An Imperfect God: George Washington, His Slaves, and the Creation of America

by Henry Wiencek

Book Overview

An Imperfect God is a major new biography of Washington, and the first to explore his engagement with American slavery When George Washington wrote his will, he made the startling decision to set his... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0374175268
• ISBN13: 9780374175269
• Release Date: November 2003
• Publisher: Farrar Straus Giroux
• Length: 404 Pages
• Weight: 1.59 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

An Imperfect God: George Washington, His Slaves, and the Creation of America. A president who own sl

The book has nice and clean pages. But it came without a dust jacket. Thank you, RMW

A fascinating topic and a fresh look at Washington

This book is definitely "different". In it, the author examines how President George Washington went from a man steeped in the belief that slavery was acceptable to one who seemed to be deeply troubled by it. Unlike most history texts of the period, this one spends a lot of time constructing arguments and making educated guesses. Although at times the arguments seemed to be a little bit of a stretch, the author presents a lot of apparently fresh research and his ideas were definitely new and insightful. Bravo! It is fairly interesting how the author pours through seemingly uninteresting records of slave sales and otherwise uninteresting personal correspondences of Washington and his family in order to discover what Washington's true thoughts were and what he actually did when it concerned his slaves. Slavery was not a topic that Washington liked to talk about publicly, and he seemed to have thoughts both pro and con, so we're frequently left with no definite answer. Furthermore, he seemed to part company with his wife on this subject! Martha, it appears, had no problem with the continuation of slavery, while Washington clearly did. In his will, Washington freed most of his slaves. We also discover that Washington had thoughts about doing so during his presidency. That would have set quite a precedent. It never happened, but things would have been different if it did. In the first half, the author spends time explaining how slavery evolved in the United States. Slavery just didn't happen overnight. It evolved and changed over the years, finally becoming that brutal institution we all now recognize. These sections were quite interesting and well done, too.

Fair & Balanced on Slavery & First Pres

Not being acquainted much at all outside of popular lore about GW from schooldays, found this read just truly outstanding and revelatory. The ties between tobacco, Southern antebellum, slavery and founding of country of freedom all wove together in this author's demonstrated ability to weave and bob between biography and oral history and personal investigation. The stress of idealism vs. reality and its consequences are all laid out for the reader. One can only wince at the inhumaneness poured upon this labor force by the planters who then dominated its politics, and only around 7% of the population? This is just an amazing book which opens this facet of our founding to us to contemplate and hopefully begin to truly make this imported group of laborers the due place they deserve in our country. One will learn many insights into this man, his times, and the issues the earliest Americans faced. All written well in a form that flows and keeps ones interest peaked. Just outstanding.

Fascinating, not cynical, appraisal of American Patriarch

I received this book as a Christmas gift, and was afraid it might be a cynical and politically-correct portrait of George Washington. Far from it. Washington was probably the only man who could have steered us between the rock of tyranny and the whirlpool of anarchy. And when his second term was up, "the man who refused to be king" got on his horse and returned to his beloved farm. Mount Vernon, however, was a house divided when it came to dealing with the corrupting institution of slavery. Martha Washington and the extended family had radically different views from the patriarch, who wanted to begin educating the slaves. It is soul-wrenching to read of the missed opportunities to stymie slavery. The Founding Fathers had the power to bring our way of life into greater consonance with our sublime rhetoric of liberty. If George Washington had freed his slaves while in office, rather than after his death, it would have created an implacable precedent for his successors. Thomas Jefferson was a genius (George Will called him the "Man of the Millenium"), but it's appropriate that his stock should go down a bit in recent years -- and Founding Fathers such as John Adams and George Washington should be re-discovered and re-treasured. Henry Wiencek has a fascinating section about Phillis Wheatley, poet and slave. The reader can only be stunned by Jefferson's hostility toward her, contrasted with Washington's openness. The chapter on Williamsburg is superb. Jefferson called the colonial capital "the finest school of manners and morals that ever existed in America." Williamsburg had the first theater in the British colonies. The same royal governor who designed Williamsburg, earlier had laid out Annapolis. The author makes you feel like you're walking the broad expanse of Duke of Gloucester Street and "looking down the vistas of the past." One learns many things from Henry Wiencek. For instance, President Washington told Secretary of State Randolph that if the Union ever split, "he had made up his mind to remove and be of the Northern [side]." (As the fiery clouds of secession rolled in, and Lincoln tried to convince Robert E. Lee -- married to the Washingtons' great-granddaughter -- to take command of the Northern armies, was either man aware of the Founder's remark?) The book's frontispiece map of "Washington's Virginia" is the only off-key note. The editors overlooked the fact that Mount Vernon and Alexandria have been magically transplanted from the west bank of the Potomac to the east bank. I loved this book! I tip my hat to Mr. Wiencek, who penned these words in the acknowledgments: "I close with an old Virginia toast, heartfelt: `God bless General Washington.'"

Thoroughly researched, full of surprises

This thoroughly researched book contains a number of startling facts. That mixed-race children in Southern households was commonplace, but never spoken about. That African-descended soldiers in the American revolution made a huge contribution, and arguably tipped the scales in the colonials' favor. Did you know that the top-notch regiment in the Continental army, the one hand-picked by Washington to perform a critical mission during the pivotal battle of Yorktown, was the 1st Rhode Island regiment? Did you know that this regiment was 75 percent black? I didn't, and that is only one of the thought-provoking revelations in this book.