The Education and Experiences That Shaped America’s First Founding Father

Engraving of George Washington as a young boy confessing to his father that he cut down his favorite cherry tree. Young Washington’s honesty, according to his father, was therefore “worth more than a thousand trees.” “Father, I cannot tell a lie: I cut the tree” painted by G.G. White and engraved by John C. McRae, 1889. Library of Congress

The midwife who ushered George into the world thought he had the largest bones of any baby she had ever seen. It was February 1732. George took after his father in size and strength and was the first of six children born to Mary and Augustine Washington Sr.

The growing Washington family lived a simple life on Ferry Farm in Virginia. Augustine was a tobacco farmer and also managing director of the nearby Accokeek Iron Furnace. An inventory of their possessions taken in 1743 indicated modest furnishings: no rugs or carpets, no glittering silver tea services, no coaches or carriages.

Colonial Education

At an early age, George went into the tobacco fields with his father to hoe weeds and kill tobacco worms. No one could supervise workers, Augustine believed, unless he knew the job himself.