This page contains biographical information concerning George Washingtons life after his terms as president. It discusses his eventual death, his popularity throughout history, and the myths about Washington.
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In 1797 ending two terms as America�s first president, Washington retired to Mount Vernon. For three more years Washington would farm. In 1799 Washington fell ill with laryngitis and on December 14, 1799 George Washington, the most famous commander in chief and the first president of the United States of America died at an age of 67. When Washington died his wife was left alone until she too died 3 years later. Yet their memory will live on forever in the hearts of all Americans.
When Washington was 11 he inherited 10 slaves from his father. 11 years later he had a work force of 36 slaves. When he married Martha 20 more slaves came to Mount Vernon. Then Washington bought more slaves. Then the number of slaves increased when the slaves got married and had children. When Washington died there were 316 slaves at Mount Vernon. But in Washington�s will he had all of the slaves he owned slaves freed with paid pensions for years. In all 122 slaves were freed out of the 316 slaves total. The reason that all of the slaves were not freed is because the rest of the slaves were Martha�s. We know this because of Washington�s careful record keeping. Washington had many myths about him, and these are only a few of them. One of the most common myths is that he chopped down a cherry tree and when his dad asked him if he did cut down the cherry tree, he said "Father I can not tell a lie, I cut down the cherry tree with my ax." He didn�t really chop a cherry tree down, it was only a myth made up by a man named Mason Weems shortly after Washington�s death to show how honest he was. Another very common myth is that Washington wore wooden teeth. He didn�t really wear wooden teeth, but, he did wear false teeth made out of cow�s teeth. Washington didn�t attend college. Washington is so famous that there are hundreds of schools named after him like George Washington University. Thousands of roads named after him. The nation's capital is also named after him. Other areas named after our first president are Mount Washington in Kentucky, and also the state of Washington. Even our currency has a picture of him on it. There are parks named after him, such as Washington park zoo. Then there is the George Washington bridge in New York City. Another thing is that if you search the internet for Washington, you will find over 5,200,000 names. It just goes to show how much he was loved by his fellow Americans. |
