Washington (2010) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

show spoilers

Summary edit see section history

Characters/People edit see section history

• George Washington: Commander in Chief of the Revolutionary War and the 1st President of the United States.
• Martha Washington: Never a radiant beauty, she provided the ideal social setting and emotional support for her husband's career.
• Bushrod Washington: Nephew that Washington was in frequent contact with. He was an attorney that Washington refused to appoint to Attorney General because he didn't want to have nepotism.
• Sarah "Sally" Cary Fairfax: Wife of George William Fairfax, a good friend of Washington. she is an enchanting woman who captivated George's imagninaton in his early adulthood and perhaps in the years beyond.
• Henry Knox: A colonel of the Continental artillery; Knox weighed nearly 300 lbs. He was well liked. He lacked an education to support his mother and younger brother when his father disappeared. He clerked in a bookstore until he bought he own. Favoite subjects were miitary and engineering.
• Nathanael Greene: A Quaker from Rhode Island, he became one of Washington's favorite officers. He was the youngest general in the Continental Army and was chosen by Congress. Always touted as Washington's favorite general, Green met an untimely death after the war, robbing Washington of an influential polticial ally.
• Sir Henry Clinton: One of the many distinguished British commanders whom George Washington managed to send down to defeat.
• Charles Cornwallis: First Marquess Cornwalls. Although associated with the stunning defeat of British forces at Yorktown, Cornwallis was an aggressive commander who inspired a healthy fear among American generals.
• Benedict Arnold: A staunch admirer of Arnold's derring-do through the war, Washington was staffered by the exposure of his massive treachery.
• Alexander Hamilton: Started off as Washington's aide after Reed left. He flourished as a wartime aide to Washington and later as treasury secretary because the two men agreed on so many policy issues.
• Baron von Steuben: Colorful, flamboyant, and profane, Steuben performed wonders as the drillmaster at Valley Forge, introducing a new professionalism and forging discipline in the Continental Army.
• Thomas Paine: Famous for writing Common Sense in January 1776. He was a brillant, abrasive personality who had arrived in Philadelphia in 1774 after a checkered career as a corset amker and shopkeeper in England.
• Philip Morin Freneau: As the editor of an opposition paper, Freneau heaped so many aspersions on Washington that the exasperated president denounced him as a "radical.
• Gilbert Stuart: American painter who gained fame in England and Ireland. His portrait of Washington is the one used on the $1 bill.
• Lawrence Washington: Great-great grandfather and Anglican minister who was removed with the Puritan cleansing of the Church of England.
• John Washington: Great grandfather who entered into the American tobacco trade. Recruited to fight Indians in Maryland and rewarded with a Colonel's rank. Earned the Indian nickname "Conotocarious" which meeting Destroyer of Villages or Town Devourer.
• Anne Pope Washington: Great grandmother whose dowery included the land that would eventually become Mount Vernon.
• Lawrence Washington: Grandfather who inherited the bulk of the Washington/Pope estate.
• Mildred Warner Washington: Grandmother whose father was a member of the prestigious King's Council. After Lawrence died she married George Gale, a British sea captain from Whitehaven.
• Augustine "Gus" Washington: Washington's father who married twice and as the Washington men died young. He was a shadowy figure, stong, named justice of the peace and sat on the county court.
• Jane Butler Washington: Gus' first wife
• Lawrence Washington: Son of Gus and Jane and half brother to George. Lawrence was very close to George - peer and parental figure. He inherited the land and established Mount Vernon. Set a pattern of military service that George faithfully followed.
• Augustine "Austin" Washington, Jr.: Son of Gus and Jane. He inherited the family farm at Pope's Creek
• Jane Washington: Daughter of Gus and Jane. When she died an early death this forced George, the oldest of his full siblings had to take more responsibility.
• Mary Johnson Ball Washington: 2nd wife of Gus. She was 23 when she married which was considered old and this was probably due to her headstrong personality. Her father, Joseph Bell, was a thriving business man and her mom, Mary Johnson Ball, was illiterate. She was orphaned by the age of 12 and was a country woman with little education.
• George Eskridge: A family friend who took Mary Johnson Ball into his household after she was orphaned. He was a kind man and she named her first son, George, after him.
• Betty Washington: Daughter of Gus and Mary - George's sister.
• Samuel Washington: Son of Gus and Mary - George's brother.
• John "Jack" Augustine Washington: Son of Gus and Mary - George's brother and best friend.
• Charles Washington: Son of Gus and Mary - George's brother.
• Mildred Washington: Daughter of Gus and Mary - George's sister. She died as a child.
• Edward Vernon: An Admiral that Lawrence served used during the 1739 Great Britain / Spain clash in the Caribbean. Little Hunting Creek was renamed Mount Vernon and a portrait hung in his honor. Otherwise, he would not be remembered.
• Ann Fairfax: Lawrence's wife which catapulted him into Virginia society and certified his election into the House of Burgesses.
• William Fairfax: He was a Colonel and Ann's father. He and George became good friends and he was George's sponsor to help promote him in society.
• George William Fairfax: Son of William, and a good friend of George's. He married Sally.
• Robert Jackson: A family friend who Mary had consulted. He prevented George from joining the Royal Navy.
• Robert Dinwiddie: Lieutenant Governor of Virginia who became a mentor to George. Though he wasn an early champion of Washington during the French and Indian War, the two men clashed before the end of Dinwiddie's tenure as colonial governor of Virginia.
• Mary Cary: Sally's sister. She is suspected of being the "Low Land Beauty" that George had fallen in love with as a youth.
• Elizabeth "Betsy" Fauntleroy: George had pursued her, but she had no interest in him. She was above him in social rank.
• Jacob Van Braam: A Dutchman by birth, fellow Mason, and French interpreter for the Ohio Company negotations with the French. He taught George how to fence.
• Christopher Gist: Skilled guide and surveyor of the back country. He went with George and Van Braam on the Ohio Company trip.
• Tanacharison / Half King: A Seneca tribal leader who gave George the predator nickname Conotocarious that was previously bestowed on his great grandfather, John.
• Philippe Thomas de Joncaire: A captain who was the son of a French officer and a Seneca woman. His courtesy was masked with sinister intentions.
• Eleanor "Nelly" Calvert Custis Stuart: Wife of George's stepson, Jacky. They had three children - Elizabeth, Nelly, and Washy the last two being raised by the Washingtons once she was widowed. Later married David Stuart.
• Jacky Parke Custis: Martha's son from her first marriage. Jacky wasn't a very good student and never tried which disappointed George. Died shortly after Yorktown.
• Martha "Patsy" Parke Custis: Martha's daughter from her first marriage. George harbored tender feeling for his stepdaugther, who was afflicted with epilepsy from an early age.
• Billy Lee: George's manservant.
• Peyton Randolph: From Virginia he was the chair of the First Continential Congress which focused on diplomatic niceties.
• George Mason: A friend of George, he organized a militia during the First Continential Congress. They elected Washtington as their commander.
• Patrick Henry: Superlative orator from Virginia
• John Burgoyne: British General
• William Howe: British General who took over from General Gage.
• John Hancock: President of the Second Continential Congress which focused on war.
• Charles Lee: Born in Englad, Lee had served as a major in the French and Indian War, he fought as a mercenary in various European wars befing sailing back to America in 1773. He was the third choice of the Second Continential Congress for major general. He was vain, eccentric general and a rival to Washington.
• John Adams: Rather small and paunchy, with a sharp mind and an argumentative personality, Adams was a farsighted prophet of independence, the curmudgeon who spoke uncomfortable truths.
• Artemas Ward: From Massachusetts, he was chosen by the Second Continential Congress as the first major general. Ward never warmed to Washington and resented being upstaged by him.
• Horatio Gates: Named adjutant general with the rank of brigadier from the Second Continential Congress. Washington admired Gates, lauded his superior knowledge of military affairs, and personlaly recommended him for the high post, but he would shortly revise this opinion.
• Philip Schuyler: Another major general chosen by the Second Continential Congress. He was a wealthy landlord with extensive holding along the Hudson River. A member of the Anglo-Dutch aristocracy of New York, he had a bulbous red nose, a raspy voice, and a frosty attitude toward his social inferiors.
• Israel Putnam: A colorful, rough-hew farmer from Connecticut who was chosen as a major general by the Second Continential Congress. Had wond the endearing nickname "Old Put." Scarred, weater-beaten, and poorly educated, he was popular among his soldiers.
• Catharine "Caty" Littlefield Greene: Nathanael's pregnant wife. She had stunning good looks, sociable, coy, high-spirited and the preeminent belle of the Revolutionary era.
• George Washington Greene: The Greenes' named their first child, a son, after George Washington. Washington would pay for him to go to college.
• Lucy Flucker Knox: Henry's wife. She ws the daughter of a highborn Tory, was a brigth, socially, ambitious woman who excelled at chess and loved to gamble at cards. She had a girth that matched her husbands and with her love of fashion became a laughingstock in the Continental Army.
• Abigail Adams: Wife of John Adams. Many of her observations are used thoughout the book.
• Fielding Lewis: Washington's brother-in-law.
• George W. Lewis: Martha's nephew who traveled to Cambridge, MA with her.
• James Reed: Washington's aide who went back to Phildelphia to attend to his law practice.
• Mercy Otis Warren: A prolific bluestocking who wrote poems, plays, and histories. She became fast friends with Martha in Massachusetts.
• John Adams: Brilliant, crusty, and opinionated. Adams evolved from an early booster of Washington into an evnious detractor in later years.
• Margaret "Peggy" Shippen Arnold: Feigning temporary madness whn her husband's treason was revealed, she manged to hoodwink Washington, Hamilton, and Lafayette into believing her innocent of the scheme.
• James Madison: At first a trusted adviser to Washington and his peerless tutor on the Constitution, James Madison emerged unexpectedly as his most formidable adversary in Congress.
• Thomas Jefferson: While Washington's secretary of state, Jefferson teamed up with Madiosn, in sometimes covert partnership, to contest the policies of the administration, inaugurating a major political party in the process.
• Thomas Paine: An arden admirer of Washington ealry in the Revolutionary War, Thomas Paine later turned into a scathing critic.
• Elizabeth Willing Powel: A married woman of exceptional intelligence and literary flair, was Washington's most intimate female friend and confidante during his presidency.
• Frances "Fanny" Bassett Washington Lear: A niece of Martha Washington, she came to live at Mount Vernon in early adolescence and with her winning personality, ended up as a much-loved surrogate daughter. Married George Augustine Washington and after becoming a widow married a family friend, Tobias Lear.
• George Augustine Washington: A favorite nephew.
• Benjamin Lincoln: A Continential Army General played an important role in the Battle of Yorktown.
• Thomas Jefferson: The first Secretary of State. He was not a fan of the U.S. Constitution and wanted a Bill of Rights. He would have been content to have some changes done to the Articles of Confederation. Saw differently than Hamilton and thought Washington sided too much with him.
• John Jay: The first head justice of the Supreme Court. Responsible for the controversial Jay Treaty/
• Edmund Randolph: The 1st Attorney General.
• James Madison: Extremely well versed in the Constitution. Early support of Washington but ended up going the other way.
• Paris: A Washington slave that served him as President. Paris was removed from duty for being lazy.
• Giles: A Washington slave that served him as President. He became injured and could no longer ride a horse
• Thomas Paine: Wrote many publications for the American and French Revolutions.
• Nelly Parke Custis: Martha's granddaughter that she and George raised after her son Jacky died.
• George "Washy" Washington Parke Custis: Martha's grandson that she and George raised after her son Jacky died. He took after his father, and knew he had a fortune once he became of age.
• Elizabeth Parke Custis: Nelly and Washy's sister that was raised by their mother and step-father. She was devoted to the Washingtons but had a firey temper that made Martha hesisitant to take her into the Presidential household. Was married to Thomas Law, a speculator, that Washington did not like. The marriage ended in 1803.
• George Washington Lafayette: Son of Marquis de Lafayette. He comes to America in hopes the Washington will be able to get his father freed. George and Martha take him into their household and pay for his education.

Quotes edit see section history

• “Where other founders gloried in their displays of intellect, Washington's strategy was the opposite: the less people knew about him, the more he thought he could accomplish.”

  Ron Chernow

• “People felt the inner force of his nature, even if they didn't exactly hear it or see it; they sensed his moods without being told.”

  Ron Chernow

• “Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbit it, Almighty God! I know what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”

  Patrick Henry

• “An American planter was chosen by us to command our troops and continued during the whole war. This man sent home to you, one after another, five of your best generals, baffled, their heads bare of laurels, disgraced even in the opinion of their employers.”

  Benjamin Franklin

• “The entire wonder of the American Revolution was visible for all to see. It wasn't the well-dressed French Army who were the true victors of the day, but the weather-beaten, half-clad American Troops.”

  Ron Chernow

• “While such groups "may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines by which cunning, ambitious and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people."”

  George Washington

• Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers

• “Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”49

  Highlighted by 178 Kindle customers

• “These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.”11

  Highlighted by 168 Kindle customers

• “every hour misspent is lost forever” and that “future years cannot compensate for lost days at this period of your life.”15

  Highlighted by 167 Kindle customers

• Unlike the French Revolution, the American Revolution started with a series of measured protests by men schooled in self-government, a long, exhaustive search for a diplomatic solution, before moving toward open rebellion.

  Highlighted by 165 Kindle customers

• “Be courteous to all but intimate with few,” he advised his nephew, “and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence. True friendship is a plant of slow growth.”14

  Highlighted by 149 Kindle customers

• Great Britain was simply bad for local business, a fact that would soon foster the historical anomaly of a revolution inaugurated by affluent, conservative leaders.

  Highlighted by 128 Kindle customers

• The Americans are a curious, original people. They know how to govern themselves, but nobody else can govern them.”9

  Highlighted by 124 Kindle customers

• Benjamin Franklin’s maxim “Let all men know thee, but no man know thee thoroughly.”

  Highlighted by 122 Kindle customers

• Washington was always reluctant to assume responsibility without the requisite powers to acquit himself honorably. As he put it, “No person who regards his character will undertake a command without the means of preserving it, since his conduct is culpable for all misfortunes and never right but when successful.”2

  Highlighted by 111 Kindle customers

• Destiny had now conferred upon Washington a pivotal place in colonial, and even global, affairs, for the Jumonville incident was recognized as the opening shot that precipitated the French and Indian War, known in Europe as the Seven Years’ War. In the words of Sir Horace Walpole in London, “The volley fired by a young Virginian in the backwoods of America set the world on fire.”24

  Highlighted by 101 Kindle customers

Setting & Locations edit see section history

• Sulgave Manor: Near Banbury in Oxfordshire, it was the Washington family residence.
• Brasenose College: Located in Oxford. Lawrence (great great grandfather) earned two degrees, was a fellow of the college, and a university proctor.
• Tidewater, Virginia: Bridges Creek hard by the Potomac River in Westmoreland County.
• Appleby Grammer School: Gus was the first to attend this school that offered a classical education. He sent Lawrence and Austin to this school as well, but died before he could send George.
• Little Hunting Creek / Mount Vernon: Land acquired by the Washington family. Named Mount Vernon by George's 1/2 brother Lawrence in which he would eventually inherit.
• Ferry Farm: Land George inherited. It was located near a ferry and there were lots of visitors. Not far from Fredericksburg.
• Fredericksberg, Virginia: George inherited assorted lots in this community.
• Barbados: George's only trip outside of North America.
• Belvoir: Estate that Ann Fairfax grew up on and it was four miles down the river from Mount Vernon.
• Fort Le Boeuf: A French fort that George has visited. This was the very beginning of the French Indian War because the British were looking to expand into Ohio, and the French were looking to expand from New Orleans into Canada.
• Alexandria, Virginia: Headquarters of Lieutenant Colonel George Washington. He owned a townhome in this city.
• Cambridge, Massachusetts: General Washington's headquarters during the Revolutionary War.
• Dorchester Heights, Massachusetts: A battle that forced General How to leave Boston.
• Philadelphia
• New York
• North America
• France
• London
• New England
• United States
• Pennsylvania
• New Jersey
• Williamsburg
• Boston
• Paris
• Trenton
• Potomac
• Valley Forge
• Great Britain
• Maryland
• Manhattan
• Fredericksburg
• Princeton
• Europe
• Ohio Country
• Delaware
• South Carolina
• Hudson River
• Fort Washington
• Sally Fairfax
• West Point
• Annapolis
• Connecticut
• Cincinnati
• Rhode Island
• Canada
• Charleston
• East River
• Germantown
• General Washington

Organizations edit see section history

• Free Masons: Masonic Lodge opened in Fredericksburg in September 1752. George had joined and raised to the ranks of a Master Mason in a year's time.

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Series & Lists edit see section history

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

1. Ron Chernow (Author)

First Edition edit see section history

Awards edit see section history

• Pulitzer Prize (2011: Biography or Autobiography, Winner)
• Publishers Weekly's Best Books of the Year (2010: Nonfiction)

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: Add the Library of Congress Classification.
• Dewey: 973.41092

Subjects edit see section history

• Books › History › Americas › United States › Revolution & Founding
• Books › Biographies & Memoirs › People, A-Z › ( W ) › Washington, George
• Books › Biographies & Memoirs › Historical › United States
• Books › Biographies & Memoirs › Leaders & Notable People › Presidents & Heads of State

Books Cited by This Book edit see section history