Learn about George Washington's hobbies before becoming the first president of the United States of America
Dramatization of George Washington's pre-Revolutionary life as a Virginia landowner.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
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Contunico © ZDF Studios GmbH, Mainz; Thumbnail © Romannerud/Dreamstime.com; © Claudiodivizia/Dreamstime.comLearn about the economic and political crises facing Germany's Weimar Republic after World War I.
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Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.More than three decades after apartheid, South Africa is still considered the most unequal country in the world.
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Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.He did not say “The British are coming.”
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Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.An overview of George Washington.
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© Civil War Trust (A Britannica Publishing Partner)Learn about the Hessians, German mercenary soldiers who fought as auxiliary troops on the British side in the American Revolution.
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Great Museums Television (A Britannica Publishing Partner)A discussion of the artifacts in the National Museum of American History, one of the museums of the Smithsonian Institution, from the documentary Riches, Rivals, and Radicals: 100 Years of Museums in America.
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Public Domain videoWilliam Jennings Bryan's “Cross of Gold” speech, given at the Democratic National Convention, Chicago, July 8, 1896.
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Transcript
GEORGE WASHINGTON: I married Martha Dandridge Custis. She's never failed me.
[Music in]
Martha was a wealthy widow and with our fortunes combined, I devoted myself to the duties and pleasures of a landowner.
ARCHIBALD ROBERTSON: Ah. Tell me of that life.
GEORGE WASHINGTON: Well, we were constantly entertaining unexpected guests at Mt. Vernon. I love to dance and so there were very frequent balls. Then when the House of Burgesses, our legislature, was in session, we'd travel to Williamsburg where there were more parties and more dancing. I was a member of Burgesses for many years, my neighbors insisted on my running each year because I knew so many prominent men, although I always suspected it was possibly because of the ball I would throw for them after my reelection. But I truly relished the British tradition of the fox hunt. I enjoyed riding generally, and would be up before dawn, ride about the plantation, and often get down off my horse, roll up my sleeves, and worked myself right along with the slaves.
[Music out]
[Music in]
Martha was a wealthy widow and with our fortunes combined, I devoted myself to the duties and pleasures of a landowner.
ARCHIBALD ROBERTSON: Ah. Tell me of that life.
GEORGE WASHINGTON: Well, we were constantly entertaining unexpected guests at Mt. Vernon. I love to dance and so there were very frequent balls. Then when the House of Burgesses, our legislature, was in session, we'd travel to Williamsburg where there were more parties and more dancing. I was a member of Burgesses for many years, my neighbors insisted on my running each year because I knew so many prominent men, although I always suspected it was possibly because of the ball I would throw for them after my reelection. But I truly relished the British tradition of the fox hunt. I enjoyed riding generally, and would be up before dawn, ride about the plantation, and often get down off my horse, roll up my sleeves, and worked myself right along with the slaves.
[Music out]
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