The well renown “father of our country,” George Washington is undoubtedly one of histories most significant figures along with Thomas Jefferson and others. Many people in history have referred to Washington as an elite example of citizenship as well as outstanding leadership and general personal achievement. In this essay I will be going over this well respected man’s early life and along of course with his achievements throughout the wars he had fought in. Born in Virginia on Pope’s Creek, Washington was the eldest son of a stock raiser and tobacco farmer, Augustine Washington and Mary Ball Washington’s six children.
Most of George’s childhood was spent near Fredericksburg, Virginia at Ferry farm. After his father passed away it was up to him and his mother to handle the plantation. During so, it is believed that Washington accomplished formal education at the age of 15. He had quite the intellect showing great talent in the subject of mathematics.
In the year of 1751 is when Washington traveled for the first time outside of America to the island of Barbados in hopes of helping his half-brother improve in health through the warmer climate. During his time their, Washington combatted smallpox, which he would prevail but was stuck with non-removable scars on his complexion. Eventually Lawrence. the elder half brother and mentor, died which led to the inheritance of Lawrence’s estate to 19 year old George. December of the following year, Washington, with no prior military experience, was appointed commander of the Virginia Militia, Eventually, after seen in action during the French and Indian War, he was put to commanding official of all of Virginia’s militia army’s.
Washington resigned commission and became elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses, after coming back to Mount Vernon and becoming a loyal stepfather when marrying a widow with two children Martha Dandridge Custis. He continued performing his duties until 1774. In the following years Washington enlarged Mount Vernon to 8,000 acres holding five farms which grew corn, bred mules, wheat, and fruit gardens.
Due to his interests, Washington continued to farm and experiment new techniques for land conservation. Due to the increasing taxes charged to American colonists by the British in the late 17605, Washington thought it was best for the colonists to declare their independence from them. Washington was a delegate to the First Continental Congress in 1774, and a year later determined the commander in chief of the Continental Army at the Second Continental Congress to take action in the American Revolution. What revealed Washington’s greatest strength was his powerful skill to keep the colonial army, which were badly trained and not supplied with enough food nor supplies, from falling apart and gave them hope to fight through. During the wearying eight-year war, Colonial forces and British both won few battles, however, things changed once the French assisted the Continental army, allowing the capture of British soldiers which then put an end to the Revolutionary war leading to Washington becoming a well known hero around the world.
After a peace treaty was signed between the US. and Great Britain, Washington returned home. Couple of years later he was invited to the Constitutional Convention to head the committee in the process of drafting the constitution, which he obviously went to and ended up convincing the other delegates he was the greatest credentialed man to become the countries first president. Although Washington didn’t want to quite go back into this line of work and rather desired to go home and be in peace at last, the public wouldn’t stop demanding him for President and therefore eventually gave in and ran for the presidency. In the first election on January 7, 1789, George Washington won without difficulty, while John Adams received the second greatest number of votes leading him to become the first vice president. At 57, Washington was inaugurated in New York City on April 30, 1789. In order to set a example for the coming presidents, Washington tried hard to shape what the role of the President should be by showing justice, vigilance and honesty, which he certainly succeeded in. From both articles I learned George Washington’s early life as well as his background life throughout all of the important events that took place a bit more thoroughly.
Such as I did not know much about Washington’s early life aside from being born in Virginia. Neither did I know he had a half brother who was also his mentor. Something I remembered from the class that went along with the article was when George Washington was unanimously selected to lead the Continental Army, as well as to lead the nation as president. One of the reasons to why I chose these articles is because both had critical information, one talked about each important even in Washington’s life as a child all the way to him retiring and passing away all in chronological order, whereas the other article emphasized on Washington’s tremendously powerful leadership skills that attracted people to follow him. In my opinion, I’ve always thought of George Washington to be one of the most influential/inspirational presidents in history, and after reading these articles it proved those exact things quite well.
The Life and Works of George Washington the Father of Our Country. (2022, Oct 27). Retrieved from https://paperap.com/the-life-and-works-of-george-washington-the-father-of-our-country/