Historian's Guild discussion

On the negative side, Washington was a slave owner. He did free his slaves upon his death but only after he no longer needed them. As a slave owner he believed that a person had a right to own other people which doesn't sound very heroic today. His action would have been seen as irresponsible by other salve owners of his generation as squandering his children's inheritance and freeing other people who the didn't regard as capable of conducting themselves in a free society.

His military record from the French and Indian Wars through the Revolution was characterized by more defeats then victories. As a military leader he did hold his army toghter through starving times and moments of despair and mutiny. On the one had he struggled against the fixed idea of retaking possession of New York and had to be persuaded to give that up and would have missed the opportunity that Yorktown presented had he not been pressed to peruse the southern strategy. He almost lost his entire army when moving them onto Long Island from which retreat in dark of night looked almost impossible. There were moments such as defeating the Hessians. As a leader he did get the French soldiers to move out of what was beginning to look like a permanent encampment in New England and take an active role. It was French activity that led to the decisive victory at Yorktown that would not have happened without French foot and navy. And Washington did see the importance of having Steuben drill and organize a professional army, the Continental Line, rather than depend upon volunteers.

As a political leader Washington demonstrated his wisdom and excellence at a time when the government was broke, not able to pay the veterans and without much respect either from internal investors or from other nations. I'm not sure the nation would have held together without him. His strength was in his political leadership. It is odd though that after the revolution, he retired to Mount Vernon during the Confederation years and took no part in government until the Constitutional Convention was held. But he may have needed that time to recover from combat fatigue. He was human.

Thank you. I do agree, he was born into a slave owning society and was educated at William and Mary in that very society with its future leaders. Interesting that he was willing to make a revolutionary change in government but not in the economic basis of the land.

We all know that Georg suffered from bad teeth and never found dentures that worked for him. I have read that among his possessions were, I'm thinking, two sets of false teeth made from human teeth. I don't think it was known where they came from. But … Imagine we were transported back in time and were standing outside the slave quarters. We might hear an old
plantation hand speaking to some of his young, fellow "servants."
"Now if Masa George takes you up to his office and pulls out a bottle and offers you a glass, just know it is better not to drink with him. Your may wake up and find a bunch of your teeth missing." And we might see that old slave smiling with a toothless grin. But that's undocumented conjecture, so best to forget that you read it here.

Night all.

I'm no expert either, but I think it was Washington's strength of character and political astuteness which helped him guide the fledgling American army through the Revolutionary War. By no means was he an excellent fighting general, but it takes more than winning a battle to win a war. Not just any man could have lead the Continental Army through the war.

In regards to your comment, Jeffrey, about the origins of Washington's false teeth made from human teeth, there could have been many possibilities. Although some forty years later, the following story may give some clue to how George received his fake teeth.

After 1815 in England, many sets of false teeth consisted of teeth pulled from the corpses of soldiers from the aftermath of the battle of Waterloo. These are now called Waterloo teeth. Here's a quick article from the BBC about it: https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-330...

Elliot wrote: "I'm no expert either, but I think it was Washington's strength of character and political astuteness which helped him guide the fledgling American army through the Revolutionary War. By no means wa..."

Thank you for your reply Elliot. I indulged in that speculation because the Smithsonian asserts possession of some of Washington's dentures and states that he purchased nine teeth from African-Americans citing Mt. Vernon as a source without giving any additional details.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-...

Of course teeth could have been extracted from corpses had he wished to put them in his mouth, that is most certainly possible.

Washington is in my mind a frustrating character. He is purposely elusive, I remember reading how many of his personal papers were burned after his death. He seems to have a lot of people around him who admire him, but it seems hard to find many very close and personal friends. He was known to be very quiet except of course when he would engage in angry tirades directed at either his staff in the army or later his white house staff. Part of Washington's genius is really is his ability to keep his mouth shut as Joseph Ellis puts more eloquently.

His participation in owning slaves is a very dark stain on his record. At the same time I do think that towards the end of Washington's life he was beginning to see the contradiction of the revolution existing in a society where slavery also existed. I have to give him props for at least being willing to change or to look at things differently. When I say this I'm of course squinting towards Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson also knew that slavery was a contradiction to the American revolution, But unlike Washington he never made any attempt to rectify it either alive for at the time of this death as far as I know. I think as a strength Washington was very good at gathering good people around him who are able to give him a lot of good advice and counsel. At the same time I think sometimes that was also a liability because Washington would trust them without stopping sometimes to question what their motives might be... And now I'm squinting towards Hamilton. I think he is great part popular today because he was the first of our presidents. I think that he made sure to attempt to seal off his private life, and he carefully played the part of Cincinattis with an almost mythical air.