He massacred so many Native Americans he was given the nickname "Town Destroyer."
He relentlessly pursued a slave that managed to escape his grasp.
If you disobeyed him while under his military command, he would have you whipped or hanged
from the gallows.
Who could this monster be?
Here's a hint: he's on every one-dollar bill...
George Washington is, without a doubt, one of the most famous men in American history.
Today, we're digging up the roots of the United States of America and taking a look at the
ugly truth about George Washington.
If you've ever heard anything about George Washington, the chances are that you've heard
a story about a young George chopping down a cherry tree.
When confronted by his father over what he had done, George supposedly responded, "I
cannot tell a lie," and confessed.
This story has been told again and again to illustrate the honesty and integrity of the
young man who would become the first president of the United States.
There's just one problem with the story...it never happened.
Yes, ironically enough, a story about the value of honesty was a complete fabrication.
Who is responsible for the myth?
A biographer of Washington, a traveling minister and bookseller named Mason Locke Weems.
His book, "The Life of Washington," was published in 1800, but the cherry tree story was added
to the book's fifth edition in 1806.
It is uncertain where Weems came up with this particular story, but the unverified claim
caught on and was published in textbooks starting in the 1830s.
The rest, as they say, is history.
But it isn't George Washington's fault that a biographer made up stories about him after
his death.
Let's move on to some of the faults he was actually responsible for.
Washington is remembered as a great general and a military hero, but in fact, he lost
more battles than he ever won.
He did find success as both a general and a spymaster, of course, largely due to the
kind of unshakeable confidence that some would consider bordering on delusion.
But he also saw his fair share of defeats and made a great deal of mistakes.
One of his most notable, at the beginning of his military career, sparked a global war.
At age 22, Washington saw battle for the first time during the French and Indian War.
He led the British forces in Pennsylvania in May of 1754 alongside a seasoned Mingo
warrior.
They attacked the encampment of French Ensign Joseph Coulon de Jumonville, and, according
to a Mingo eyewitness, Washington fired first.
Jumonville was killed in the attack, along with several of his soldiers, and the French
retaliated.
Britain was not at war with France at this point, and this seemingly unprovoked attack
was a diplomatic failure, followed by the disastrous Battle of Fort Necessity.
Washington's reckless behavior ramped up tensions between Britain and France and earned him
a great deal of criticism as far away as London.
In a way though, Washington actually planted the seeds of future victory in the Revolutionary
War that day.
The French and Indian War would lead to the British levying heavy taxes on the new colonies
to recoup the costs of the war, and this would forment the eventual revolution.
But France’s defeat by Britain in the French and Indian War would spur it to lend aid to
the young American nation in order to weaken Britain, ensuring it won its freedom.
Some of Washington's worst behavior came after the end of the French and Indian War and the
Revolutionary War had both ended, when Washington turned his military experience on the native
tribes, some of whom had once fought side by side with him against the French.
During his time in the French and Indian War, the Mingo leader Tanacharison gave Washington
the nickname, "Conotocaurius", which translates to "town taker," "burner of towns," or "town
destroyer."
The nickname was something of a family heirloom, originally given to his great-grandfather
John Washington after he participated in the massacre of five native chiefs in Virginia
and Maryland.
On May 31, 1779, during the Revolutionary War, Washington issued a command to General
Sullivan: "The expedition that you are appointed to command is to be directed against the hostile
tribes of the six nations of Indians…
The immediate objects are the total destruction and devastation of their settlements and the
capture of as many prisoners of every age and sex as possible.
It will be essential to ruin their crops now on the ground, and prevent their planting
more.…
parties should be detached to lay waste all the settlements around, with instructions
to do it in the most effectual manner, that the country may not be merely overrun but
destroyed."
During the course of the Sullivan Expedition, over 40 Iroquois villages were destroyed.
In August 1789, Washington and his Secretary of War, Henry Knox, attempted to purchase
native land via treaties.
When they refused to sell, Washington threatened to "extirpate" them, or "destroy completely."
By 1792, his reputation was solidified.
Mohawk chief Joseph Brant visited Washington in Philadelphia, then returned home and issued
a warning: "General Washington is very cunning, he will try to fool us if he can.
He speaks very smooth, will tell you fair stories, and at the same time wants to ruin
us."
Also in the 1790s, a Seneca chief addressed this destruction wrought by Washington against
the native people: "When your army entered the country of the Six Nations, we called
you the Town Destroyer; and to this day, when that name is heard, our women look behind
them and turn pale, and our children cling close to the necks of their mothers.”
Washington's history of human rights violations didn't begin or end with his treatment of
the indigenous people of North America, either.
Like most of America's Founding Fathers, George Washington participated in the institution
of slavery.
George Washington first became a slave owner at only eleven years old, when his father
died and left him the 280-acre family farm, along with ten enslaved people.
In young adulthood, Washington purchased eight more enslaved people.
Then, in 1755, he purchased four men, two women, and a child.
When he married Martha Custis, his slave holdings increased by a massive amount, with Martha
bringing eighty-four enslaved workers to Mount Vernon.
In the sixteen years that followed, Washington purchased 40 more.
Richard Parkinson, an Englishman who lived near the Washington estate of Mount Vernon,
once commented on Washigton's behavior as a slave owner, "It was the sense of all his
neighbors that he treated them with more severity than any other man."
During the Revolutionary War, Washington's attitudes on slavery appeared to change.
He was exposed to parts of the country where agriculture was done without slave labor.
He approved the enlistment of free black soldiers into the Continental Army, even though he
had once opposed it.
In 1786, he wrote about his desire to see a plan for abolition put into practice, saying,
"I hope it will not be conceived from these observations, that it is my wish to hold the
unhappy people, who are the subject of this letter, in slavery.
I can only say that there is not a man living who wishes more sincerely than I do, to see
a plan adopted for the abolition of it; but there is only one proper and effectual mode
by which it can be accomplished, and that is by Legislative authority; and this, as
far as my suffrage will go, shall never be wanting."
So, he must have spent the years that followed working to abolish slavery and didn't contribute
to the institution anymore, right?
Wrong.
In spite of his words, Washington continued to use slave labor and even contributed to
making life harder for escaped slaves.
When he moved into the Presidential Home after he was elected, he and Martha brought enslaved
workers with them to New York from Mount Vernon, separating them from their families.
He may have claimed that his principles had changed, but his actions said something entirely
different.
In 1793, George Washington signed the Fugitive Slave Act into law.
This act guaranteed the right for a slaveholder to recover an escaped slave and put enslaved
people who escaped to freedom at risk of being re-captured and brought back into slavery
for the rest of their lives.
The Act was written at the same time as a controversial case, wherein a free black man
named John Davis was kidnapped from Pennsylvania and taken to Virginia, forced into slavery.
The Act also made it a federal crime for anyone to assist a person escaping from slavery or
to interfere with the escaped slave's capture.
Washington had his own direct experience with fugitive slaves after one of his own escaped
from his home, fleeing the bondage there for a life of freedom.
In April of 1774, a baby girl named Ona Judge was born.
Her mother, Betty, was a slave from the estate of Martha's first husband.
Her father, Andrew Judge, was a white indentured servant who had traveled to America from Leeds,
London.
He worked at Mount Vernon for four years, before moving away to start a farm of his
own.
In spite of her father's status as a free citizen, Ona was born into slavery, considered
property of her mother's slaveholder, Martha Washington.
Ona, also known by her nickname "Oney," lived with Betty in a small cabin with her mother
for the first twelve years of her life, helping her with whatever work she could.
Then, when she was twelve years old, Martha moved her into the main house and began training
her to be a housemaid.
Then, in 1789, Washington was elected President, and Martha brought Ona with her to the President's
house in New York City.
Ona was only 16, forced to leave her mother and siblings behind as one of only nine enslaved
people taken from Mount Vernon to the Presidential estate.
So, with no choice in the matter, Ona went to New York and then to Philadelphia when
the nation's capital moved there.
In Philadelphia, Ona was exposed to a community of free Black Americans for the first time
in her life.
In fact, in Philadelphia, there were more free Black Americans than enslaved, with over
6,000 free Black Americans compared to fewer than 100 enslaved people in the city limits.
Pennsylvania had put a gradual abolition law into place in 1780, and in order to keep their
enslaved workers from gaining legal residency there, they would take them in and out of
the state every six months.
But even though it was still out of reach, Ona was learning about the possibility of
freedom and about the burgeoning abolitionist movement.
Still, the possibility of self-emancipating and escaping came with potentially dire consequences.
Washington was known for whipping those who disobeyed him, and enslaved people who incurred
his wrath enough or were caught trying to self-emancipate were sold to plantations in
the Caribbean, where the working conditions were even more dangerous.
There was also the Fugitive Slave Act to worry about.
But Ona paid close attention, listening and learning from the formerly enslaved in Philadelphia,
reminding her again and again of the possibility of a free life.
In March of 1796, Martha's granddaughter, Eliza Custis, married Thomas Law.
As a wedding present, Matha decided to give Ona to the newlywed couple, ripping Ona away
from her life in Philadelphia and the possibility of returning to her family in Mount Vernon.
Not only that, but Eliza was notoriously volatile, known for having anger issues and an unpredictable
personality.
It was now or never.
In the Spring of 1796, Ona contacted members of the free black community and began to plan
her escape.
On May 21, 1796, Ona managed to slip away.
Many years later, she described her escape in a newspaper interview:
"Whilst they were packing up to go to Virginia, I was packing to go, I didn't know where,
for I knew that if I went back to Virginia, I should never get my liberty.
I had friends among the colored people of Philadelphia, had my things carried there
beforehand, and left Washington's house while they were eating dinner."
Two days after Ona's escape, Washington's steward, Frederick Kitt, placed an advertisement
in the Philadelphia Gazette.
The text of the ad read as follows:
"Absconded from the household of the President of the United States, ONEY JUDGE...She is
of middle stature, slender, and delicately formed, about 20 years of age.
She has many changes of good clothes, of all sorts, but they are not sufficiently recollected
to be described—As there was no suspicion of her going off, nor no provocation to do
so, it is not easy to conjecture whither she has gone, or fully, what her design is; but
as she may attempt to escape by water, all masters of vessels are cautioned against admitting
her into them, although it is probable she will attempt to pass for a free woman, and
has, it is said, wherewithal to pay her passage.
Ten dollars will be paid to any person who will bring her home, if taken in the city,
or on board any vessel in the harbour;—and a reasonable additional sum if apprehended
at, and brought from a greater distance, and in proportion to the distance."
Once she had left the Washington home, Ona made her way to a ship commanded by Captain
John Bowles, who, after five days at sea, safely dropped her off in the city of Portsmouth,
New Hampshire.
There, she found paid work as a domestic servant and began her new life.
But she couldn't avoid detection for long.
The summer after she escaped, Judge was spotted walking down the Portsmouth streets by Elizabeth
Langdon, daughter of New Hampshire Senator John Langdon.
She recognized Ona from her time visiting Martha Washington, and before long, word of
Ona's whereabouts had reached the President's house.
George opted not to use the Fugitive Slave Law he himself had signed, fearing the publicity
it would generate if he took the case to the courts.
Instead, he contacted Joseph Whipple, the Portsmouth collector of customs who had earned
that position through the help of the Washington administration.
At Washington's behest, Whipple told his friends that he was looking to hire a maidservant
to assist his wife.
Ona heard about the job posting, and met with Whipple about the details.
However, she quickly realized that something was up, as his questions became too prying
and personal.
He admitted the ruse and asked her to consider returning to the Washingtons.
Ona agreed, but only to get away from him.
He waited for her at the docks, preparing to ship her back to Virginia, but she never
showed up.
When Whipple informed Washington that he had been unable to collect Judge, Washington asked
him to capture Ona by force, and drag her onto a ship back to him.
Uncomfortable, he refused.
After Whipple's attempt to return her to the Washingtons failed, Judge was able to relax
for a time.
In 1797, she married Jack Staines, a free black sailor.
But even as she settled into her new married life, the fight for her freedom still wasn't
over.
Washington hadn't given up.
In 1799, he asked his nephew, Burwell Bassett Jr., to use a business trip to New Hampshire
as an excuse to apprehend Judge, and any children she may have had.
First, Bassett tried to simply use verbal persuasion to bring Ona back.
Of course, she refused.
He offered her the possibility of the Washingtons freeing her after she returned to Virginia,
but she replied, "I am free now, and choose to remain so."
After his initial plan failed, Bassett regrouped at the home of Senator Langdon.
There, he shared his next plan with the Senator: he intended to use force to carry her back
to Virginia.
Sympathetic to Ona and her desire to remain free, Langdon secretly sent a message urging
her to get out of town.
She heeded the warning, fleeing to Greenland, New Hampshire, where she stayed hidden at
the home of a man known as Mr. Jack.
After this second attempt to recover her, George Washington never bothered Ona Judge
again.
He died shortly after, and the rest of his family left her alone.
She had several children, became active in her local church community, spoke about her
experiences in abolitionist newspapers, and passed away on February 25, 1848, in Greenland,
New Hampshire as a free woman.
There are a lot of truths about George Washington that seldom get told, and then there are "facts"
about him that are just plain wrong.
You might be under the impression that George Washington had fake teeth made from wood.
He did have dentures, that much is true.
When he first entered office, he wore dentures made from brass, ivory, and gold, built by
the dentist John Greenwood.
There is also a distinct possibility that, at some point, he wore dentures constructed
from human teeth.
Specifically, constructed from the purchased teeth of enslaved people.
On at least one occasion, Washington is confirmed to have purchased teeth from an unidentified
enslaved person.
Mount Vernon's plantation manager recorded this transaction in May of 1784, cash in exchange
for nine teeth.
It has been debated whether or not these teeth were purchased for Washington's direct use,
or on behalf of French dentist Jean Pierre le Mayeur, but whatever the case may have
been, Washington did buy them.
A commonly repeated fact about George Washington is that he stipulated in his will that all
of his enslaved workers would be freed on the occasion of his death.
While that was indeed written in his will, what happened at Mount Vernon following Washington's
death was a different story.
See, the will also insisted that ownership of the enslaved workers would pass to Martha,
who would own them for as long as she wanted.
So, he didn't actually free them at all, only passed them from one form of bondage to another.
At the time of his death, Washington owned 123 enslaved people.
Martha chose to free one of them, William Lee.
The others remained enslaved, growing increasingly, and understandably, resentful of her.
After a fire was set at Mount Vernon, and rumors of a plan to poison her began to circulate,
Martha eventually freed George's enslaved workers in January of 1801.
Those owned by Martha weren't so lucky.
After she died, they were left to her children.
So, though it might have seemed like a noble gesture for Washington to free his enslaved
workers in his will, it was little more than just that: a gesture, and an empty one.
George Washington was a man of many contradictions.
According to one story, a man staying at Mount Vernon once tried to sexually assault one
of the enslaved women working in the house.
At the sound of her scream, Washington burst from his bedroom and kicked the man down the
stairs.
However, at the same time, there was a rumor that he himself sexually abused the women
working in his house.
During the Revolutionary War, he banned his soldiers from playing cards, cursing, or bathing
naked anywhere a civilian might see them.
But he had no qualms about violence and killing, particularly when employed against the native
tribes that stood in the way of the expansion of the United States.
His violence extended to his own troops, too.
Deserters could receive up to 1000 lashes, and two men court-martialed by the general
were hanged from the gallows 40 feet in the air, serving as an example to the rest of
the men.
He fought for "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," he signed a Declaration of
Independence stating all men to be "created equal," but stripped independence from countless
men, women, and children.
Like the United States of America itself, the legacy of George Washington is not simple,
clean, or bloodless.
When celebrating the results of his accomplishments and the nation he helped to build, it is important
that we don't erase the evils that he was complicit in either.
After all, if we can't learn from the wrongdoings of the great men of history, we will be doomed
to repeat them.