George 1: George's First Hero

George Washington's father Augustine died when George was only 11 years old. Augustine left three plantations and 64 slaves to be divided among his three sons. He had spent most of his time growing tobacco but he was also active in the Anglican Church and served his community as Justice of the Peace and County Sheriff. He was only 48 when he died.

George's mother was Mary Ball Washington. After her husband died she raised George and managed the land he inherited until he became an adult. When he was 14 George was very enthusiastic about joining the British Navy and most of his relatives and friends thought that would be a great career. All the arrangements were made and he was just about to depart when his mother finally said no.

Good thing for us. Joining the British navy would have radically changed George's life and might have altered the course of U.S. history beyond recognition.

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["Washington: A Life" By Ron Chernow is one of the best single volume biographies of our greatest President.]

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The greatest hero of George's youth was his older half-brother Lawrence. In George's earliest years Lawrence was far away in England going to school. When George was about eight years old Lawrence returned home but soon left again for two years of service in the oddly named War of Jenkin's Ear between the British and the American colonists on one side and the Spanish and French on the other.

Lawrence served in the Caribbean and survived, even though fighting and disease produced a ferocious mortality rate of about 90% on the Americans who served there. (For the men from Massachusetts it was even worse. Out of 5000 who went to war only 50 made it home. 99% died.)

When Lawrence got home to Virginia and inherited an estate from his father he named it Mount Vernon after the Admiral Vernon he served under during the war. That home would later become George's, and is now one of the most famous historical sites in the United States.

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Note:
My biographical study of George Washington was intended for my own education but I thought I would also like to share what I have learned here on my blog. The main sources of information I used were:

First, "George Washington: A Biography" by Washington Irving. I like this one because it was written by one of our early American literary masters and because it was written so long ago that Irving often mentions talking with people who had actually seen George.

Second, "Washington: An abridgement in one volume By Richard Harwell of the seven-volume George Washington" By Douglas Southall Freeman. I wanted the complete seven volume set but that is not yet available on Kindle. Too bad. Still, this abridgement is a great work, packed with information.

Third, "Washington: A Life" By Ron Chernow. This is an excellent modern biography that came out in 2010, helping me to get some of the more recent research missing from the older biographies.

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Copyright © 2017 by Joseph Wayne Gadway