George Washington Birthplace

! George Washington Birthplace George Washington Birthplace National Monument Virginia National Park Service U.S. Department of the Interior \t.-—, — • - Washington's birthplace on the banks of Popes Creek Origins of a Public Man George Washington is the most elusive of national heroes. His Living at Popes Creek until he was almost four, spending long great achievements and the strength of his character led a grate- periods here as an adolescent, he watched his father's slaves ful nation to elevate him to the level of myth. As his life was work the farm and later helped his brother run it. He lived close magnified w i t h legend and held up as an example to schoolchil- to the natural world, forming his deep, lifelong attachment to dren, Washington the man began to disappear behind the model. the land, his character developing to the slow rhythms of farm "The Father of his Country" is, like the monument built to him, life. His family was solidly entrenched in the Virginia tidewater an emblem of the nation. But for many the historical person has culture, and he absorbed its ideals and values, becoming their become as abstract as the monument, as unreal as the marble most famous exemplar. W e can understand these influences by statues. While w e have little information about Washington's engaging ourselves w i t h the past at Popes Creek. As the august earliest years, w e can begin to know the man by understanding symbol w e know as George Washington was created in the the society in which jhe reached maturity, by searching for his imaginations of an earlier America, w e can use our o w n imagi- roots in a time and place. nations here at Popes Creek to move closer to the man. / 'Early colonists had,4/5 clear dense tidewater forests for homes anp f i e l d s ^ h e downed timber became tjtififf fj major building material^ Tobacco, Virginia's major export and currency, was taken t o market via the region's rivers and tributaries. \ y V I / L Washington's Tidewater World The culture that shaped Washington was founded on abundant land and numerous waterways. The James, York, Rappahannock, and Potomac rivers bore colonial merchant traffic inland as far as the rocky fall line, where the flat, tidal stretches of the rivers ended. Fertile peninsulas between these rivers were covered w i t h forests broken by large fields of wheat, corn, and above all, tobacco. This agricultural colony had taken a different turn than its northern neighbors. A traveler would have noted the African slaves working the fields and the almost complete lack of urban life. Because planters made w h a t they needed or imported it from England, f e w supporting towns had taken root. Larger planters dominated the colony, forming a ruling class that perpetuated itself through intermarriage and inheritance. Public service was another defining characteristic: Vestryman in the Anglican church, county justice, burgess, sheriff, officer in the militia—positions of authority confirming a planter's status. Rise of the Washingtons John Washington came t o Virginia in 1657 on a small trading venture, then stayed to marry the daughter of planter Nathaniel Pope. Pope gave the couple 700 acres on Mattox Creek t o start their o w n tobacco farm. John steadily added land until he owned 10,000 acres, including a nearby piece of land on Bridges Creek and another tract on Little Hunting Creek that would become the famed Mount Vernon. His son Lawrence, born in 1659, was schooled in England and married the daughter of a former member of the Governor's Council. NPS/GREGHARLIN Their son Augustine expanded his inheritance by purchasing land on nearby Popes Creek. A year after his first wife died, Augustine married Mary Ball, the orphaned daughter of a prominent planter. George Washington was their first child. When Augustine died in 1743, George inherited a modest share of the estate, but steadily added land t o his holdings over the years. When he married Martha Custis, w i d o w of a wealthy planter, the joining of the t w o families' fortunes (and his inheritance of Mount Vernon) carried them into the tidewater aristocracy. The timber-framed home that George Washington's great-grandfather John built around 1664 near Bridges Creek (see view on reverse), looked something like these conjectural buildings. Tidewater's characteristic brick dwellings would come later. After Popes Creek, Washington lived at Little Hunting Creek (renamed Mount Vernon) and then Ferry Farm, also spending periods at his brothers' Popes Creek and Mount Vernon farms. From 1754 he lived at Mount Vernon. Excavations at Bridges Creek and Popes Creek turned up daily items used in 1700s Virginia: iron farrier's nippers (for shoeing a horse), a ceramic wine bottle, and a ceramic wine bottle seal with the initials of Washington's father Augustine. Surveyor... Soldier... Farmer "No pursuit is more congenial Washington's hopes for the English education received by his older brothers ended when his father died. Forbade a naval career by his mother, he studied surveying, a profession that opened doors. He surveyed the lands of Lord Fairfax, forging a connection w i t h the powerful family and acquiring his o w n tracts of western land. with my nature and gratification, than that of agriculture; nor none I so pant after as again to become a tiller of the Earth." His military career began when he obtained his late brother's commission in the Virginia militia. His superb horsemanship, imposing physical stature, and solid judgment distinguished the young officer. After he resigned his commission he devoted the next 17 years to expanding and improving Mount Vernon. Given command of the Continental Army in 1775, he didn't see his home again for six years. •jJH. At 15 Washington surveyed the Bridges Creek area, now within the park. It is his earliest preserved map. Washington in his Virginia Regiment uniform; Charles Willson Peale, 1772. SURVEY AND COMPASS IMAGE AT LEFT: LIBRARY OF CONGRESS WASHINGTON-CUSTIS-LEE COLLECTION. WASHINGTON AND LEE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY OF CONGRI ••' Driven by duty and ambition, Washington spent much of his life in public service. But through his years as military man, elected representative, and president he was at heart a farmer. His Popes Creek childhood and early years on family plantations fostered in him a love for the land that always pulled him back to Mount Vernon. 1732 Born Feb. 22 at Popes Creek, in Westmoreland County, Va., to Augustine and Mary Ball Washington. 1748 Member of surveying expedition to Shenandoah Valley. 1J49 Appointed surveyor ofCulpeper County, Va. 1JS3 Beads party investigating French encroachments on Virginia's western lands. 1754 Appointed lieutenant colonel in Virginia militia raised to challenge French presence in Ohio Valley; leases Mount Vernon from widow of brother Lawrence. 1JS5 Aide-de-camp to Gen. Edward Braddock in campaign against French. Braddock is defeated, but Washington gains experience. Upon return, appointed commander of Virginia Regiment. 175c? Commands part of force that takes Fort Duquesnefrom French; resigns commission; returns to Mount Vernon and devotes himself to farming; elected to House of Burgesses. 1JS9 Marries Martha Dandridge Custis; becomes legal guardian of her children Martha and John Parke Custis. 1761 Inherits Mount Vernon from brother Lawrence's widow. 1775 Elected General of Continental Army. 1783 Resigns commission; returns to farming. 1792 Reelected U.S. president. 1781 John Parke Custis dies; Martha and George raise two of his children, George Washington Parke Custis and Eleanor Parke Custis. I787 Presides over Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. 1797 Second term as president ends; returns to farming. 1789 Elected President of the United States. 1799 Dies at Mount Vernon. Above: Washington at Mount Vernon. Below: Surveyor's compass used by Washington. Popes Creek "How much more delightful.. .is the task of making improvements on the earth, than all the vain glory which can be acquired from v ravaging it, by the most uninterrupted career of conquests. —George Washington, letter to English agriculturalist Arthur Young, 1788 John Washington House Site F a m i l y Burial G r o u n d When John Washington settled here in 1664, he established a family burial ground near his house. Thirty-two burials have been found here, including those of Washington's halfbrother, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather. Washington's Living Memorial The evolving memorialization of Washington at his In the 1920s the Wakefield National Memorial Asso- birthplace reveals something about us as well. The ciation, with help from John D. Rockefeller, acquired farm had fallen into ruin by 1815 when Washington's more original land, and the grounds became a adopted grandson George Washington Parke Custis national monument in 1930. The group built a visited the site and placed a small stone marker at Colonial Revival-style house at the traditional birth w h a t he thought were the ruins of the birth house. site in 1930, moving the obelisk to its present site. In 1858 the state of Virginia acquired the farm, then To enhance w h a t they saw as a living memorial, called Wakefield, but the Civil War suspended they added a Colonial Kitchen and Colonial Garden memorialization plans. Virginia conveyed the site and preserved a historic cedar grove. In 1936 the to the U.S. War Department in 1882, to be managed foundation of the actual birth house was unearthed, by the Army Corps of Engineers, w h o in 1896 erect- then reburied to protect it. The concept of a living ed a granite obelisk over the foundations of the memorial was expanded in 1968 w i t h the establish- presumed birth site. ment of the Colonial Farm. Bridges Creek A r e a Washington's great-grandfather John early acquired land near the mouth of Bridges Creek, and the family always maintained their river landing here. Neighbor Henry Brooks was established nearby when the Washingtons arrived. M e m o r i a l House Built in 1931, the structure represents a typical upperclass colonial house—probably a bit finer than the house where Washington was born. Bricks for the house were handmade with clay from a nearby field. Furnishings evoke the 17301750 period; a tea table is believed to have been in the original house. boundary Ditches Planters in colonial Virginia often used ditches to mark the boundaries of their property. Some of those dug by the Washingtons are still visible. Birthplace Site The birth house was large enough by 1762 to hold 13 tables, 57 chairs, 10 bedsteads, and tools for eight fireplaces. Washington's nephew Augustine owned the house when it burned in 1779. After excavation in 1936, the foundation was reburied and outlined with oyster shells. C o l o n i a l Herb a n d Flower Garden Herbs were used for medicines (rosemary, foxglove, lamb's ear); cooking (thyme, sage, basil); scents (lavender, rue, pennyroyal); and dyes (yarrow, balm, parsley). Typical flowers of the period were hollyhocks, lillies, narcissi, forget-me-nots, and roses. ILLUSTRATION NPS / GREG HARUN A Working Tobacco Farm Touring the Grounds In colonial Virginia even wealthy planters were busy The loop walk from the visitor center takes you past a historic red cedar grove to the Washington Birthplace Site and the Memorial House, Colonial Kitchen, and Colonial Garden. Beyond these are replicas of typical colonial farm buildings and the crops and heritage breeds of the Colonial Farm (left). On the Bridges Creek Road out past the Memorial Obelisk and historic ice pond is the Family Burial Ground. At the end of the road was the Bridges Creek landing from which the Washingtons shipped their tobacco. men, and mid-sized farmers like Washington's father Augustine had to master many trades and work long days to prosper. Of Popes Creek's 1,300 acres, mostly woodland and pasture, only about 15 were devoted to his cash crop. Tobacco required constant attention, and such a labor-intensive operation in a sparsely populated colony depended on enslaved workers—20 to 25 at Popes Creek. Because the area was laced with navigable rivers and creeks, many tobacco farms like Popes Creek did not need a central shipping point. In the fall, slaves rolled hogsheads of cured tobacco to Augustine's wharf and ferried them to a vessel waiting offshore. Workers in the fields were already preparing seedbeds for the next year's crop. Tobacco field Hog Island sheep George Washington Birthplace is open every day except Thanksgiving, December 25, and January 1. There is a nominal fee. Ranger talks are offered most days. Park facilities include a onemile Nature Trail, Picnic Area, and Log House (for special events). Swimming and camping facilities are not provided. Accessibility The park is accessible with some assistance. Service animals are welcome. George Washington Birthplace is on the Potomac River, 38 miles east of Fredericksburg, Va., and is historic area or on the Nature reached via Va.3and Va. 204. Trail and must be on a leash in other areas of the park. For your safety and to help us preserve the area, please More Information observe the following reguGeorge Washington Birthplace lations: • Camping and swim- National Monument ming at the beach are not 1732 Popes Creek Road permitted. • Be careful near Washington's Birthplace the river bluffs. • Plant and VA 22443 animal life, buildings, and 804-224-1732 artifacts are protected by www.nps.gov/gewa federal law and must not be disturbed or removed. • Fish- George Washington ing is permitted only at the Birthplace is one of over picnic area and the Potomac 390 parks in the National River beach. • Possession of Park System. To learn more firearms is governed by Vir- about parks and National ginia law. See park website Park Service programs in for more information. • Pets America's communities, visit are not allowed in the www.nps.gov. AG PO: 2010—357-940/80407 Printed on recycled paper.