George Washington During the American Revolution He was deeply interested in farming and continually experimented with new crops and methods of land conservation. He grew a variety of crops, including wheat and corn, bred mules and maintained fruit orchards and a successful fishery. In the ensuing years, Washington expanded Mount Vernon from 2,000 acres into an 8,000-acre property with five farms. Washington became a devoted stepfather to her children he and Martha Washington never had any offspring of their own. In January 1759, he married Martha Dandridge Custis (1731-1802), a wealthy widow with two children. By 1759, Washington had resigned his commission, returned to Mount Vernon and was elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses, where he served until 1774. He saw action in the French and Indian War and was eventually put in charge of all of Virginia’s militia forces. In December 1752, Washington, who had no previous military experience, was made a commander of the Virginia militia. Watch Now An Officer and Gentleman Farmer Washington eventually inherited Lawrence’s estate, Mount Vernon, on the Potomac River near Alexandria, Virginia. In 1752, Lawrence, who had been educated in England and served as Washington’s mentor, died. He survived, although the illness left him with permanent facial scars. Shortly after their arrival, George contracted smallpox. In 1751, Washington made his only trip outside of America, when he traveled to Barbados with his older half-brother Lawrence Washington (1718-52), who was suffering from tuberculosis and hoped the warm climate would help him recuperate. His surveying expeditions into the Virginia wilderness earned him enough money to begin acquiring land of his own. It’s believed he finished his formal schooling at around age 15.Īs a teenager, Washington, who had shown an aptitude for mathematics, became a successful surveyor. However, before his passing, he had become opposed to slavery, and in his will, he ordered that his enslaved workers be freed after his wife's death.įew details about Washington’s early education are known, although children of prosperous families like his typically were taught at home by private tutors or attended private schools.
After Washington’s father died when he was 11, it’s likely he helped his mother manage the plantation.ĭid you know? At the time of his death in 1799, George Washington owned some 300 enslaved people. George, the eldest of Augustine and Mary Washington’s six children, spent much of his childhood at Ferry Farm, a plantation near Fredericksburg, Virginia. George Washington was born on February 22, 1732, at his family’s plantation on Pope’s Creek in Westmoreland County, in the British colony of Virginia, to Augustine Washington (1694-1743) and his second wife, Mary Ball Washington (1708-89).
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