George Washington Birthplace National Monument

The Father of His Country

Washington has proven the most elusive of national heroes. The scope of his achievements and the strength of his character led a grateful nation to elevate him to the level of myth. As his life was magnified with legend and held up as example to countless schoolchildren. Washington the man began to disappear behind the model. His own shunning of kingly trappings made him even more revered and contributed to his glorified in the 19th century. Today his name and image are pervasive symbols. "The Father of his Country" is, like the monument built to him, an emblem of the nation. But for many the historical person has become as abstract as the monument, as unreal as the marble statues. If time and custom have obscured Washington, then we need to strip away the traditions of two centuries to see him again.

18th Century Virginia

While we have little information about Washington’s early years, we can begin to know the man by understanding the society in which he reached maturity, by searching for his roots in a time and place. When Washington was born on February 22, 1732, in a middle-sized plantation manor house along the banks of Popes Creek, Virginia was the largest and becoming one of the most powerful colonies. Its distinctive Tidewater culture flourished in the years before the French and Indian War. It was a society in which Washington’s father, grandfather, and great-grandfather before him were solidly entrenched, and he rapidly absorbed its ideals and values, becoming their most famous representative. From this culture he took the traits which defined his character: his sense of public duty and his love of learning.

Farmer

Washington always professed to be first and foremost a farmer, taking on public duties only as long as his country needed his services. Living at Popes Creek until he was almost four, and later as an adolescent spending long periods there, he watched his father’s slaves working the farm and helped his brother run it. He lived close to the natural world, his character developing to the slow rhythms of farm life, and his deep attachment to the land stayed with him to the end. We can understand these critical early influences only by taking an active role, by engaging ourselves with the past at Popes Creek. As the august symbol we know as Washington was created in the imaginations of an earlier America, we must use our own to move closer to the man.