The Widow Washington: The Life of Mary Washington

by Martha Saxton

An insightful biography of Mary Ball Washington, the mother of our nation's father

The Widow Washington is the first life of Mary Ball Washington, George Washington’s mother, based on archival sources. Her son’s biographers have, for the most part, painted her as self-centered and crude, a trial and an obstacle to her oldest child. But the records tell a very different story. Mary Ball, the daughter of a wealthy planter and a formerly indentured servant, was orphaned young and grew up working hard, practicing frugality and piety. Stepping into Virginia’s upper class, she married an older man, the planter Augustine Washington, with whom she had five children before his death eleven years later. As a widow deprived of most of her late husband’s properties, Mary struggled to raise her children, but managed to secure them places among Virginia’s elite. In her later years, she and her wealthy son George had a contentious relationship, often disagreeing over money, with George dismissing as imaginary her fears of poverty and helplessness.

Yet Mary Ball Washington had a greater impact on George than mothers of that time and place usually had on their sons. George did not have the wealth or freedom to enjoy the indulged adolescence typical of young men among the planter class. Mary’s demanding mothering imbued him with many of the moral and religious principles by which he lived. The two were strikingly similar, though the commanding demeanor, persistence, athleticism, penny-pinching, and irascibility that they shared have served the memory of the country’s father immeasurably better than that of his mother. Martha Saxton’s The Widow Washington is a necessary and deeply insightful corrective, telling the story of Mary’s long, arduous life on its own terms, and not treating her as her son’s satellite.

Genres: History, Biography, Nonfiction, Biography Memoir, American History, Audiobook, Presidents

384 pages, Hardcover

First published June 11, 2019

About the author

Martha Porter Saxton (September 3, 1945 – July 18, 2023) was an American professor of history and women's and gender studies at Amherst College

Reviews

[Louise · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mary Ball Washington was not much of a writer. There is no diary and only a few letters remain. This means deep research for the biographer, checking vital statistics (what exists for the time), court records (fortunately, for history,Mary’s family was litigious), land records and wills (with personal property enumerated), purchase and payment records, personal possessions of proven provenance and letters and papers of others. For this biography, Martha Saxton interprets all of this to sleuth out the life and situation of the mother of our first president.

Saxton takes you through the records. From kitchen goods from cooking tools to tea sets she helps you to envision everyday life as well as determine social standing. Mary’s clothing shows that she (or her slaves) could make or alter styles and how her own personal style (unlike her son’s) differed from others in the planter aristocracy.

While there is a lot on life and life-style, the heart of the book is Saxton’s interpretation of the major influences in Mary’s life and how they influenced her son and created friction between them.

The first is the humble background of Mary’s mother, Mary Johnson. She was an indentured servant who married Joseph Ball, a successful and prominent planter.

The second influence is loss and financial insecurity. Mary was 3 when her father died. Her mother re-married and this husband/step father died when Mary was 6. At age 11 her mother died. In this period there are many legal maneuvers by male relatives to get Mary’s estate from Joseph Ball. Mary made herself useful by her industry and frugality. This served her well in her 30’s when she became a widow with 5 children of which our nation’s first president was the oldest at age 11.

The third influence is Mary’s religion interpreted through the devotional material Mary read, re-read, quoted and gave as gifts. Her most favored material implored the reader to suffer and remain sinless and pious for a later reward.

Another major (hard to give this one a number since it both overlays and infuses the others) is the influence of race and slave-holding. At the age of 3 Mary became a slave owner. I believe (I’d have to look it up) she inherited 9 people – some were her playmates. While little is known of Mary’s reaction and behavior, Saxton writes of documented plantation life in similar situations, this is, where children owned their playmates and care givers. Through these descriptions, that most likely applied to Mary, and other events (such as viewing viscous punishment, family separations, etc.) you can see a hardening; how behind the mask of hospitality plantation life was brutal – how else would Mary be able to get underfed, poorly dressed people to work long hours. Her famous son (at minimum) does not want to divide families, but Mary requires it.

Perhaps the first break is George’s military service. He sees it as a responsibility. She worries about his life, health, and getting plantation work done. George spends time with his rich relatives, wears the latest styles, pays for dancing lessons and“married up”. He moves his wealthy bride to Mount Vernon, a plantation in the Washington family for many years. For 5 years, his mother, who lives a day’s ride (she is an accomplished horse woman) away never visits.

The public part of the friction between mother and son is over money. She claims he doesn’t support her…but he has plenty to show that he does. I presume there are generational issues as well as those of his marriage and later accomplishments. She was more into her devotional material than the ideas of revolution. She didn't understand the scope of the financial strain the war put on the colonies. His new life was most likely uncomfortable for her as well as for him when she was around.

There is a good index; some b&ws of people and places, extensive documentation. To keep track of the many step-relationships a family tree would have been helpful.

Admittedly, the resource material is dry and the text quite academic, but the depth the author provides are well worth your time if you are interested in George Washington (this should not be your first book) or in everyday life in this period of US history.

[Susan]

A detailed and sympathetic biography of George Washington's mother that corrects some of the notions propagated by generations of the president's biographers.

[SusanS · Rating 1 out of 5]

Book Court - Where I'm the Judge and Jury

CHARGE (What is the author trying to say?): To explore why Mary Ball Washington, the mother of George Washington, has never been recognized for her influence on t’he life of George Washington.

FACTS: With the author’s acknowledgment of the lack of primary sources about the life of Mary, Ball, she then goes on to spend much effort outlining how her life might have unfolded. This proved rather tedious. The prologue states: “I am not normally drawn to write about women whose fame derives from men or about slaveholding women.”Rather than simply stating history, she tries to rail against it. One example: “Mary’s status in those formative and porous years as a slave owner at or before her third birthday, and her daily intimacy with her independent mother, contributed to her air of command.” I find that ludicrous. I doubt she realized she owned slaves at the age of three! Orphaned at age 12, Mary was raised by an older sister and married the widower Augustine Washington at the age of 22. Mary’s first child, George, was born on February 22, 1732. Much of what follow are generalizations of child-rearing practices of the time, not specific experiences of the Washingtons. When George was 11 his father died. The Washingtons’ life from that point was described as “austere.” The author offers no indication that Mary had any unusual influence over George. With her lack of education and provincial nature, it seems quite impossible that Mary had the effects on George that the author theorizes. The number of footnotes made the work very unreadable.

VERDICT (Was the author successful?): Not guilty. This book was a disappointment.

#TheWidowWashington #NetGalley

[Teri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Martha Saxton weaves a story about the life of Mary Ball Washington, the mother of President George Washington. From the introduction, Saxton theorizes that historians have misrepresented Mary as an "...incompetent, crude, imperious, selfish, and unloving woman..." In The Widow Washington: The Life of Mary Washington, Saxton sets out to correct that perception.

Mary Washington was born an only child in the early 18th century. The author conjectures much about Mary's early life. With few primary resources available, Saxton draws her conclusions from information on early colonial life. Washington was somewhat of an orphan, with her parents passing away early in her life. At age twelve, Mary was placed under the guardianship of George Eskridge, a lawyer and brother-in-law to Mary's future husband, Augustine Washington.

Saxton's use of resources such as diaries, letters, and household and plantation accounts helps paint a clearer picture of Mary's later life. During her short marriage, Mary had six children (only five survived to adulthood). Augustine died twelve years later, leaving Mary a widow for the rest of her life. Mary remains close to her children throughout her life, and the bulk of the book follows her relationships with them.

Saxton mostly succeeds in correcting the image of Mary Ball Washington; however, much is based on conjecture with few detailed clues into Mary's inner thoughts and feelings. A lot is based on letters with George and the tone of their correspondence can be taken in different ways. Saxton also makes assumptions based on Matthew Hale's book Contemplations, Moral and Divine, a religious text that Mary owned, which may have been a constant resource of meditation and moral advice. I'm not sure I am convinced that this text informed Mary's every thought and action. Overall, the author does a fine job of providing the reader with a look into Mary's life based on the resources utilized.

[Lisa-Michele · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating approach to an endlessly complicated woman - George Washington’s mother. Saxton sets out to build a scholarly context around Mary Washington's life with only the barest of facts to go on. What she does know is that historians have vilified and indicted Mary on sparse evidence, so she reimagines Mary's life with more depth and fairness. "Since her death in 1789 the Founder's mother has endured a tumultuous half-life...By the mid-twentieth century, she had become unloving, jealous, whiny, and greedy...Most recently Ron Chernow described Mary as 'crude,' 'illiterate,' 'self-centered,' and 'slovenly.'" This is a story within a story. I was interested in Mary's life, but I was also fixated on how history is told. Saxton includes expansive passages about the culture of Colonial times, painting a picture of what possibly happened in Mary's life as well, since so few records survive her. For example, Saxton knows the books Mary owned so she expounds on the religious philosophies in those books and how they might have guided Mary in parenting George. I couldn't believe the depth of the research. I learned so much about women's lives in Colonial times far beyond Mary's story and Mary's story is poignant and wrenching on its own.

However, the involvement of the Washington family with enslaved persons cast a large shadow over the story for me, given their inhumane treatment of other human beings. Mary and George both display callousness in their writings toward these people as their "property" and it cannot go without saying that it reflects poorly on them. All considerations of context aside, it is just an appalling lack of humanity. The Washington family was in endless lawsuits to allocate "property" in the form of human beings, even splitting up families without regard to those ties. It wasn't a book about slavery, but Mary "owned" other people when she was as young as 2 and prided herself on her "mastery" of them. George similarly viewed them as far less than people and wrote letters about denying them food, clothing and other necessities because it would damage his plantation profits. Despite all the good things that both accomplished, this stain seeped onto the pages for me.

[William Bahr · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an outstanding book about the Father of Our Country’s mother! It shatters the impression that many George Washington admirers have of his mother: that she was mean, dirty, and uneducated. Through admirable research, the author does a wonderful job of explaining how Mary Ball, an only child of immigrants, was fatherless at 3 and orphaned at 12; how she became the second wife of George Washington’s father at age 22; how she remained a widow for the next 58 years, dying in 1789, at age 80.

The book introduces a number of interesting items. Her religious readings counseled stoicism and submission to God’s will, as well as a call to frugality and high moral character, traits she passed along to her children, for whom she cared very much. While the Parson Weem’s story of barking (not cutting down) his father’s favorite cherry tree may be myth, Washington’s step-grandson remembered the story of young George effectively killing Mary’s favorite horse by trying to break him secretly with the help of some friends. The horse likely had a heart attack trying to throw George, who had managed to hold on for dear life. George broke the news to his mother with, “Your favorite sorrel is dead, madam.” Reddened in the face with anger, she replied, “It is well; but while I regret the loss of my favorite, I rejoice in my son, who always speaks the truth!”

Other items revealed lead one to understand that the Culper Spy Ring, which Washington named for Culpeper County, VA, was likely derived from Lord Fairfax’s common name, Thomas Culpeper. Also revealed was that while the son did not fall far from his mother’s (cherry?) tree, Mary held firmly that the personal views and preferences of slaves did not matter, something George came more and more to differ with, as his feelings about slavery evolved.

Ever the dutiful, revering, but not so much loving son who seemed to privately begrudge his mother her requested loans and help, George did not really believe his mother’s claims that her overseer was stealing, a fact confirmed later, which helps explain the fear of poverty she was threatened with, especially as not only George but the whole country suffered massive financial loss during the American Revolution. He also had ascended into another class, and likely felt embarrassed by her more-common manners and attire (simple, but given her character, definitely not dirty!). As his free-time became more and more compressed by his public duties, he likely felt caring for his fiercely independent (the spirit was willing) but aging (the flesh was weak) mother was something of a burden. This was something Washington scholars picked up on, turning Washington’s mother into the less that admirable character most Washington readers believe her to be.

In not marrying after the death of George’s father, Mary was attempting to assert her rights. As a female, most of her rights (to include inheritances) would disappear upon marriage. This however, led to a precarious financial situation such that she could not afford to educate her children in the manner that their father had educated his earlier children. This led to George’s later complaint about his deficient education and perhaps an inferiority complex that led him to become a super-over-achiever. George assuredly copied the commanding, authoritative stance that Mary could and had to project as a female and a widow to oversee and protect her property in an age of patriarchy. George also had the benefit of Mary’s saving him from going into the British navy, something her brother warned could cost George his life but which his half-brother Lawrence was suggesting. Instead, the family connections found George a job as Culpeper County surveyor at the unusually young age of 17.

A couple small issues I have with the book: On page 139, the author says Washington wrote his “110 Rules of Civility” when he was 12 years old. However, her reference note (page 321) says only he wrote it in 1745. Unless he wrote it early in 1745, he would have been 13 years old in that year. In researching the "Rules" date, I have noted a number of good sources with dates ranging from 12-14 years old. Another issue is the author’s saying (page 250) that Valley Forge (winter 1777-78) was the coldest and most horrific months of deprivation of the Revolution. Actually, the coldest winter was Morristown (winter 1779-80), the harshest winter in American history.

Overall and as a fellow author, I'd say the book is an outstanding contribution to Washington scholarship, expertly explaining the character and life-influence of George’s mother, Mary Washington.

[Betty Adams · Rating 5 out of 5]

I chose this because my alma mater is Mary Washington College and because I felt biographies of her eldest son painted a portrait that was not flattering to a woman who chose to stay unmarried so that she could exert her rights such as they were.
She was the daughter of an indentured servant and wanted a better life for her five children. It appears George was a social climber; she was more humble and down to earth. Religious, she imparted the values of hard work, modesty, and strength and it took with George and his sister. His relationship with her was complicated and I was taken aback by his emotional stinginess.
The parts of the book dealing with her owning slaves was frank and candid - well done, Ms. Saxton.
I see her as an early feminist dealing in a harsh society with little in the way of resources other than her own abilities.

[Mike Shoop · Rating 3 out of 5]

More a history of the times Mary Ball Washington lived in, not so much a biography. Apparently, there isn't much in the way of source material on George Washington's mother. It's readable and informative about colonial life with its manners and mores before the Revolution, you get the basics of Mary's life, but throughout there are lots of assumptions made about Mary when there is no actual record to support. I found the family relationships interesting, especially during Mary's childhood and youth, quite a network of multiple marriages, stepchildren, cousins and other kin up and down eastern Virginia--plenty of details of family tragedies, sickness, grudges, hard times, financial worries, morality, religious education, and disagreements throughout Mary's life. Also found her Fredericksburg years of interest, when she lived near her only daughter Betty. I just wish there had been more specific to Mary herself, but lacking records, letters, diaries, etc., Saxton has put together a decent survey of Mary's life and times using what is available.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Much ink has been spilled on the life and times of George Washington, but little attention has been devoted to his mother Mary Ball Washington. When Mary Washington appears in studies of her famous son, she is labeled as a “shrew,” “illiterate,” a “helicopter parent,” and “Medea in a mob cap.” It was with trepidation that I picked up Dr. Martha Saxton’s new biography, The Widow Washington: The Life of Mary Washington. Would the same hackneyed stereotypes be repeated for three hundred pages? I quickly realized that my fears were unfounded. Dr. Saxton presents an insightful and engaging biography that firmly places Mary Washington’s life within the context of Colonial Virginia. Under Dr. Saxton’s skillful handling, Mary Washington has finally received the scholarly attention that she deserves as the driving force behind George Washington’s life. An argument can be made that without Mary Washington’s role in her oldest son’s life, the American Revolution could have turned out much differently.
Born in 1708, Mary Ball was born in a colonial Virginia very different from the genteel version of colonial life often presented at such sites as Colonial Williamsburg and Mount Vernon among others. Mary’s mother, also named Mary, was born in England and immigrated to Virginia as an indentured servant. Through skillful marriages, Mary Ball was able to enter Virginia’s emerging gentry class—an achievement that would become impossible by the time of the American Revolution. Mary Washington’s childhood was difficult, marred by the early deaths of close family members. Orphaned by the age of twelve, Mary Washington was cared for by her half-sister Elizabeth Bonum and the two developed a close bond. In 1731, Mary married Augustine Washington, a wealthy planter who had lost his first wife the year before. The marriage firmly placed Mary Washington within the comfort of the status of the gentry, but the marriage also brought three stepchildren to help rear. The family grew in 1732 when Mary Washington gave birth to her first child, George. Betty, Samuel, John Augustine, Charles, and Mildred would follow. Tragedy struck in 1743, when Augustine Washington died after a brief illness, leaving Mary Washington a widow to raise five children at the age of thirty-five.
Following Augustine’s death, Mary Washington lost the financial comfort that her husband provided as his vast landholdings and plantations were divided amongst his sons. To combat her financial insecurity, Mary could have remarried, an option that many colonial widows followed. Mary Washington decided to not follow that path and remained a widow, overseeing the management of her children’s inheritances. While she was unable to send her children to elite schools, she provided her children—particularly George, with the practical education of running a vast plantation. Mary Washington also instilled in her children industry, stoicism, piety, thrift, and independence. In recent years, Mary has been unfairly condemned for not allowing fourteen-year-old George to join the British Navy. Mary’s decision was firmly rooted in providing the best future for her son, a course of action that would not have been permitted as an ensign in the Navy. Instead, Mary encouraged George in his surveying career which allowed him to make powerful contacts within Virginia society.
These insights into Mary’s world are fully covered in Dr. Saxton’s work. Utilizing a diverse arrange of primary sources: letters, diaries, planation inventories, land grants, wills and period newspapers, Dr. Saxton firmly places the reader with the complex world of Colonial and Revolutionary War Virginia. The colonial Virginia that Dr. Saxton uncovers is a stark and at times cruel place. This is not the romanticized world of Colonial Williamsburg. Mary Washington was a slave owner from the age of three until her death at 80. Becoming the owner of enslaved workers at such a tender age quickly hardened Mary to the plight of the men, women, and children that she owned. Unlike her son, Mary never expressed any qualms about slave ownership and would separate enslaved workers from their spouses and children. To cope with the early loss of many of her family members, Mary also developed a hard exterior that made her less empathetic to the plights of others.
Like any family, the Washington’s occasionally had family squabbles. The most famous family dispute occurred during the Revolution when George openly questioned Mary’s claim of financial security. The Revolution brought inflation and high taxes to the home front. Compounding Mary Washington’s difficulties, in 1780 Mary was forced to flee into Virginia’s western interior with her family to escape possible capture from British military forces. While in the west, her son, Samuel, and son-in-law, Fielding Lewis, died from illness. During this time, someone petitioned the Virginia Assembly for a pension for Mary Washington. When George received word of the planned pension he erupted in anger. Sensitive to his public image, George feared that if word of his mother receiving a pension became public he would look like an uncaring son in the court of public opinion. George Washington argued that his mother’s claim to poverty was exaggerated. A claim modern historians have accepted unquestioningly, despite plenty of evidence to the contrary.
Regardless of the occasional family dispute, Dr. Saxton reveals a more loving and respectful relationship between mother and son than historians have previously presented. Mary and George deeply cared for each other, evidenced in the surviving correspondence between the two. Before leaving for the presidency in 1789, George Washington paid one final visit to his mother at her home in Fredericksburg, Virginia. Mary Washington was in the final stages of breast cancer, and according to family tradition the two had a loving and tender final goodbye. In her final months, Mary expressed concern for the health of her son until her death on August 25, 1789.
Dr. Saxton’s biography is a timely addition to the study of the Washington family and their place in the Colonial and Revolutionary War period. The work challenges previously held beliefs about Mary Washington and her son and will likely raise a few eyebrows and instigate scholarly debate. I hope that this work receives a wide readership.

Michelle L. Hamilton
Author, Mary Ball Washington: The Mother of George Washington
Manager, Mary Washington House
Fredericksburg, VA

[Ann]

[Read for work] Insightful look into the life of Mary Washington that challenges past historians' claims about her.

[Joleen Zackowski · Rating 3 out of 5]

I learned a lot from it. The author did a great deal of research to attempt to reveal the life of George Washington's mother. I would give it 4 stars, but I thought she often was just guessing at how Mary would have felt in certain situations. The author frequently said, "Mary must have felt....".

[Joseph J. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mary Ball Washington has not received an even break from historians; Martha Saxton notes the negativity in which classic George Washington biographers-Freeman, Flexner and most recently Ron Chernow-have painted the Founding Father's mother. Saxton, using a wealth of primary sources-seeks redress in these pages. This biography is seen within the growing school of women's history, particularly women in the pre-Civil War plantation south, and the history and impact of slavery on all in this country, enslaved and slave holder alike. I picked it up because, as I understood it, "George Washington didn't like his mother." That is simplistic. Whatever financial or cultural tensions existed between son and mother, Mary Ball Washington HAD to be a tough lady: Widowed with young children in a culture where women's legal and social roles were ill-defined. With little education she maneuvered to attain her legal and land rights among stepsons with an eye to protecting her own and her sons' financial positions. While accomplished with little education, and while she perhaps was an ill fit into her son's later prominence, she was not the uncouth harridan so often consigned in history books. Lafayette, meeting her casually dressed and raking the lawn, praised her and asked her blessing. Her slave trading, the breaking up of families, and in one case whipping a slave boy, we find distasteful today, but not surprising. Slavery was a cancer which victimized the enslaved while invading the humanity of the owner, or slave mistress. Mary's life is told within her world of sickness, death, the trauma of birth and infant mortality. Her life saw some privilege and much suffering, but she raised the much praised "Father of His Country" amid his own many contradictions.

[Ethan Burgess · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like many (whether or not they’re aware of it), I live near the Mary Washington Monument in Fredericksburg, Virginia. This historic site has its own complicated history, and visitors to the park and tennis courts below have the unique chance to be able to run up the hill and perch on the very Meditation Rock where our first President’s mother was known to frequent. I grew up in the neighborhood of Ferry Farm across the river.

Being able to contemplate the information from Martha Saxton’s book while within proximity of the narrative’s location was essential. If you read this book, or plan to read this book, it is required to make the journey to Fredericksburg.

On to the book: I appreciate the author’s commitment to bringing Mary Washington into a more factually correct and fair light. The sad, shocking, and sometimes boring details on in the 18th-century are abundant. The first fourth of the book is a little heavy on names & who-sued-who in a patriarchal Virginia. Whether for spiritual reasons or otherwise, some readers may find the hardships and perspectives of Mary Washington and/or her children to be relatable. Some may not. I was fascinated by the paper trail of letters, documents, and accounts of George Washington’s relationship to his mother and how it formed much of his unique personality.

That being said, those sources speak for themselves. The author does make speculations on a regular basis that come across as a little too personal.

[Donna Pingry · Rating 4 out of 5]

The detail recorded by the author truly amazed me. Years of school books did not prepare me for the facts itemized in this story. I was aware that women weren't treated very well in the prewar English colonies. Life was short. There was disease. Babies and husbands died young. But families took care of each other, didn't they? Women didn't mistreat slaves or separate children from their parents, did they? Sometimes I liked Mary Washington. She was a woman accustomed to frugality and hard work. She loved her family and her God. Sometimes I didn't like her. She seemed totally ignorant of the hardship and heartache she carelessly caused by separating her slave families to suit her own convenience. She was a slaveholder of her time and not alone in her blindness. I found myself even more disappointed in her oldest son, George. He was truly a military and political force for years, before, during and after the war, spending money for appearance sake while closing his eyes to his mother's needs, not investigating when she told him she was being robbed by the overseer he put in place. If you want a brand new perspective of the times, this book may be for you.

[Mandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

When writing a biography of someone about whom there are very few primary sources, the choice is stark – either write a very short book or use the life to explore general issues and topics relevant to the times. This is what the author has chosen to do here, and the result is a meticulously researched and detailed account of Mary Washington’s life, as far as it can be ascertained, and more generally of the times in which she lived. It puts her into her historical context and gives a lot of background information. Thus a mention of her son’s education leads to a disquisition about education practices, a mention of his health to a description of medical practice and so on. This is certainly all very interesting and informative but I found it made for some dull reading at times, and the book ends up being a scholarly text rather than an entertaining biography. Worthy, for sure, but sometimes tedious, and although I learnt many facts about Mary I failed to get close to her as a person.

[Kate C · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up while visiting Williamsburg earlier this summer. I went to Mary Washington College and truly knew nothing about the woman - except that she was George's mother. [SAVE THE NAME!] As I was reading it, I couldn't believe how much of her story - and his by extension - took place in and around Fredericksburg. How had I lived there for four years and never known any of this?! It makes me want to go back and revisit some of the landmarks mentioned in the book. Overall I think the author wanted to convey a different, more empathetic character than had been put forward by George's biographers. I think she did a fine job. I had never thought about the conditions of widows, how many times they re-married, and how many children - many not even their own - they had to care for. It didn't leave me with a great impression of George, though I'm not sure that was her intention. It is biased, but I would recommend it.

[Sarah · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is horrendous, it is nothing but speculation and interpretation based on very little evidence. I understand the need to draw conclusions but this is just too much. If it wasn’t for all the info on the lawsuits I would’ve thought I was reading historic fiction.

I was looking forward to reading a book that challenges the common negative narrative about women in history (if they’re included at all), in this case Mary Washington for being an ungrateful, unloving and mean mother to George Washington.

The only slightly positive part to this book was that the author did not ignore slavery and Mary as an owner of people. I hate when authors try to ignore or excuse the behavior. I didn’t read enough to know if the author continued to do this well, but at least in what I read she did not shy away from the horrors of slavery and Mary’s involvement in it.

Complete waste of time.

DNF at 40%

[Corinne · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author of this social history says she doesn’t particularly like to write about slave-holding women or women whose claim to fame rests on how she influenced a man- and then she proves it. She acknowledges the lack of primary sources and then gives her opinion by using averages (80% of women emigrating to Virginia in the early colonial period were indentured servants so Washington’s grandmother was probably an indentured servant) or by saying Mary Ball Washington would have, could have, or should have seen/done this or that. Probably or maybe but we have no proof! A good writer of historical fiction could use this book as a resource for an interesting novel. It would be more readable and more interesting.

[Alexandra · Rating 1 out of 5]

Couldn't get through this one, gave up 50 pages in. I love biographies and was excited to learn more about the lives of American women in the earlier colonial times, and especially of the one who shaped the life and character of George Washington. This bio, however, was so off-puttingly thin on real information and facts! Every page littered with "Probably", "might have" , "could have", "maybe". Perhaps, if so little is actually known about the life of Mary Washington, the author should have instead penned an historical fiction novel! Would have been far more interesting. The final nail in the coffin; it's dully repetitive, as if the author had a page quota to hit with these small stores of information.

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

I would say this is the best biography of Mary Washington. I read this as part of a book discussion with alum of Mary Washington. I found this author's research to be excellent. She explained first of all what life was like for someone in her position. The family was of the upper class but the whole system of British law with primogeniture giving everything to the first born son made her life not very pleasant in regards to money. Not only did her father die when she was young, but then her husband died early leaving her always cash poor. I think this author was the kindest to her and her rearing of the first president of the US. Excellent read.

[Kate Kruk · Rating 5 out of 5]

I adored this book. Walking hand-in-hand with the author, you'll slowly amble through Colonial Virginia - it's customs, idiosyncrasies and legal climate - with each step, coming to appreciate Mary Washington a little more.

The author gently challenges and dismantles much of the Victorian treatment of George Washington's mother. Taking it a step further, we come to understand and appreciate the origins of many of these historical misperceptions.

If you love historical non-fiction, colonial America and especially Virginia history, this is a must-read for you.

[Janilyn Kocher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Martha Saxton does an excellent job of delivering a reassessment of the one dimensional perception of Mary Ball Washington. I loved how she delved into the history of Mary's family and fleshed out the story with historical documents. I've always been fascinated by the extended presidential families and this biography was long over due. Saxton does solid writing and I believe gives readers a more balanced view about the mother of George Washington. Thanks to NetGalley for the early copy.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is about Mary, Mother of George Washington. I found it an interesting and eye-opening account of the life of a woman I knew little about. The life of Mary, as researched and presented by Martha Saxton, was memorable and logical from the presented information. Well written and engrossing read. Unfortunately, I did not find the time to read this prior to publication. My apologies to the writer, publisher, and NetGalley.

[Lara · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this book to be a disappointment from the standpoint of what I expected based on the title and book jacket. I would say 1/3 of this book focused on slavery in VA during Mary's lifetime. Another 1/3 focused on George, his military career, and the Revolutionary War. While these are all important topics, I felt they carried too much weight and were used as filler because there just was not enough information about Mary to write a book.

[Lisa Petrovich · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author relied more on speculation in the first few chapters than I felt comfortable with, such as using period materials or culture to say very specifically how Mary would have felt about situations in her life, but later on the interpretations seemed more grounded in better evidence. Overall this was an easy, light read that reoriented or gave more context to situations or letters that previous historians have used to bash Mary.

[Allison Ellis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Is this book about Mary or George? It is kind of hard to tell the story of Mary without telling George's story as well because we do not have a lot of primary evidence about her that does not involve him. Still could have done without all the Revolutionary History and George life stories. That's just my opinion. This book also in tryin to paint Mary as the hero, paints George as the villian.

[Karrie McMillan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is valuable for providing a good overview of George Washington's early life and relationship with his mother. Saxton tries to present a different and more favorable view of Mary Ball Washington from the rather jaded one other biographers have provided. At times, though, Saxton filled in gaps in the record with her views of what Mrs. Washington "must have felt," etc - which left me feeling that I couldn't take all of this book at face value.

[Thirteen Orange Ivy Designs · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this. I love anything to do with American Revolutionary War history but I’ve never known anything about Mary.
I’ll admit I found some parts hard to follow. So many cousins married cousins or in laws and everyone had the same names so often I didn’t know exactly who was talked about.
The George stories I’ve all heard before so they didn’t soak in at all to me but I loved reading about Mary when I’d known nothing, and of her other children!
Definitely an interesting read.

[Pamela · Rating 3 out of 5]

I lowered the rating for this book, although it was extremely well researched and documented, because there was so much information about Revolutionary era events that made it slow reading. Actually there is a paucity of information about Mary Washington, so the author puts her life in the context of the entire family and the time period which was great for a historical study.

[Christopher Little · Rating 5 out of 5]

Martha Saxton's Widow Washington is a tour de force. Superb research, engagingly written, this book was thoroughly enjoyable. Of great interest to me was the minutia (no disparagement intended) about the domestic lives of Virginia slaves and the degree to which Virginia families of the time were litigious. Even intrafamily, folks were suing one another all the time. Highly recommended.