of the first to utilize the “American Dream” before America was an idea. One great point that the author makes about Washington is his point of view on slavery.

Even though he had slaves, in the end he did not want to own slaves but not because it was morally right but because it made financial sense. Many men came to Washington because of his ability to persuade and his high political influence throughout the government. He was given a couple different ideas and suggestions on how to start the snow ball on the emancipation process, such as recruiting them to the Continental army and at the end of the war they would receive their freedom suggested by John Laurens in 1779 or when Marquis Lafayette suggested to him to free and relocate a group of slaves and resettle them as farmers to start the emancipation process slowly and early on, Washington ignored the ideas. Washington even received a letter from a Quaker, Robert Pleasants. Robert bashed Washington for owning slaves and at the same time wanting to be the liberator of his own American people in which he wrote “For notwithstanding thou art now receiving the tribute of praise from a grateful people, the time coming when all actions shall be weighed in an equal balance, and undergo an impartial explanation.” How sad it would be then to read that the great hero of American independence, “the destroyer of tyranny and oppression,” had failed the final test by holding “a number of People in absolute slavery, who were by nature equally entitled to freedom as himself.” In the end, Washington did not sell his slaves for many reasons including not wanting to tear families apart, many of the slaves were older and he would not be able to sell them and a large portion of the slaves did not belong to him because they were his wife’s Martha and he did not have a say in what was to become of them.