After Washington’s father died when he was 11, it’s likely he helped his mother manage the plantation.ĭid you know? At the time of his death in 1799, George Washington owned some 300 enslaved people. George, the eldest of Augustine and Mary Washington’s six children, spent much of his childhood at Ferry Farm, a plantation near Fredericksburg, Virginia.

With a dramatic sweep worthy of its giant subject, Washington is a magisterial work from one of our most elegant storytellers.Ron Chernow's new biography, Grant, will be published by Penguin Press in October 2017.George Washington was born on February 22, 1732, at his family’s plantation on Pope’s Creek in Westmoreland County, in the British colony of Virginia, to Augustine Washington (1694-1743) and his second wife, Mary Ball Washington (1708-89). In this unique biography, Ron Chernow takes us on a page-turning journey through all the formative events of America's founding. Not only did Washington gather around himself the foremost figures of the age, including James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson, but he also brilliantly orchestrated their actions to shape the new federal government, define the separation of powers, and establish the office of the presidency. He also provides a lavishly detailed portrait of his marriage to Martha and his complex behavior as a slave master.Īt the same time, Washington is an astute and surprising portrait of a canny political genius who knew how to inspire people.

Probing his private life, he explores his fraught relationship with his crusty mother, his youthful infatuation with the married Sally Fairfax, and his often conflicted feelings toward his adopted children and grandchildren. Chernow brings to vivid life a dashing, passionate man of fiery opinions and many moods. A strapping six feet, Washington was a celebrated horseman, elegant dancer, and tireless hunter, with a fiercely guarded emotional life. In this groundbreaking work, based on massive research, Chernow dashes forever the stereotype of a stolid, unemotional man. A laconic man of granite self-control, he often arouses more respect than affection. With a breadth and depth matched by no other one-volume life of Washington, this crisply paced narrative carries the reader through his troubled boyhood, his precocious feats in the French and Indian War, his creation of Mount Vernon, his heroic exploits with the Continental Army, his presiding over the Constitutional Convention, and his magnificent performance as America's first president.ĭespite the reverence his name inspires, Washington remains a lifeless waxwork for many Americans, worthy but dull. In Washington: A Life celebrated biographer Ron Chernow provides a richly nuanced portrait of the father of our nation. Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and a New York Times Bestseller, a landmark biography of George Washington.

Washington a life