History — News — John Reeves

By John Reeves, author of the forthcoming Soldier of Destiny: Slavery, Secession, and the Redemption of Ulysses S. Grant.

During the early days of the Revolutionary War, in August 1775, General George Washington sent a letter protesting the treatment of American officers to the British commander, General Thomas Gage. Washington objected to the British practice of throwing American officers into jails with common criminals.

Gage responded by saying he refused to recognize ranks among Americans “for I acknowledge no rank that is not derived from the king.” Angered by Gage’s barbarous policy, Washington controlled his temper and coolly replied, “You affect, Sir, to despise all rank not derived from the same source with your own. I cannot conceive any more honorable than that which flows from the uncorrupted choice of a brave and free people—the purest source and original fountain of all power…I shall now, Sir, close my correspondence with you, perhaps forever.”

This brief but remarkable exchange shows that George Washington, almost a year before the writing of the Declaration of Independence, believed that the people—and not a hereditary monarch—were the true source of authority. This was a radical idea at the time. And it was perhaps even more incredible that the idea was being defended by a conservative planter from Virginia. Another Virginian, Thomas Jefferson, described Washington as “our first and greatest revolutionary character, whose preeminent services had entitled him to the first place of his country’s love.”

Today, we remember many things about George Washington: His role as the “indispensable man” of the Revolutionary War; his wooden teeth; his indefensible ownership of slaves; and his part in dispossessing Native Americans of their land. As we reevaluate his historical legacy, we must not forget his courageous defense of American principles during a seemingly futile rebellion against the greatest empire of the age. Below are five outstanding books for learning more about George Washington.

1. Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow

Ron Chernow won the Pulitzer Prize for his biography of George Washington. Gordon Wood, an esteemed historian of the American Revolution, called Chernow’s book, “The best, most comprehensive, and most balanced single-volume biography of Washington ever written.”

Chernow’s goal is to make Washington “real, credible, and charismatic in the same way he was perceived by his contemporaries.” His Washington is a heroic figure, though Chernow doesn’t avoid discussing his faults, noting the demands he put on his slaves and his flintiness when it came to personal finances. Despite Washington’s reputation for stoicism, he could be extremely emotional on occasion. During a demoralizing defeat on the battlefield in September 1775, Washington’s officers struggled to “get him off the field, so great was his emotions.” And when he wanted to include a list of grievances in his famous presidential Farewell Address, Alexander Hamilton wisely chose not to include them in the final draft.

It’s difficult to disagree with Chernow’s belief that Washington was indeed the indispensable man of the American Revolution. Chernow writes, “He brought maturity, sobriety, judgment, and integrity to a political experiment that could have easily grown giddy with its own vaunted success, and he avoided the backbiting, envy, and intrigue that detracted from the achievements of the other founders.”

2. You Never Forget Your First: A Biography of George Washington by Alexis Coe

Alexis Coe begins her book by noting that there hasn’t been an adult biography of George Washington written by a woman in over forty years. She then pokes fun of some of Washington’s male biographers, who she nicknames the “Thigh Men” for their obsession with the Founding Father’s manliness. The historian Joseph Ellis, for example, admired how Washington’s thighs “allowed him to grip a horse’s flanks tightly and hold his seat in the saddle with uncommon ease.”

Coe’s perspective is helpful when considering George Washington’s mother, Mary Washington. The Thigh Men often present Mary as a shrew, though there is little evidence to support such a harsh view. Coe’s Mary Washington, on the other hand, is a hard-working widow, who managed the farm and raised arguably the greatest American of all time.

This book has lots of lists and sidebars and primary sources. I really enjoyed the inclusion of this content and believe it’s a smart way to reach a wider audience. Among the many interesting bits, Coe includes a recipe for hoecakes, Washington’s favorite breakfast. There’s also a sidebar with Washington’s waspish marginalia to sections of a pamphlet written by James Monroe that was critical of the Washington administration.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book and highly recommend it. One criticism, however, is that there is little here on Washington’s military career. Ironically, it’s as if she’s conceding that this is a topic for male historians. Personally, I believe—paraphrasing Georges Clemenceau— the subject of war is too serious a matter to be entrusted solely to the Thigh Men.

3. The Indian World of George Washington by Colin Calloway

Calloway, who believes that “nothing was more central than the relationship between the first president and the first Americans,” has written one of the best and most important books about George Washington. Throughout Washington’s eventful life, he inhabited a world “on the land of dispossessed Indian people.” He had been linked to the frontier as a surveyor, speculator, soldier, and politician, and would accumulate 45,000 acres of western lands by the time of his death.

This is a fascinating book that I couldn’t put down. The Indians actually named Washington, Conotocarious, which means “Town Destroyer.” Several years after the Revolutionary War, Seneca chiefs told Washington, “When your army entered the country of the Six Nations, we called you Town Destroyer; and to this day when the name is heard, our women look behind them and turn pale and our children cling to the necks of their mothers.”

Calloway makes it clear that his goal isn’t to demonize Washington. Rather, he tries to show that his life was “inextricably linked to Native America, a reality we have forgotten as our historical hindsight has separated Indians and early Americans so sharply, and prematurely, into winners and losers.” Calloway concludes by examining Washington’s complex legacy. The founding father “saw his policies as setting Indians on the road to survival, not destruction, giving them the opportunity to remake themselves as American citizens.” Yet, Washington ultimately “failed to balance expansion onto Indian lands with justice to Indian people.”

4. Never Caught: The Washingtons’ Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge by Erica Armstrong Dunbar

George Washington owned and managed hundreds of slaves at Mount Vernon during his lifetime. This outstanding book by Erica Armstrong Dunbar examines the connection between Washington and the institution of slavery. The journalist Michele Norris feels Never Caught “ought to be on Americans’ reading list about our real history.” I strongly agree.

Ona Judge, one of Martha Washington’s favored slaves, ran away from Philadelphia in 1796, and ended up in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Judge decided to flee after hearing that Martha intended on giving Ona to her granddaughter as a wedding present. Upon learning of the escape, George Washington wrote, “The ingratitude of the girl, who was brought up & treated more like a child than a Servant (& Mrs. Washington’s desire to recover her) ought not to escape with impunity if it can be avoided.”

George Washington may have expressed ambivalence about slavery later in his life, but he remained financially dependent on the institution throughout his career as a soldier and statesman. This book shows that Washington was a demanding slaveowner, who took extraordinary steps to protect his human “property.” When an official suggested that Ona Judge might return if she was promised her freedom, Washington wrote, “for however well disposed I might be to gradual abolition, or even to an entire emancipation of that description of People (if the latter was in itself practicable at this moment) it would neither be politic or just to reward unfaithfulness with a premature preference.” Washington waited until his death to free 123 of his own slaves, though their emancipation would be delayed until after Martha died. And Martha’s 150 separately owned “dower” slaves would not be freed upon her death. George Washington’s legacy was forever tarnished by his lifelong involvement with slavery. He recognized that the ownership of his fellow human beings was wrong, but he lacked the moral courage to do anything meaningful about it.

5. His Excellency: George Washington by Joseph Ellis

The prolific historian of the Founding Fathers, Joseph Ellis, has a much less negative view of George Washington’s relationship to slavery. According to Ellis, George Washington, in his final years, wrestled with the dilemma of “what should be done with those three hundred black residents of Mount Vernon, whom he could not in good conscience sell without breaking up families, could not afford to keep without enlarging his annual costs, and whose very presence constituted a massive contradiction of the principles on which his heroic reputation rested.” Washington’s ultimate decision to free his slaves after his death, Ellis believes, represented “a clear statement of his personal rejection of slavery.”

Joseph Ellis is a fine writer and an outstanding scholar. Before writing his biography of George Washington, he read The Papers of George Washington in their entirety. Somehow, he was able to synthesize his many insights from all that material into an engaging one-volume account—a “modest-sized book about a massive historical subject,” as he calls it. He clearly succeeds in his goal. His Excellency is an extraordinary achievement.

Ellis’ historical insights are sharper than Chernow’s. He writes of Washington, “Ultimately, his life was all about power: facing it, taming it, channeling it, projecting it. His remarkably reliable judgment derived from his elemental understanding of how power worked in the world.” For Ellis, this explains why George Washington is the greatest of the Founding Fathers, deserving of his place “atop the American version of Mount Olympus.”

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