Reviews

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

jazzyrandy's review against another edition

4.0

A very good retelling of the highlights of Washington's life with an overt focus on his thoughts, words, opinions, and most importantly, his actions and interactions with African-Americans.

The good news is, of four books I've read about GW this is the one that most delves into his views and actions regarding African-Americans (both enslaved and free.)

The bad news, while much is made about George's intentions, evolution of thought, desires, hopes for the betterment of African-American life in America, his actions very rarely amounted to very much. When it came to actually doing anything that helped African-Americans, Washington was the lover who promises to visit every day, but comes around only 4 times a month; Washington was the kid who always has an excuse for not turning in his homework; Washington was the co-worker who never turned his portion of the project, leaving it to others to do.

For a man who took action so quickly and decisively so many times in his life for so many different causes, it is GLARING how easily he did not take action regarding bettering the lives of African-Americans. Actions speak louder than words, and Washington's actions prove he really didn't care all that much about the well-being of African-Americans.

George Washington may be The Father Of America, but he was also an enslaver who fully participated in profiting from enslaving and brutally punishing African-Americans. That, and more, is made very clear in this book.

Fight the British to evade taxes? Right away! Take up the cause of emancipation to prove America really is the land of the free? That's too difficult to pursue. I wonder if the fact that GW was promised large land holdings for fighting in two wars was the real reason he chose to fight for America - and maybe he failed to pursue emancipation because it would detract from his wealth. For all the author tries to rationalize GW's actions and explain "the times" to us, it is very apparent that GW was not much different than Jefferson and all the other slavers - they both maintained slavery to maintain their wealth.

Imperfect indeed.

vachette's review against another edition

3.0

The title of the book is a misnomer. The author spends more time trying to prove Washington was an unwilling slaveholder while Thomas Jefferson was a voracious, bigoted slaveholder. The title should be a comparison of Washington and Jefferson viewpoints. Not saying Jefferson was perfect, but more on other slaveholders is needed

st_urmer's review against another edition

4.0

Perhaps nothing illustrates the paradox of the practice of slavery in the United States existing alongside the rhetoric of liberty than George Washington's role as a slave owner. Samuel Johnson famously asked "How is it that we hear the loudest yelps for liberty among the drivers of Negroes?" Henry Wiencek offers an eye-opening examination of the changing views that Washington held on the subject and the path he took to the full emancipation (though only upon his death) of the enslaved men, women and children to which he laid claim of ownership.

tylerhackerkuhn's review against another edition

5.0

This book is a fantastic perspective on the life of our first president. I appreciate that the book investigates and focuses on Washington's slave ownership and the perspective from the time.

underdog30's review against another edition

3.0

An interesting investigation into this enigmatic Founding Father. The author mines some apparently unexplored territory for his research and comes up with some fascinating "I did not know that" moments. However, too often his writing is repetitive, and I was distracted by his occasional lapses into first person. Then again, his chapter on Colonial Williamsburg (the simulacrum of today) was interesting enough, to me, to spark my interest into the development and philosophy of that particular piece of historic tourism. Overall, an enjoyable book about a man I know too little about (that isn't a myth, anyway): did you know he bought teeth from his slaves and had them implanted in his mouth? Yeah, me neither.

pearljanecatmama's review against another edition

4.0

This book did a good job of recognizing that virtue and hypocrisy coexist in all of us, and that historical figures, even revered ones, are no different. It also showed that personal growth towards good is possible.

misajane79's review

4.0

This book had been sitting on my shelf for years, mainly because I usually don't like Revolutionary War history. But damn, this was a great book. Not only does it explore the rich complexities of an amazing man, but he writes in an incredibly engaging way. Wiencek takes his time in explaining his own journey through the archives and certainly doesn't answer all the questions he has about Washington's views on slavery, and especially the changs in those views. And he's okay with not being a know-it-all historian. Highly recommended, even if you're not sure you want to read about yet another founding father.

randywgravitz's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective relaxing medium-paced

5.0

yetilibrary's review

5.0

Well-researched and thoughtfully considered. There are a few odd moments: Wiencek practically genuflects to Washington at the beginning, and near the end he writes that Washington "wasn't a racist" (because--apparently--he didn't believe blacks were ontologically inferior), which is an extraordinary thing to say about a man who owned slaves his entire life.

Those outlying moments aside, Wiencek doesn't flinch from shining a light on Washington's history of and relationship to slave-ownership. He resists (for the most part--see above) the temptation to turn Washington's wish to posthumously free his slaves into some kind of heroism. The picture he paints is of a man who some biographers like to paint as a "benevolent slave owner," but who was at best a "usually less terrible than the other guys, mostly" slave owner. Also, it turns out his entire family was terrible--on pretty much every scale, but definitely when it came to their treatment of slaves. (And Washington knew it, too.)

Wiencek sketches a brief history of black Americans in the Revolutionary War, and while it's just a sketch it's still more informative and in-depth than anything I got in school. (Spoiler: Without black people, there might not be a US of A. Also, just about everyone who promised anyone black anything broke that promise, whether American or British.)

Overall, this was an excellent read, and I learned a lot.

judyward's review

3.0

This book examines George Washington's evolving views about slavery over his lifetime. Washington was born into a slave society and both he and his wife, Martha, not only owned slaves, but were genetically related to slaves with whom they interacted (including Martha's much younger half-sister). However, Washington's attitudes toward slavery began to change during the Revolutionary War when he commanded both white and black troops and was impressed by the loyalty and bravery of the black soldiers he encountered during the war. In his will, written five months before his death in December 1799, Washington wrote that holding slaves was his "only unavoidable subject of regret" and he made provisions for his slaves to be freed after the death of Martha. Knowing that there would be objections to this emancipation and attempts to evade the provisions of his will within his own family, Washington included specific obligations and prohibitions. For example, slaves who were to be freed were not to be sold outside of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Henry Wiencek consulted private papers, court records, and the archives of the Washington family in developing the thesis of this book. Unfortunately, George Washington was one of the most private of the Founding Fathers and after his death, no doubt on the request of her husband, Martha Washington burned decades worth of their correspondence and so the author had to make some educated leaps to fill in some of the gaps in the documentary evidence. One of the most interesting parts of the book for me was the information that of the more than 300 slaves at Mount Vernon, George Washington only owned about 120 of them. Most were part of the Custis estate and he had no power to free those slaves, and, in fact none of the dower slaves of the Custis family were freed. One of the most impressive aspects of this book was the documented evidence demonstrating how the cruelty of slavery affected everyone involved--the individual slaves and the owners.