George Washington

Jeff, Luke and Jack talk all things George Washington. They discuss his early life through when the Continental Congress commissioned him as the Commander in Chief of the Continental Army.

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
What's she gonna do? Brother?When Jeff Townsen media runs wild on you
America stories? Alright, alright,alright, this is Jeff Townsen. I'm

(00:28):
not a political man, I'll tellyou that much, but I do enjoy
these historical conversations with my good friendsLuke and Jack and I almost broke out
into an Alan Jackson song there,but I didn't to save everybody the misery
of hearing me sing how are youguys doing? I'm good. I would
like to hear the song. Whatdoes he say? I'm just a singer
of simple songs. I'm not.I'm not a real bugle man, and

(00:52):
I'm just a podcaster of simple podcast. And today we're gonna be sharing some
more America stories with you. We'recontinuing along with the timelines of revel Utionary
War. We just finished up ona batter of battle batter. It was
a batter the Battle of Bunker,And we're going to kind of step away
to day from my understanding guys andtalk about a significant player that comes into
play after this and go into hisbackstory a little bit. Yeah, we

(01:17):
are talking about the one and onlyGeorge Washington. Oh shit, Yeah,
he comes in like it immediately afterBunker Hill in terms of being like the
commander in chief but a little bitof you know, history, They were
kind of actively like just to paintthe picture here. They kind of felt

(01:40):
like they needed a more prominent,powerful figure to lead this army. Correct.
Yeah, they knew they needed someonethat everyone would rally behind. And
when it comes down to it,he was. He was He had the
most military experience and on top ofthat, he had a lot of political

(02:00):
experience over the course of his life. Who was leading it before he obviously
we talked about some of it.He just they obviously just lost a battle.
Technically, they just lost that fight. But it was also kind of
like it was such a costly victoryfor the British that they weren't couple of
out of the game yet because theycouldn't be overran. But it really showed

(02:22):
some structural weakness. Oh yeah,Yeah, they didn't have the tactical genius
that they needed. The swagger,yeah, the swagger. Yeah. George
Washington, he was born in seventeenthirty two. His dad had had a
couple of kids before him, butthat was the previous marriage, and I

(02:44):
believe that woman passed away and thenhe married Mary Ball and he had six
kids with her, and George Washingtonwas the first of those six. George
Washington's older brothers from his dad's firstmarriage were all educated in England, but
he didn't leave to learn in England. He stayed in America at a church

(03:07):
school in Hartfield. From there heyou know, he was taught all the
basic stuff, but he learned specificallyland surveying, and he became great at
making maps and surveying land, andthat's what got him his first political office
as the county land surveyor when hewas seventeen years old. And from there
he made a lot of friends inthe political circles, but also in the

(03:30):
wealthier to do merchants and farmers becausethey had large tracts of land that he
helped survey for them. His olderbrother, Lawrence, was a general in
the Virginia Militia, but he hadcome down with tuberculosis when George Washington was

(03:52):
eighteen years old, and they decidedthey were going to go on a trip
to try to find a climate wouldcure the tuberculosis, because that was a
prevailing theory at the time that certainclimates were better for you and so they
end up traveling to Barbados, andthis is the only trip that George Washington
ever made out of the country.In Barbados, George Washington actually contracted smallpox,

(04:16):
about his face scarred and he wasquite sick for a while. Unfortunately,
his brother died the very next year, and that's when Washington took over
Mount Vernon, which belonged to hisbrother, which just sounds cool mel Vernon,
Yeah, and also George Washington.It kind of like shows that George

(04:38):
Washington had like a lot of there'sa lot of things to get hardened about,
right, kind of like dealing witha lot of trouble something. A
lot of people during that time obviouslyhad a lot of troubles they dealt with,
but George Washington was not like acceptanceof that. He dealt with hard,
hard times and so they kind ofhe had that that learned experience that

(05:00):
comes with difficulties. As a wayof like honoring the memory of his brother
Lawrence, he decided that he wasgoing to seek a commission in the militia
after his time in office as aland surveyor was out. And so about
this point he was about nineteen yearsold and he petitioned the Virginia's lieutenant governor

(05:23):
at the time, and he wasappointed a major and commander of one of
the militias. And it was atthis point that the French and Indian War
was still was heating up and Britishand the French were fighting for control of
the Ohio Valley and that's where hewas sent. He in October seventeen fifty

(05:46):
three, he was sent to speakwith French forces in this area and to
demand that they vacate the land.He was sent solely just him, or
he had because he sent like adetachment. Okay, it's about say George,
damn it, it's time to it'stime to spread your wings and fly.
Yep, you guys start earning yourkeep. Yeah wow. But he

(06:10):
it was like a this was aformal request. So they this like came
up in the last episode. Wetalked about how you're not supposed to kill
officers, right, so if anofficer was coming, you know, you
met with them if they're gonna cometo talk, and so so French were.
They greeted them. They actually hadlike a dinner for room and everything.

(06:34):
And he was also told to seekout the Iroquois confederacy and get some
intelligence on French forces from them.On his way there, he met with
they're called the half King and they'rekind of like they're lower leader. And
the name of this guy is notvery creative to Nat Harrison, I probably

(06:57):
butchered. The pronunciation of that wasright to me. Yeah, and uh,
there was another They met with otherIroquois chiefs there as well, and
they he got information about the numbersand location of French forts from them,
as well as prisoners, the printto take gun and stuff like that.
And they gave him a nickname thatis as hard to pronounce, but it's

(07:20):
very interesting. It's Knoto Caius andthat name meant devour of villages. Apparently
he was originally given to his greatgrandfather, John Washington by Iroquois chief and
then they gave it to him aswell. They remember that or something.

(07:43):
Oh, yeah, I'm curious aboutthat. I wonder if it was just
a type of name that they wouldgive people, you know, I'm curious
about that. Yeah, It's like, how much could they really know of
his lineage? But maybe they didn'this ERICOI you know, Yeah, that's
it's a good question. Actually,what's pretty tough to civilization game. So
I mean they might they might bea real with all the inquancies of people's

(08:05):
name in history, you know,I don't know. Washington's party finally made
it to Fort Leboeuf, where theymet the French commander Saint Pierre, and
they were basically just told no,they're not gonna leave. But Saint Pierre
gave him, you know, food, winter clothing for his journey back to

(08:28):
Virginia. And the whole thing tookseventy seven days for when he left to
go visit the fringe and by thetime he got back. But because he
went and did it and spoke witheveryone, got all this information as far
as where all the forts were.He was given a major like commendation for
this, Like they this was ahuge report that he turned in and it

(08:52):
was pretty instrumental in the British fightin combat at the time. So so
just recap your he winner. Sohe actually provided good information on are you
talking like the location of forts andlike the supplies, Like what exactly do
you mean? He got locations,He knew how many soldiers were in each

(09:13):
of those spots, and he hadhe knew like what prisoners they had taken
too, which forts, so theyknew where to get specific people that they
wanted to get. It was quiet, and he probably put and he probably
documented where really well because he wasa good at surveying. Yeah, yeah,
he could. He was also anexpert map maker. Yeah, he

(09:33):
had it all planned out for themat this point. So from there he
served throughout the war, gotten moreaccommodations that he led some variety of battles,
but he was never given He wasonly still allowed to control the militia.
He was hoping to finally get regulararmy position, but they kept passing

(09:54):
them over every time he applied forthat position. What was the common belief
the reason why they asked him overjust wasn't a regular or it's because he
was not from England. He wasborn in America and it didn't wasn't educated
in England like his older brothers were, and so because he wasn't educated outside
of the country, they really didn'ttrust him that kind of thought. He

(10:15):
was a little bit of a countrybumpkin. Bumpkin, Yeah, just a
singer of simple songs, you mightsay, I would say, yeah,
it definitely was. It a Bumpkin. He was the Jackson at his time.
Only write that down Boom. Hewas the Alan Jackson is time.
Okay, that's all I needed toknow, Bumpkin. That's the definition of
it. Now, Yeah, that'sthat's the Alan Jackson's a bump like.

(10:39):
Now, I like, this isthe part where you give us a swerve,
right, like John Brown fought inhis army an individual in militia.
Actually, this is where it willlay off the gas for a little bit,
and we're gonna talk about his personallife around this time. Okay,
So how old would have been here? Approximately twenty six At this point he

(11:01):
had served in the army for afew years now, and he met his
wife to be, Martha Dandridge Custus. She was a widow a year older
than him, and she had acouple of kids already, but her her
second kids yeah which yeah, probablyher second kid she actually had. She

(11:26):
was injured substantially, and so afterthey married, they were never able to
have kids. Now it's unknown ifit was because the injuries she sustained during
childbirth or if the smallpox made himsterile, which is a thing that could
happen, but they were never ableto have kids. So he just adopted
these kids as his own, andhe moved to Mount Vernon permanently at this

(11:50):
point, and he became a politicalfigure and tobacco and wheat farmer. Again,
did you say tobacco and wheat orwheat wheat? Okay? I was
like, man, he's revolutionary.Here. I was looking at the notes
myself, and I was like,I keep seeing Weed as well. You're
gonna talk about her family her right, Like she's economically a different level of

(12:15):
him. Okay, Yeah, she'smuch wealthier family than Washington. Washington wasn't
wasn't bad off, but the Custusfamily, their their holdings were like two
or three times the size of Washington's. What did they think about Washington?
I wonder like her family like,actually, her family didn't care for him
that much. There was actually laterin life when he sought three his household

(12:41):
slaves. Part of the slaves belongedto the Custus family, and they did
not want to free them because sothere was some disagreement and they didn't really
they weren't didn't want Washington trying torun the show anymore. And so yeah,
they her family never really her familyand her her dead husband's family never

(13:03):
really cared for George Washington all thatmuch. Do you think he ended up
singing that one uh Toby Keith songto her? How do you like the
family? How do you like menow now that I'm probably became a president?
Yeah, that's what I'm saying.Yeah. Wow, was a triple
threat, right, he was likea general, a president, and a
country music singer. But it soliterally Okay, So I hadn't heard that

(13:30):
before, but I just had,Like I wondered how they felt about him.
Yeah, from what I've been ableto gather, they were not huge
fans. How did they meet?Again? Like where did they meet?
Like the country music concert or likewhat what like a social gathering? So
stuff like that, because his familywas well to do enough to show up
in social circles of the higher ups, and so he did meet her at

(13:52):
one of those events. Wouldn't beamazing to go back and see some of
these events, like you know,those two meeting and one of her daughters,
her second kid, Her name wasPatsy, and she suffered epileptic seizures
from the age of twelve onwards,and at the age of seventeen she died

(14:15):
having a seizure in George Washington's hands, and he was one of the first
times in recorded history of someone havingan eyewitness account of someone dying from epilectric
seizure. And how could be GeorgeWashington? He spent three months afterwards not
doing anything. He say, hecouldn't bring uself to work. It was
just so devastating too. And howwas this lining up with his career at

(14:37):
this poin time? There was sometime after they had been married, he
was just doing local politics and stufflike that, hustling. And this was
a little before like the Stamp Act, a little before that. And what
was it like were there? Sowhere were they at? Again they were
at What was it like were thereat? I guess in compared to like

(15:00):
we talked about Boston. What wasthe world like around them? Alex They're
in Virginia around Alexandria, and it'sa big plantation area. So this was,
you know, a place of wealthfor the people who were landowners.
This was a much more spread outarea because he's a large farming compounds and

(15:22):
in large scale houses in these areas, so less dense city and more spread
out, a lot more money gotcha. So as we mentioned, he was
passed over for a potion many timesin the army, and this was what
started seating in him a distrust forthe British overall, because like that,

(15:43):
he knew that he was being passedup, most likely for his heritage,
so he would just started not likingthem. And then when they did something
called the Royal Proclamation of seventeen sixtythree, which is something we hadn't talked
about yet but was actually another bigsaying that was before even the Stamp Act
that became you know, started makingpeople mad at the British. But it

(16:06):
was basically they banned any colonial Americanssettling west of the Allegheny Mountains and they
only wanted British fur traders to goout there. So like they shut off
a good portion of this area wherepeople wanted to go, and we're just
protecting the British fur trade. Sothis was a big deal that he hated.

(16:30):
Then, of course the stamp Acattackment a couple of years later,
and he was furious at that.So this was when he decided to do
some somewhat illegal stuff with land speculation. He started sending people to acquire backcountry
western lands. Then not telling theBritish that they were doing. So they

(16:52):
started going out grabbing land up buildingout that way, and this was in
sixty seven. It's interesting, islike something like that wouldn't be recognized probably
by the British, So you kindof almost have like a built in force
that really wants to fight back,right because they now they would lose all
that land. If you know,it was the British found out like this

(17:15):
deal was not you know, legal, they would probably just taken it all.
So all those people were probably atsome point realize that if they don't
participate in the war, they willlose everything that they purchased. Something similar
I don't know if it was aroundthis time, but something similar like that
happened in New Zealand, I believe, regarding like some some sailors purchasing land,

(17:37):
but it wasn't recognized by the governmentand so they just kind of took
it back. So this isn't thefirst time losing the only time or something
like this has happened, where likeland was purchased illegally and then you know,
by by not recognizing it, itwas lost. So if I just
think that it's possible that some ofthose landout are sort of like, Okay,

(17:59):
we going to have a vested interestin this side of the war essentially.
Yeah, there's definitely kind of whatwas going on there. When when
British officials passed the Townsend Acts,which eventually led to the Boston Tea Party
in Boston, Massachusetts, he inVirginia proposed a boycott of all British goods

(18:22):
himself, and he tried to getthat. He got that passed through Virginia
Senate and everything like that. Sohe was a big dynamo in Virginia,
while people like John Adams and SamAdams were the big big to do in
Boston, but they knew about eachother though p simately right they did.
Yeah, Basically anybody who was who'swho knew about George Washington because yea of

(18:48):
his deeds during the war and hisvery big personality in person. He was
very quiet when talking in public,but when you're in it with him,
he was quite the host and peopleknew from very well. He was also
great at getting elected because he wouldprovide tons of free beer to all voters,

(19:15):
and so every time he won,he would win by like forty percent
of the vote or more. Whatdid the British think of, Like are
they aware of him right now upand coming? And like what did they
think? Well, they definitely didn'tlike him as anymore than ever before they
were were. They knew that hewas popular amongst the people, They knew
that he was a military leader,and they but he was just a little

(19:42):
bit less of a pan in theneck than Sam Adams and Paul Revere were
in Boston. So while he wasdefinitely on their radar, he wasn't as
bad. They could let him dohis stuff for a while, and plus
they assumed that he would just goback to living his life of wealth and

(20:04):
privilege as a you know, aplantation farmer. But unfortunately that was not
the case for them. July seventeenseventy four, this is several years later
and just a little before everything reallykicks off, he and a man named

(20:27):
George Mason drafted a risk list ofresolutions to try to curtail the British power
in the area. And one ofthose was that they called for Virginia to
stop buying slaves from the slave tradersbecause they knew how much money was going

(20:47):
to Britain from that. There wereother things, other trade rules that they
tried to get past in this aswell, so nobody was still flow into
the British even though they themselves atthis way in time didn't absolavey, did
they. I don't believe they did, no, but they still sold them.
It was like a weird loophole intheir rules. They couldn't have them,

(21:10):
but they could traffick of them.This was like the beginning of George
Washington's complicated relationship with slavery. Hehad slaves and that he was also at
this point trying to get the endof slave trade. And then later in
life there's more with him going backand forth on like what can he do

(21:34):
about layer? He doesn't want itto be there. He would talks about
one point that it was something thatdisgusted him that existed, but he couldn't
see a way out, and hewas so far in that later in life
he's so far in debt that hecan't get rid of the slaves because he
went bell to survive. And soit's a really it's a really strange relationship

(21:59):
that he has with the whole thing, and it gets progressively crazier as time
goes on. But it's around thistime that the First Continental Congress happens in
seventeen seventy four in August, andhe was selected to go to the First
Continental Congress as a delegate for Virginia, and he offered to help train Boston

(22:26):
militia and Virginia Militia paid for trainingof the soldiers himself out of pocket.
Oh so this was this is what. Yeah, he's he's definitely wants to
do something. He isn't in chargeyet, and this is like the first
thing that came to his Mindy,he'll help armed soldiers. It wasn't until

(22:49):
the siege of Boston has started andfound out about it in seventeen seventy five
that he decided, well, he'sgoing to go back again to second no
Congress and really get involved. Hewants to do more than he's ever done
before. Now. Yeah, andin the I'm sure a lot of people
around his neck of the woods wereprobably even to get outside of like political

(23:14):
figures are probably just wanting nothing todo with it too. That was one
reason why they really wanted George Washington, John Adams and Benjamin Franklin really wanted
him in charge of the army becausethey knew that his stature in society in
Virginia would pull more people into thewar. And then if Virginia, which

(23:36):
is one of the is the largestcolony and the wealthiest comes into the war,
the New York and some of theothers will throw into Yeah, they
were kind of like, I guessthe thought would be have to kind of
get the people behind it, becausethey don't really have a They're not like
a close and personal with a lotof these things that have happened, so
they probably don't have the same Idon't know where I'm trying to think of

(23:59):
here. I guess drive to fightback as the people that have been directly
involved it. For Yeah, ifyou when we think about it, these
are by far the wealthiest to thepeople, and the people who lived in
Virginia are the wealthiest of the country. They are so far removed from this
fight because it's in Boston. Theydon't need to worry about it. And

(24:22):
as far as they're concerned, they're, you know, they're better off with
British trade for the most part,and so they're they're not really wanting to
get in on this. But GeorgeWashington felt differently. He felt that the
other British would over time just keeptaking more and more and there will be

(24:45):
less for you know, prosperous life. He was great at convincing people one
on one and this is no oneof those guys that was an accept from
a large person. And this wasa time when that was like the biggest
thing. Like this six foot threeand an he weighs like two iron twenty

(25:10):
pounds and he is just this massiveperson for the time. I would I'd
like to have seen the stand upbetween him and the Green Mountain Boys guy.
He said, what was his name, an Ally? Yeah, yeah,
yeah, yeah, they wouldn't havepants on pants the Peas story.

(25:32):
It just depends which story was communicated. Yeah, that's true. Who wrote
it? Right? So go aheadand now go ahead check. Yeah.
I was just gonna say that thisis actually we've you know, keep coming
across the same theme every time.Is uh, this always constantly seems like
it's like flying by the see oftheir pants and like just making a decision
in the moment and then just goingwith that. Because you know the fact

(25:56):
that they elected him right the verynext day, it really makes you wonder
like who who else was like steppingup to do the job, but almost
makes you wonder maybe no one elsewas. And it seemed like he felt
like he literally had to do it, like from all the stories like you
read about it, like even aspresidency, all that, even a second

(26:18):
term and all that, he literallyfelt like he had to do it.
Yeah, exactly. I was gonnasay one other thing here. I think,
like we talk about Benett Arnold andwe'll talk about that more, but
he does have this way where he'ssympathetic and can relate, but also people
can relate to him as well.And I think you kind of see that

(26:40):
benetet Ardold theater. Maybe he sawa little bit of himself and Benett Arnold.
And I think he was pretty goodabout being put himself in people's shoes,
I guess you could say in simpleterms, and be in the first
choice of the people. Yeah,definitely he was. He was very humble

(27:00):
what he needed to be, andthen that got he because he knew that,
you know, he was just anotherperson, and because that he was
able to attract other people to himthey were just regular people. And that
was a big to do with him. When he was elected as Commander in
chief after John Adams and the othersnominated him. He you know, accepted

(27:25):
the day after he was elected andhe, uh, he said, turned
down a salary. There, Igo, I pay him and he was
like, no, you don't needto pay me. So he was never
paid while he was commander in chiefof the army during the war. He
talked about debt later. Yeah,he wasn't great with money, and this

(27:47):
is one of the things that hedid. But he just felt that it
was unnecessary to be paid for this. This is something that he felt that
he needed to do, which isa difference really most other soldiers, like
they do it because they're paid todo it. I wonder how his family
thought about it. Like him,he's obviously got to leave. He's going

(28:08):
to be a part of something reallybig here, But I don't I just
have a hard time believe in everybodyto be completely on board with it.
Yeah, there was a There wasdefinitely some people who probably weren't. It
is also interesting though you brought upBendick Arnold. It's funny that, like
you know, American history wise,you think of the first probably the first

(28:32):
general that comes to mind if youthink of the Revolutionary War is George Washington.
But Bendick Garold was in the fightway before him. Yeah, and
that's a that's an interesting thing thatit gets muddled over time with history.
Well, and so like that's onething I really like about this whole thing
we're doing here, is we're learningsome of the intricacies of how all has

(28:53):
worked out and then the things thatthey don't talk about as much, and
then how things came to be asSo that's one thing it's always interesting about
any history ever, is learning aboutlittle things like all right, so everyone
thinks that George Washington is this indestructibleparagon of you know, America. But

(29:18):
to find out that something like somethingthat happened to him with his stepdaughter dying,
that was enough to take him outof commission for a quarter of a
year, you know, that madehim just stop doing anything and just was
just down and out. And likeyou think about all the things that happened
to you in your daily life thatputs you under, you know, drags

(29:41):
you down. You're thinking, man, there's no way I could ever do
some of these things that these likepeople did in the past or sometthing like
that. But they are all human. They all had the same things happened
to them, and so it's somethinginteresting to find out and learn about.
My opinion, what else do wehave anything else on him here? To
set the stage? Free? Moveon? I know that. Just to

(30:02):
note again he gave up a lotto do this. He kind of walked
away from a business. Well hedid walk away from this, it's not
kind of yeah, he he was, you know, ready to give it
all up. That was a bigthing with all a lot of these guys.
They were ready to give it allup to do this, these people

(30:22):
of wealth and means. It didn'thave to they could have just gone on
with their life. But this wasa really interesting thing, these people who
had everything to lose through in forthis fright. It was he took office
technically the day before Bunker Hill,but he didn't make it to the front
lines and to command the army untillike a day or so after Bunker Hill,

(30:48):
and so like at this point he'sgoing to the front knowing that they're
on the back foot now and theyeven pushed out there, you know,
their area that they had, andnow he's got to get a fleeing army
under control and ray to fight again. It's a great point to bring up,

(31:11):
actually he's taken over and very itwas already chaok from the beginning,
like Jack said earlier, kind ofgoing by the see the you know,
just flying off see the pants.But it's he's got to take over now
and get this under control. Yeah, it's a it's a it's a rough
situation to be in and it getsa long time focus better. Do you

(31:37):
think a lot of the people fightingthis battle even knew who he was,
just the common folk, you knowthat would have been a part of these
militias and these battles that were happening. That's a good question. I would
say anyone that was a Virginia militiamandid. Because he was very popular throughout
the state or colony when it cameto Boston and Massachusetts, mostly the upper

(31:59):
crust that you go. So hehad to really blowed up a rapport with
these guys. Yeah, they're actuallyfighting. Yeah, they would have.
This was someone new out of thecolony that they're in coming in. It's
taking over. It's definitely a cultureshock. Yeah. One thing I wanted
to bring up was that, youknow, we we have the experience of

(32:20):
being in the future at this point, right, we can kind of see
how things turned out. And atthis point there's obviously no way of knowing
what was going to happen next duringthat moment, so you know, as
far as anyone was concerned, ifyou're signing up, you were signing up,
you know, potentially to be killedin battle. And so he's had
some pretty intense, you know,personal moments leading up to this point where

(32:43):
it was from like you know,the British kind of like overlooking him for
promotion to like so just personal tragedies. He he overcame. But the one
thing I want to bring up isthat since we know what how this ends
up, it's I'm excited to eventuallytalk about some of the things to take
place after the war was George Washingtonand some of his uh, you know,

(33:06):
like parties that he would throw justto kind of think of like some
of the more you know, laterin life positive moments he would eventually experience.
And we can get to that eventually. But one of my favorite little
but what are we going to talkabout the teeth? That's a good question.
Okay, I could actually give youa whole rundown the teeth right now

(33:29):
if you'd like. I think weshould before we end this one. Yeah,
so George Washington has suffered from teethproblems for the majority of his life.
You've been very young. I justhad bad gums, bad dension.
Yeah. So he started losing themearly on and he had to get you
know, false teeth made contrary topopular belief, they were never made out

(33:54):
of wood. They were made outof teeth. They were made out of
teeth. They were made out ofa variety of teeth. Donkey, uh
deer, ah slaves teeth and uhlead that seems dangerous all the above,

(34:21):
see dangerous may I had? Yeah? Yeah, so, yeah, this
is ah. He has several differentpredenture sets. Over the course of his
life, as he lost more andmore teeth, he ended up losing all
but one of his teeth by thetime he was like in his forties,
all but one one remaining. Yeah, lucky too he Uh so, he

(34:46):
his teeth were very interesting and sosome of made the joke that you know,
the scariest thing ever is this sixfoot tall person crazy on lead poisoning
wave a sword at you. That'sprobably why he beat the British. That's
what I was taking a lot oflead poisoning evolved at that. You'd also

(35:07):
hear about the terrible comfortable. Itwas truly like painful for him as he'd
put in these teeth. It wasjust awful. Yeah, he uh he
had to take a lot in them, which is basically morphine to uh to
deal with the pain because it's somethingcompletely unnatural or medical that he's putting at

(35:31):
his mouth. Yeah, it's ait's a pretty crazy Uh. It's crazier
than the wooden teeth story. Likeyou know, like when you find out
it was made of of like donkeyteeth. Where the donkey teeth? What
do you think he got the donkeyteeth? Speculation donkey? You could see

(35:57):
him at it Mount Vernon. Theyhave a couple of his stinture sets on
display. I would love to uhto go No, okay, okay,
just try it, but may Imay I try them on? Wait,

(36:20):
probably need to post a picture ofthe teeth. Yeah, Jack, Jack's
on it just signed a project.I'm looking at Jack. You're on the
teeth project. So yeah, youalways hear about his teeth and the wooden
teeth, So that not true atall. It's like you're telling me,
Yeah, no wooden teeth. Theysaid that apparently they would get stained really

(36:45):
badly and they would look like wood, and so that may be where the
myths started. You know, I'mlooking at him right now, but they're
not too bad. Okay, Isurprised. I mean the build up on
a scott of want to and we'reprobably like three, but but I thought,

(37:07):
so was it like were teeth reallyimportant back then for like, like
like socially or like, is thatwas that his concern? Yes? Okay,
so it was kind of because youhave to be able to like have
like tea and you know, stuffwith people and you know, eat with
any social gathering and so like yeah, you would be eating like cakes and

(37:30):
stuff like that or cookies and uh, this was actually what they would do.
That say, that was why BritishAfternoon Tea he kind of thing,
you know, And so whenever hemet with people, different politicians and stuff,
you know, he had to beable to eat these things and you
know, speak with them and stufflike that. So he would how do

(37:51):
you eat with doggy teeth? That'sjust crazy to think about it. I
don't know, Yeah, I don'tknow. I see dear teeth, dude,
dear, Yeah, I believe thisone I heard you think he got
it from a dead or alive.Dear it was alive, that'd be even
crazier. Yeah, I'm hoping thatthey killed it first can extract his teeth.

(38:12):
That's crazy. Yeah, but that'sactually one reason why barbecue became really
popular. Uh. He would havehis well you could eat like pulled pork
sandwiches whatever, pulled pork without teethokay, And he was one of the
first big like politicians in the Southto have a barbecue political events that his.

(38:38):
Yeah, you would have his slavesdo they would cook the hog and
everything, and then you would provideeveryone over and no one needed to have
their teeth to eat. Yeah.Another informative episode here, guys. Yeah,
I'm glad we got the got tothe teeth portion of GW. That's

(39:00):
really the major story that matters.Jack. I'm gonna put you on the
spot here. If you had tosome this whole conversation that we just had
over the last thirty five forty minutesinto thirty seconds, how would you define
this George Washington event, the upand coming that we just talked about.

(39:21):
Uh, well, I would saythe the good version of the Disney version
of but its gard because he uhyeah, he was also passed up for
promotions and things like that, andhe did also kind of sort of betray
his country, but hey, wegot America out of it, so yeah,

(39:47):
so he betrayed the Yeah, that'sactually the I don't know how I
rate that h recap just it.I'm gonna give it a shot, though,
if I may hard work rising throughthe ranks really obviously married into some

(40:09):
wealth, but rising through the ranksand just a a dedication and a little
bit of vengeance and his soul fromwhat he had felt like he had been
wronged, but also buying into apicture of America and a charismatic enigma of
a leader. That's better. That'sa better. Well I can say he

(40:37):
took a bite out of British Abye h. I mean this was a
He's a character. He's a personin history that is really interesting and I
really like hearing learning about him andyo delving into his past. But he's

(41:00):
he's complicated, and that's why Ithink that's the most important part of the
whole thing is he's a complicated individual. He isn't just one thing, and
that's like the reason why he didso good is that he was a multi
faceted character, a multifaceted person inhistory, and kind of unique because like

(41:21):
most of the other great politicians ofthe time, we're not great military leaders.
Most of the great military leaders weredefinitely not great politicians. And so
like, this is what I findinteresting and why I liked about this,
you know, startup of his storyis you get insights into why he is
these things. It put a lotof trust into him because if they could

(41:44):
have picked somebody else, it couldhave things could have ended very differently.
Yeah, there's yeah, you know, I even know. I don't look,
but I can't even think of whoelse was on the you know,
up for debate at the time,but I believe it was someone from New
York who was another like officer whowas possibly going to be nominated. But

(42:06):
yeah, if you had been anyoneelse, there's no telling what could have
happened. He had his relations thathe had with meeting with the French during
the French and Indian War does comeup later in life when he was able
to speak well with French officers andget them to throw into the war as

(42:28):
well later and like he's he's goodat talking to people like he just is
one on one. Like I said, he could get to you and he
talked to you and you'll convince you. And that's like his major like almost
superpower check or you ought to somethingthere? Yes, well no, I

(42:50):
was actually just going to share theimage of the of George Washington's sake teeth.
That's okay, Yeah, who wouldyou? Would you like me to
segue towards it in years? AndI can also I have socials. Yeah,
America Stories are having real fun timedoing this. We're really basically taking

(43:13):
a fun but yet simplistic, understandableapproach to American history. This podcast we
have a like think. This isepisode number six. I also in the
previous season I kind of rebranded thispodcast to America Stories, it was Indiana,
so there is a bad category ofIndiana Stories. This relates to Indiana
history, and we're also working ona bad category now of America Stories here

(43:37):
as we've kind of drove through thebeginning into the Revolutionary War. You make
sure you check out the podcast atAmerica Stories dot us that has linked everywhere
you can basically find anywhere you listento or watch podcast. And I will
let Jack finish. I actually tookcare of some of the legacy farms there.
Let you you can follow us onTwitter at America story Pod. Yeah,

(44:00):
yeah, yeah, we do havea gamil what's that Gmail? Gmail
is America Stories Pod at gmail dotcom and you can email us there.
Yeah, all right, Luke,any word of any words from wisdom before
we shut this down, just youknow, I'm no words of wisdom.

(44:22):
I'm just really looking forward to talkingmore about George Washington's role when he gets
back gets to Boston, because likehe does some interesting stuff there. We'll
pick back up after what he getsback with Bunker Hill and connects with all
the guys, and then the nextjourney I assume on the next episode and
the boys I look forward to inthe yeah we do boys. Okay,

(44:44):
all right, taking at these boys, these boys are out. I'm Jeff
there, Luke and Jack and untilnext week, keep being you and keep
being great. Gonna face everybody knows. But around there fluent schools going to

(45:05):
join. Are you like you findnigger road and you do it's wrong?
People got a bank for the dangerousbod an inside to the best of us.
Take you what day wrong? Likeyou said to them some of must
do the best we can. Someof must do the best we can.

(45:34):
Say Jeff Townsend, Media sees you. Good night. And the question is

(45:59):
do I stay here? Will yoube back? Are you gonna come back?
Will you be back? Are youcoming back?