George Washington

George Washington (1732-1799) was a Founding Father and the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797. As commander of the Continental Army, he led Patriot forces to victory in the American Revolutionary War against the British Empire and is commonly known as the Father of His Country.

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Biography

George Washington was born in Virginia in 1732 into a family of planters. He worked as a surveyor and served as a colonial officer in the French and Indian War, then became a wealthy planter at Mount Vernon whose estate depended on enslaved labour, and a member of the Virginia House of Burgesses.

In 1775 the Continental Congress made him commander-in-chief of the Continental Army. He lost more battles than he won but kept the army in being through hard winters such as Valley Forge, and with French help forced the British surrender at Yorktown in 1781. He then resigned his commission, an act that set a pattern of civilian control of the military.

He presided over the Constitutional Convention of 1787 and was elected the first President of the United States in 1789, serving two terms. He built the new federal government, kept the country neutral in the wars of the French Revolution, and set the two-term precedent when he retired in 1797. He died at Mount Vernon in 1799; his will freed the people he had enslaved after his wife's death.