Living and Learning on the Move: June 2013

George Washington's Birthplace National Monument

6/15/2013 10:56:00 PM by LivingAndLearningOnTheMove

We were pretty excited to go to George Washington’s Birthplace. Unfortunately, when we got there we found out the house had burned down when he was three years old. So, he only lived there until he was three, then he moved because his parents decided not to rebuild. His family moved six miles away in a log cabin. We did learn some interesting facts though!

This is the view upon arriving! It looks
like a mini- DC Monument!

Family arriving at George Washington's Birthplace.

- They showed us the Washington Coat of Arms and how there were specific items from the coat of arms on the Washington DC license plates. We were especially interested in his coat of arms because we had recently learned about our coat of arms in our schooling. :)

Beautiful view from the homestead.

George and Martha Washington's Coat of Arms!

- The kitchen was in a SEPARATE dwelling because it burnt down approximately every five years. They said that the kitchen represented such a huge fire hazard with all the pots cooking all over the floor at the same time, not to mention so many people cooking at the same time.

The white outline represents the original Washington home-
stead. The white building in the back is the separate kitchen
dwelling with the home in the back.

This is the slave area in a corner of
the kitchen. Five slaves were expected
to sleep in that small bed. We were told
that it was more comfortable to sleep on
the floor (if that tells you anything about
the comfort of that bed)!

Candle Making!

- George Washington never had his own children. He only adopted Martha’s grandchild.

- He inherited ten slaves & some land from his dad when he passed away (George was only 11 years old.

- Brad noticed that the buildings weren't true to their times/originals because they had plug-ins and air conditioning!

- He inherited more than half his slaves (he had approx. 300) when he married Martha.

- I was amazed that any of this was here because everywhere I look I hear about him at Mt. Vernon. Well, he eventually inherited Mt. Vernon from his brother (where he wanted to be buried and was).

- We also learned about guinea foals! They look like they are part turkey and part quail but were around a lot back then.

We've read many books about the great George Washington so we are always interested in learning more. We were a little let down to hear about him owning slaves. When we were in the kitchen and saw a very small bed that 5 slaves were expected to live in, the kids asked the reenactor if they knew when slavery started and a few other questions and unfortunately she was new and didn't have any idea. We were reminded that was how things were back then. (We kind of wondered if slavery started when colonists arrived in Jamestown or if it predated Jamestown.) It did bring about a class in learning more about slavery and lack of civil rights from that time. I’m glad that we have evolved in humanity since that time! :) Overall, we are continually reminded what a strong and courageous man the first president of the United States is in all he did throughout his life.

We are also loving that there is sooooo much history on the east coast! There is so much to see and do and learn here! Hopefully Stacey’s back will hold up (we usually take a little time off in between or explore a little while she rests back up) and we can continue to explore the east coast and learn all we can while we are here! Look for more blog posts! :)