Mary paz vega biography of george washington

MARY BALL WASHINGTON—

once described by her son’s biographers as a pious, self-sacrificing widow capably raising five children under difficult circumstances—has come more recently to be seen as selfish, cold, and determined to thwart her son’s ambitions. While neither portrait captures the strong, complex, and anxious woman revealed in the records —a woman haunted by childhood deprivation and loss—the first comes closer than the second.

The earliest writers about George Washington included Mary in their hagiographic accounts.

Later scholars began using fragmentary evidence of George’s annoyance with his mother over her requests for small amounts of money and her unhappiness with his “inclination” to military life to condemn her as an overprotective, ignorant shrew. 

Far from illiterate and greedy, Mary was a fervent reader of devotional books, frugal to a fault, and on occasion, so cash poor as to be unable to feed herself and her dependent mary paz vega biography of george washington3 GUMUB