George Washington was born in 1731 in the colony of Virginia. He grew up in an upper-class family as the oldest of his mother’s six children. He is best known for being the first president of the United State but he was also a skilled surveyor, a businessman, and general. Everything he did he put his full effort into and never gave up. George Washington is one of the most courageous leaders to ever live, some of his qualities include intelligence, good morals, strength, and leadership. George Washington was very intelligent without as much education as many other children of upper-class families got at his time. He studied math and surveying at school but his schooling ended at fifteen. At age 17 George Washington became the Culpeper county surveyor. He built up his wealth and bought land putting him on the road to becoming very rich. At Mount Vernon, Washington started many businesses including flour milling, fishing, and a whiskey distillery. His distillery was one of the largest in the country and brought him lots of money. George …show more content…
During Washington’s time slavery was very common for someone of his social class in his home state of Virginia. Slaves thought of as property and most people saw nothing wrong with it. When Washington was 11 he inherited his first slaves after his father's death. During his life he purchased few slaves, most of the 317 slaves he had at the time of his death were acquired through his marriage with Martha or descendants of from slave he owned. His ideas on slavery changed as he got older, by 1786 he was against it, saying, “It being among my first wishes to see some plan adopted by which slavery in this Country may be abolished." He thought that slavery violated the basic liberty and equality that he had helped found the United States on. His abolishment ideas led to him freeing all of his slaves after his death. He the only one of nine slaveholding presidents to free his