George Washington

George Washington was born on February 22, 1732, at Pope’s Creek in Westmoreland County, in the Colony of Virginia (now the state of VirginiaVirginiaVirginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a U.S. state whose capital is Richmond. It entered the Union on June 25, 1788, as the 10th state, and had a population of 8,631,393 in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020).Open the full entry). His father was Augustine Washington (1694–1743) and his mother was Mary Ball Washington (1708–1789).⁠[1]

He was the first of his parents’ six children; his father also had three children from an earlier marriage. The family moved several times before settling at Ferry Farm on the Rappahannock River near Fredericksburg.⁠[2]

The Miller Center describes his father as a middling planter, of whom George Washington was the third son.⁠[3]

His father died when George Washington was eleven. His older brothers inherited most of the estate, including Little Hunting Creek Plantation, later Mount Vernon, while he received a smaller property and ten enslaved people. He did not attend university; he learned plantation management from his mother and surveying with the help of a neighbor, Colonel William Fairfax.⁠[2]

The Miller Center lists his education as the equivalent of an elementary school education; after his father’s death he was raised largely under the guidance of his older brother Lawrence Washington.⁠[3]

In 1749, at the age of 17, George Washington became county surveyor for the newly created Culpeper County.⁠[1]

Within a few years he had completed nearly 200 surveys covering more than 60,000 acres.⁠[2]

In 1751 he traveled to Barbados with his brother Lawrence Washington and contracted smallpox there, surviving with lifelong immunity. He had hoped to join the British Navy but gave up the idea when his mother opposed it. Lawrence Washington died in 1752, after which George Washington increasingly pursued a military career.⁠[2]

In 1753, aged 21 and a major in the Virginia Regiment, George Washington was sent by Lieutenant Governor Robert Dinwiddie of Virginia to deliver a message to the French in the Ohio Valley.⁠[4]

He had volunteered for the mission in October 1753 and, concluding that the French were preparing an attack, traveled back on foot, reaching Williamsburg on January 16, 1754. Promoted to lieutenant colonel, he led troops to drive the French from the Ohio Valley and, with Native American allies led by Tanacharison, attacked a French camp at Jumonville Glen, where the French commander Jumonville was killed. On July 3, 1754, French forces compelled him to surrender Fort Necessity; the surrender terms, written in French, admitted to Jumonville’s killing, an interpretation he disputed. The Miller Center’s essay treats the clash as the start of the Seven Years’ War.⁠[2]

He led about 150 men on this expedition and resigned his commission after the surrender at Fort Necessity.⁠[4]

Mount Vernon lists the French and Indian War as lasting from May 28, 1754, to February 10, 1763.⁠[1]

In 1755 he served as an aide-de-camp to General Edward Braddock, whose army was defeated near the Monongahela River.⁠[4]

He survived the battle, in which most of the British officers were killed, later commanded Virginia’s colonial forces, and resigned his commission at the end of 1758.⁠[2]

He lost his first election to the Virginia House of Burgesses, won his second race, and served in that assembly from 1758 to 1776.⁠[1]

On January 6, 1759, he married Martha Dandridge Custis (1731–1802).⁠[1]

Martha Dandridge Custis was a wealthy widow; one month after the wedding, in February 1759, he took his seat in the House of Burgesses.⁠[2]

He inherited Mount Vernon in 1761 after the death of Lawrence Washington’s widow. Martha Washington brought 84 of her 300 enslaved laborers to the estate. Starting in 1757 he expanded the property from its original 3,000 acres to nearly 8,000 acres by the time of his death, and enlarged the house from a one-and-a-half-story, four-room dwelling into an 11,000-square-foot mansion, paid for largely with Martha Washington’s wealth. He shifted the farm from soil-depleting tobacco to grains and experimented with fertilization and crop rotation.⁠[2]

Mount Vernon, formerly Little Hunting Creek plantation, was named after British Navy Admiral Edward Vernon and was substantially expanded in the late 1750s and in the 1770s.⁠[1]

After Parliament taxed the colonies to pay its Seven Years’ War debts, George Washington encouraged the House of Burgesses to resist and himself stopped buying British goods. When MassachusettsMassachusettsMassachusetts (officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts) is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States; its capital and largest city is Boston. One of the original 13 states, it ratified the U.S. Constitution on February 6, 1788, the sixth state to do so. Its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 7,029,917.Open the full entry colonists destroyed 342 chests of East India Company tea in Boston Harbor on December 16, 1773, Parliament responded with the Coercive Acts, closing the port of Boston and revoking Massachusetts’ self-government. He was among Virginia’s first delegates to the Continental Congress and helped form the Continental Association to coordinate the boycott of British goods. Fighting began at Lexington and Concord in April 1775.⁠[2]

On June 14, 1775, the Second Continental Congress created the Continental Army, and the next day Thomas Johnson of Maryland nominated George Washington as its commander in chief. The Miller Center’s essay attributes his selection to his military experience, his unquestioned loyalty and the value of a Virginian in uniting the colonies.⁠[2]

He then traveled to Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he found the army disorganized and undisciplined. He had Henry Knox bring artillery from Fort Ticonderoga and install it overlooking Boston Harbor, after which the British abandoned Boston.⁠[2]

He served as commander in chief of the Continental Army for eight years.⁠[4]

On Christmas night 1776 he led his forces across the Delaware River and defeated British troops at Trenton, New JerseyNew JerseyNew Jersey is a state in the eastern United States on the Atlantic Ocean, bordered by New York State, Delaware, and Pennsylvania, with the Hudson River forming its northeastern boundary and the Delaware River its western boundary; its capital is Trenton and its largest city is Newark. One of the original 13 colonies, it became the third state to ratify the U.S. Constitution on December 18, 1787, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 9,288,994.Open the full entry, then won again at PrincetonPrinceton UniversityPrinceton University is a private university and Ivy League member in Princeton, New Jersey. Chartered on October 22, 1746 as the College of New Jersey, it moved to Princeton in 1756 and adopted its present name in 1896. Undergraduate education leads to A.B. and B.S.E. degrees and emphasizes small-group discussion, independent research and residential college life. Graduate education spans the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences and engineering. As of October 2026, Christopher L. Eisgruber was president. Its 2026–27 operating budget was $3.407 billion, including $342 million for undergraduate aid.Open the full entry. The war also brought many setbacks: the British drove him from New York City in 1776 and captured Philadelphia in 1777. The Miller Center’s essay identifies management as his strength, noting that he chose capable subordinates, built morale and refused a salary during the war.⁠[2]

Baron von Steuben trained the army, and the Marquis de Lafayette secured funds and diplomatic support from France.⁠[2]

In the South, Nathanael Greene waged a guerrilla campaign against the British under Charles Cornwallis, who retreated to Yorktown, Virginia. A French fleet under the Comte de Grasse defeated the British navy at the Battle of the Chesapeake, and Franco-American forces under George Washington and Rochambeau forced Cornwallis to surrender.⁠[2][1]

In early 1783 officers angered by unpaid wages conspired against Congress in the Newburgh Conspiracy; George Washington defused it by addressing his men, mentioning his failing eyesight. The Treaty of Paris ending the war was signed about six months later. In December 1783 he returned his commission to Congress in Annapolis, MarylandMarylandMaryland is a Middle Atlantic state of the United States, deeply indented by Chesapeake Bay and bordered by Pennsylvania, Delaware, Virginia, the District of Columbia and West Virginia; its capital is Annapolis and its largest city is Baltimore. One of the original 13 states, it ratified the U.S. Constitution on April 28, 1788, as the seventh state to do so, and had a population of 6,177,224 in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020).Open the full entry.⁠[2]

Mount Vernon lists the Revolutionary War as lasting from April 19, 1775, to September 3, 1783.⁠[1]

After the war the country faced heavy debts, a weak economy and a dispute with Spain over access to the Mississippi River. Under the Articles of Confederation, Congress could request money from the states but could not compel payment, and amending the Articles required unanimous consent. George Washington warned that weak government would lead to instability. In 1786 Daniel Shays led farmers in shutting down courts in western Massachusetts; Congress could not pay for troops, and the rebellion was crushed by a private army financed by wealthy Boston merchants.⁠[2]

He left Mount Vernon on May 9, 1787, for the convention in Philadelphia. When a quorum was reached on May 25 he was elected its president, and he attended every session. The delegates divided power among the branches and between the federal and state governments, apportioned the House by population and gave the states equal representation in the Senate; for apportionment, enslaved people were counted as three-fifths of a white person. On September 17 the convention submitted the Constitution to Congress, and George Washington endorsed it.⁠[2]

Anti-Federalist fears of federal overreach led to the Bill of Rights, passed in 1789 with the help of James MadisonJames MadisonJames Madison (1751–1836) was the fourth president of the United States, serving from 1809 to 1817. He helped frame the Constitution, co-wrote The Federalist and guided the Bill of Rights through Congress, and earlier served as a U.S. representative and secretary of state.Open the full entry.⁠[2]

Mount Vernon lists the convention as meeting from May 14 to September 17, 1787, at Independence Hall in Philadelphia, and gives June 21, 1788, as the date the Constitution was ratified.⁠[1]

He was unanimously elected in the first presidential election.⁠[5]

On April 16, 1789, he left Mount Vernon for New York City to be inaugurated.⁠[4]

On April 30 he was sworn in by Robert Livingston, Chancellor of New York, on the second-floor balcony of the original Federal Hall at 26 Wall Street in New York City, the new nation’s first capitol.⁠[6]

John AdamsJohn AdamsJohn Adams (1735–1826) was the first vice president (1789–1797) and the second president (1797–1801) of the United States. Earlier he served in the Continental Congress, was a signer of the Treaty of Paris and became the first American minister to Great Britain.Open the full entry served as vice president. During his presidency George Washington lived in New York City (April 1789–August 1790) and Philadelphia (November 1790–March 1797).⁠[1]

His first cabinet consisted of Thomas JeffersonThomas JeffersonThomas Jefferson (1743–1826) was the author of the Declaration of Independence and the third president of the United States, serving from 1801 to 1809. He had earlier been governor of Virginia, minister to France, secretary of state and vice president.Open the full entry as secretary of state, Alexander Hamilton at the Treasury, Henry Knox as secretary of war and Edmund Randolph as attorney general. He relied heavily on Hamilton, who backed federal assumption of state debts and argued that the bill creating the Bank of the United States was constitutional. When Jefferson and Hamilton clashed, he tried to keep the peace and refused to accept their resignations.⁠[7]

He toured the Northern and later the Southern states to emphasize that he was president of the whole country. He adopted a formal republican court style, with rented houses, a coach and livery and weekly levees; critics such as Senator William Maclay found it too solemn, and some Anti-Federalists accused him of behaving like a king.⁠[7]

He set precedents that included creating the cabinet, asserting executive privilege and using the veto for the first time.⁠[4]

The Miller Center’s essay also credits him with overseeing the establishment of the financial system and the restoration of national credit, and with setting precedents such as the State of the Union address.⁠[5]

In 1792 he reluctantly accepted a second term and was again elected unanimously; his second term ran from 1793 to 1797. BritannicaEncyclopædia BritannicaEncyclopædia Britannica is a general English-language encyclopedia first published in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1768; the name also refers to its publisher, Chicago-based Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. (which presents itself as The Britannica Group). The print edition ended in 2012, and the company’s main businesses since then have been the online encyclopedia Britannica.com, digital education products for schools and libraries, and Merriam-Webster dictionaries.Open the full entry’s article notes that he faced fierce personal and partisan hostility during his last four years in office.⁠[7][1]

After France and Britain went to war in 1793, he adopted Hamilton’s policy of strict neutrality, set aside the treaty of alliance with France and moved to stop the improper activities of the French minister Edmond-Charles Genêt. Jefferson resigned as secretary of state at the end of 1793.⁠[7]

In 1794 federal troops, led in person by Hamilton, suppressed the Whiskey Rebellion.⁠[7]

He sent John Jay to negotiate a commercial treaty with Great Britain and signed the Jay Treaty in August 1795. When its terms became public, the House of Representatives requested the negotiating instructions and correspondence; he refused and held his position through a bitter debate.⁠[7]

He declined a third term. On September 19, 1796, his Farewell Address was published in a Philadelphia newspaper, warning Americans to reject partisan or foreign attempts to divide them.⁠[5]

Hamilton largely drafted the address, which George Washington revised to reflect his own ideas.⁠[7]

His retirement after two terms set a precedent that held until Franklin D. Roosevelt; the 22nd Amendment, ratified in 1951, limits presidents to two terms.⁠[4]

After leaving office he returned to Mount Vernon on March 15, 1797, to expand his enterprises and finish renovating the mansion. In 1798 alone the household received as many as 677 guests, attended by enslaved cooks, servants and housemaids. He spent several hours each morning reading and writing, breakfasted at 7 a.m., inspected the estate on horseback and dined at 3 p.m. He built a distillery that made whiskey from rye, corn and barley; at his death it was one of the largest and most productive distilleries in the nation.⁠[8]

In 1798, when war with France seemed likely, he was appointed commander in chief of the provisional army. He was troubled by political disputes over the senior commissions, but the crisis passed without war.⁠[7][9]

He wrote his will in 1799, leaving most of his estate to Martha Washington, forgiving debts owed by relatives, providing land and stock for educational institutions and leaving his papers and books to his nephew, Supreme Court Justice Bushrod Washington. The will freed his valet William Lee immediately and arranged for the 122 people he owned to be freed after Martha Washington’s death, provided support and education for those too young or too old to work, and prohibited selling or transporting them out of Virginia. About half of the more than 300 enslaved people at Mount Vernon belonged to the estate of Martha Washington’s first husband, and neither George nor Martha Washington could free them.⁠[8]

The White House Historical Association notes that he was a slaveholder for 56 years and was the only Founding Father president to free all the people he held in bondage.⁠[4]

On December 12, 1799, he rode for hours in wet snow and sat down to dinner without changing his clothes; he fell ill, and on the night of December 13 he woke with difficulty breathing. Doctors bled him four times and applied blisters, an emetic and an enema, none of which helped and some of which added to his suffering.⁠[8]

He died at Mount Vernon at about 10 p.m. on December 14, at the age of 67.⁠[9]

Mount Vernon gives the cause of death as acute bacterial epiglottitis and names Dr. James Craik as his attending physician; Britannica’s article describes the illness as quinsy or acute laryngitis.⁠[1][7]

He was buried four days after his death in the Washington Family Tomb at Mount Vernon.⁠[1]

Henry Lee described him as “first in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen,” words endorsed in resolutions that John Marshall introduced in the House. The armies of Napoleon Bonaparte and the British Channel Fleet paid homage to him, and Gouverneur Morris delivered “An Oration Upon the Death of General Washington.”⁠[7][9]

He and Martha Washington had no biological children; her two surviving children from her previous marriage, John Parke Custis and Martha Parke Custis, became his stepchildren. His siblings included Butler Washington (1716–1716), Lawrence Washington (1718–1752), Augustine Washington Jr. (1720–1762), Jane Washington (1722–1734), Betty Washington Lewis (1733–1797), Samuel Washington (1734–1781), John Augustine Washington (1736–1787), Mildred Washington (1737–1740) and Charles Washington (1738–1799).⁠[1]

He and Martha Washington were devoted members of the Anglican Church; the Miller Center lists his religion as Episcopalian.⁠[1][3]

By the end of his life he had inherited, purchased, rented or gained control of at least 577 enslaved people.⁠[1]

The Miller Center’s essay states that his views on race changed during the war: he initially opposed enlisting Black men but reconsidered as manpower ran short, and after the war he kept families together on his plantation and stopped buying or selling enslaved people.⁠[2]

At least ten enslaved people worked in the presidential households in New York City and Philadelphia: Ona, Hercules, Moll, Giles, Austin, Richmond, Paris, Joe, Christopher Sheels and William Lee.⁠[4]

The national capital was named for him during his lifetime; one state, counties in 32 states and 121 postal addresses also bear his name.⁠[7]

Places named for him include Washington, D.C., the Washington Monument and Washington StateWashington (state)Washington is a state on the Pacific coast of the northwestern United States; its capital is Olympia and its largest city is Seattle. Washington was admitted to the Union on November 11, 1889, as the 42nd state, and the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) counted 7,705,281 residents.Open the full entry. The George Washington Papers at the Library of Congress form the largest collection of original Washington papers in the world.⁠[9]

The Miller Center lists his nickname as “Father of His Country” and judges that, despite modest beginnings, he became one of the most important figures in American history.⁠[3]

John Augustine Washington III, the last private owner of Mount Vernon, first tried to sell the estate to the federal government and to Virginia. Ann Pamela Cunningham founded the Mount Vernon Ladies’ Association in 1853 and led it as Regent until 1874; by 1858 the association had raised $200,000 to buy the mansion and about 200 acres. It preserves, restores and manages the estate, does not accept government funding and relies on individuals, foundations and corporations.⁠[10]

George Washington’s Mount Vernon: Official website: https://www.mountvernon.org/ (opens in a new window).⁠[10]