George Washington Family Farm

George Washington was born on February 22, 1732. He was born at his family farm. His mother's name was Mary and his father's name was Augustine. George was the eldest out of Mary and Augustine’s six children, himself, Elizabeth, Samuel, John, Charles and Mildred. Mary, was Augustine’s second wife, Augustine’s first wife, Jane Butler Washington, had died leaving him with 2 sons, Lawrence and Augustine.
The farm Washington’s family owned was called Ferry farm. It was in Popes Creek Estate in Westmoreland County, in Virginia. During the time Washington was born, Virginia was a british colony.
Washington inherited the family farm after his father died on April 12, 1743. Later, he decided to grow wheat instead of tobacco on his plantation. This is because tobacco is much harder to grow than wheat. Also, Washington could sell his wheat locally. As for tobacco, most of the tobacco Washington grew was shipped of to England. To add on, Washington could turn the wheat to flour.
Washington built a 16 sided barn to prepare the wheat to go to the mill to be made into flour. First, on the top floor of the barn, horses would tread on the wheat, making wheat grains fall through cracks in the floor. Below, on the first floor, slaves would shovel the wheat grains into bags that would
be taken to the mill.
Washington’s mother was overprotective. Her full name was Mary Ball Washington. Mary had a strained relationship with Washington and wa sometimes cold and bossy. For example, other children nearby the the area reached an age in which they were considered old enough to play nearby the river. On the other hand, Mary never gave any of her children this privilage.To add on, when George married Martha Cutis, he never introduced her to Martha.
Even though Washington was against slavery, he owned about 300 slaves to work on his plantation. When Washington died in 1799, he wrote in his will that all his slaves were to be freed after Martha died. Although this might sound kind of Washington, He never freed any of his slaves during his lifetime. Even though George wrote in his will for his slaves to be freed after Martha’s death, Martha freed all the slaves all the slaves about one year after Washington’s death in fear that the slaves kill her in order to have freedom.
After Washington died, a man named Mason Locke Weems wrote a biography about Washington called The Life of George Washington.
In this book included several tales about Washington, the most famous, the Cherry Tree story. This story was written to show how honest Washington was. In this story, when Washington was six, he got a hatchet for a gift resulting in Washington chopping down a cherry tree on his family farm. When his angry father asked Washington if he had cut down the tree, Washington replied, I can not tell a lie, I cut down the cherry tree. These stories however, are fake. More than 100 years later, people discovered that they were made up by Mason Locke Weems to make Washington seem
perfect.