George Washington Biography- George Washington February 22, 1732 – December 14, 1799 was an American military officer, politician, and founding father, who served as the first President of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed as Commander by the Continental Congress. (George Washington Bio)
In the Continental Army, Washington led the Patriot forces to victory in the American Revolutionary War and served as president of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, which created the Constitution of the United States and the US federal government. Washington has been called the “Father of the Nation” for his diverse leadership in the country’s early days. (George Washington Biography)
Washington’s first public office served as the official surveyor for Culpeper County, Virginia from 1749 to 1750. Thereafter, he received his initial military training during the French and Indian War.
He was later elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses and named a delegate to the Continental Congress where he was appointed commanding general of the Continental Army. With this title, he commanded American forces in the British defeat and surrender at the Siege of Yorktown during the American Revolutionary War. He resigned from his commission after the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1783. (George Washington Bio)
Washington played an essential role in the adoption and ratification of the United States Constitution. Thereafter he was elected twice unanimously by the Electoral College as the President. As president, he enforced a strong, well-financed national government while remaining impartial in a fierce rivalry between cabinet members Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton. During the French Revolution, he announced a policy of neutrality, ratifying the Treaty of Glory. His farewell speech is widely regarded as a pre-eminent statement on republicanism.
Washington was a slave owner who had a complicated relationship with slavery. During his lifetime he controlled a cumulative total of more than 577 slaves who were forced to work on their farms and wherever they lived, including the Presidential Palace in Philadelphia. As president, he signed laws passed by Congress that both protected and curtailed slavery. (George Washington Biography)
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His will stated that one of his slaves, William Lee, should be freed upon his death and that another 123 slaves should work for his wife and be freed upon her death. He set them free during his lifetime to remove the incentive to hasten his death.
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Early life (1732-1752)
The Washington family was a wealthy Virginia planter family that made their fortune through land speculation and tobacco cultivation. Washington’s great-grandfather John Washington moved from Sullgrave, Northamptonshire, England, to the English colony of Virginia in 1656 where he accumulated 5,000 acres of land, including Little Hunting Creek on the Potomac River. (George Washington Bio)
George Washington was born on 22 February 1732, at Popes Creek in Westmoreland County, in the British colony of Virginia, and was the first of Washington’s six children to Augustine and Mary Ball. His father was a justice of the peace and a prominent public figure, who had four additional children from his first marriage to Jane Butler.
The family moved to Little Hunting Creek in 1735. In 1738, they moved to Ferry Farm near Fredericksburg, Virginia, on the Rappahannock River. When Augustine died in 1743, Washington inherited the ferry farm and ten slaves; His older half-brother Lawrence inherited Little Hunting Creek and named it Mount Vernon.
Washington did not give formal education to his older brothers at Appleby Grammar School in England, but he attended Lower Church School in Hartfield. He learned mathematics, trigonometry and land surveying and became a gifted draftsman and map-maker. (George Washington Biography)
By early adulthood, he was writing with “considerable force” and “precision”; However, his writing displayed little wit or humour. In the pursuit of admiration, status and power, he attributed his shortcomings and failures to someone else’s ineffectiveness. (George Washington Bio)
Washington often visited Mount Vernon and Belvoir, which belonged to Lawrence’s father-in-law, William Fairfax. Fairfax became Washington’s mentor and surrogate father, and Washington spent a month with a team surveying Fairfax’s Shenandoah Valley estate in 1748. The following year he received a surveyor’s license from the College of William and Mary, When he was 17 years old. (George Washington Bio)
Even though Washington did not serve the customary apprenticeship, Fairfax appointed him a surveyor of Culpeper County, Virginia, and he appeared at Culpeper. Counties would take their oath of office on July 20, 1749. He later introduced himself to the frontier, and although he resigned from the job in 1750, he continued to survey the west of the Blue Ridge Mountains. By 1752 he had bought about 1,500 acres in the valley and owned 2,315 acres.
Colonial Military Career (1752-1758)
Lawrence Washington’s service as an assistant general of the Virginia militia prompted his half-brother George to take up the commission. Robert Dinwiddie, Lieutenant Governor of Virginia, appointed George Washington as chief and commander of one of the four militia districts. While the British were building forts along the Ohio River, the French were doing the same—building forts between the Ohio River and Lake Erie. (George Washington Biography)
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He sent George to demand the French army clear the land, which was being claimed by the British. Washington met with Half-King Tanacharison and other Iroquois chiefs at Logstown, and gathered information about the number and locations of French forts, as well as intelligence about individuals held captive by the French. Washington was given the nickname Konotokorius by Tanacharisan. The surname was first given to his great-grandfather John Washington by Susquenock in the late seventeenth century. (George Washington Biography)
Personal Life
The Washington Family by Edward Savage George and Martha Washington with their grandchildren. National Art Gallery. Washington was somewhat reserved in personality, but generally had a strong presence among others. He made speeches and announcements when needed, but he was not a well-known speaker or debater.
He was taller than most of his contemporaries; His height ranged from 6 feet (1.83 m) to 6 feet 3.5 inches (1.92 m), and weighed between 210–220 pounds (95–100 kg) as an adult. and he was known for his great power. He had brownish-blue eyes and long reddish-brown hair. He was not wearing a powdered wig; Instead he curled, powdered and tied his hair in a row in the fashion of the day. (George Washington Biography)
Washington often suffered from severe tooth decay and eventually lost all but one of his teeth. He had several sets of false teeth, which he wore during his presidency, which used a variety of materials, including both animal and human teeth, but did not use wood, despite common lore. As a public figure, he relied on the strong faith of his dentist. (George Washington Bio)
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Washington was a gifted equestrian early in life. He collected fine breeds at Mount Vernon, and his two favorite horses were the Blueskin and Nelson. He was an excellent dancer and often went to the theatre. He drank in moderation, but was morally against excessive drinking, tobacco smoking, gambling, and abuse.
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