|
William Lee (valet)
William Lee (c. 17501810), also known as Billy or Will Lee, was a slave and personal assistant of George Washington. He was the only one of Washington's slaves who was freed immediately by Washington's will. Because he served by Washington's side throughout the American Revolutionary War and was sometimes depicted next to Washington in paintings, Lee was one of the most publicized African-Americans of his time. Early life Born c. 1750, Lee was purchased on May 27, 1768, when he was just a teenager, by George Washington, as described in Washington's account book as ''Mulatto Will'', from the estate of the late Colonel John Lee of Westmoreland County, Virginia for sixty-one pounds and fifteen shillings. William kept the surname "Lee" from his previous owner. Also purchased at the time was William's brother Frank as well as two other slaves. Washington paid high prices for William and Frank, as they were to be household slaves, rather than field slaves. William and Frank were oft ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Washington
George Washington (February 22, 1732, 1799) was an American military officer, statesman, and Founding Father who served as the first president of the United States from 1789 to 1797. Appointed by the Continental Congress as commander of the Continental Army, Washington led the Patriot forces to victory in the American Revolutionary War and served as the president of the Constitutional Convention of 1787, which created the Constitution of the United States and the American federal government. Washington has been called the " Father of his Country" for his manifold leadership in the formative days of the country. Washington's first public office was serving as the official surveyor of Culpeper County, Virginia, from 1749 to 1750. Subsequently, he received his first military training (as well as a command with the Virginia Regiment) during the French and Indian War. He was later elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses and was named a delegate to the Continental Con ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
First Continental Congress
The First Continental Congress was a meeting of delegates from 12 of the 13 British colonies that became the United States. It met from September 5 to October 26, 1774, at Carpenters' Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, after the British Navy instituted a blockade of Boston Harbor and Parliament passed the punitive Intolerable Acts in response to the December 1773 Boston Tea Party. During the opening weeks of the Congress, the delegates conducted a spirited discussion about how the colonies could collectively respond to the British government's coercive actions, and they worked to make a common cause. As a prelude to its decisions, the Congress's first action was the adoption of the Suffolk Resolves, a measure drawn up by several counties in Massachusetts that included a declaration of grievances, called for a trade boycott of British goods, and urged each colony to set up and train its own militia. A less radical plan was then proposed to create a Union of Great Britai ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ron Canada
Ronald Ellis Canada (born May 3, 1949) is an American actor with a specialty in portraying judges and detectives. He is best known for '' One on One'' (2001–2004), ''The Shield'' (2003–2004), and '' Lone Star'' (1996). Career Following completion of the Michele Clark broadcast journalism program at Columbia University, under the guidance of producer Fred Friendly, Canada commenced his career as a television news reporter in 1971 at WBAL-TV. In 1974, he began his three-year tenure at WJLA-TV in Washington, D.C. For his work in the nation's capital, Canada was nominated twice for Regional Emmy Awards, receiving the award in 1977. The following year he received an A.P. Award for Outstanding Reporting. He began his acting career in 1978. While making the career transition he worked part-time as a broadcaster for The Voice of America (U.S. Information Agency). He studied acting at The Folger Theatre Group under the tutelage of Franchelle Stewart Dorn. He moved from D.C. to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Martha Washington
Martha Dandridge Custis Washington (June 21, 1731 — May 22, 1802) was the wife of George Washington, the first president of the United States. Although the title was not coined until after her death, Martha Washington served as the inaugural first lady of the United States. During her lifetime, she was often referred to as "Lady Washington". Martha Dandridge first married Daniel Parke Custis. They had four children, two of whom survived to young adulthood. Daniel's death made Martha a widow at age 26. She brought her vast wealth to her marriage to Washington, which enabled him to buy land to add to his personal estate. She also brought with her 84 dower slaves from Daniel Custis' estate for use during her lifetime. They and their descendants reverted to Custis' estate at her death and were inherited by his heirs. The Washingtons did not have children together, but they did rear her two surviving children, John and Martha. They also helped both of their extended families ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alcoholism
Alcoholism is, broadly, any drinking of alcohol that results in significant mental or physical health problems. Because there is disagreement on the definition of the word ''alcoholism'', it is not a recognized diagnostic entity. Predominant diagnostic classifications are alcohol use disorder ( DSM-5) or alcohol dependence (ICD-11); these are defined in their respective sources. Excessive alcohol use can damage all organ systems, but it particularly affects the brain, heart, liver, pancreas and immune system. Alcoholism can result in mental illness, delirium tremens, Wernicke–Korsakoff syndrome, irregular heartbeat, an impaired immune response, liver cirrhosis and increased cancer risk. Drinking during pregnancy can result in fetal alcohol spectrum disorders. Women are generally more sensitive than men to the harmful effects of alcohol, primarily due to their smaller body weight, lower capacity to metabolize alcohol, and higher proportion of body fat. In a sma ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shoemaker
Shoemaking is the process of making footwear. Originally, shoes were made one at a time by hand, often by groups of shoemakers, or cobblers (also known as '' cordwainers''). In the 18th century, dozens or even hundreds of masters, journeymen and apprentices (both men and women) would work together in a shop, dividing up the work into individual tasks. A customer could come into a shop, be individually measured, and return to pick up their new shoes in as little as a day. Everyone needed shoes, and the median price for a pair was about one day’s wages for an average journeyman. The shoemaking trade flourished in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries but began to be affected by industrialization in the later nineteenth century. Traditional handicraft shoemaking has now been largely superseded in volume of shoes produced by industrial mass production of footwear, but not necessarily in quality, attention to detail, or craftsmanship. Today, most shoes are made on a vol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
President's House (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
The President's House in Philadelphia was the third U.S. Presidential Mansion. George Washington occupied it from November 27, 1790 to March 10, 1797, and John Adams occupied it from March 21, 1797 to May 30, 1800. The house was located one block north of the Pennsylvania Statehouse, now known as Independence Hall, and was built by widow Mary Masters about 1767. During the 1777–1778 British occupation of Philadelphia, it was headquarters for General Sir William Howe and the British Army. The British abandoned the city in June 1778, and the house became headquarters for Military Governor Benedict Arnold. Philadelphia served as the national capital from 1790 to 1800 while Washington, D.C. was under construction after which it was owned by Revolutionary War financier and fellow Founding Father Robert Morris, who gave the house to George Washington. Washington brought nine enslaved Africans from Mount Vernon to work in his presidential household. The house also served as th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Christopher Sheels
Christopher Sheels (born , Mount Vernon, Virginia – year and place of death unknown), was a slave and house servant at George Washington's plantation, Mount Vernon, in Virginia, United States. As a teenager, he worked as Washington's "body servant" in the presidential households in New York City, 1789–90, and Philadelphia, 1790–91. In September 1799, Washington foiled an escape attempt by Sheels from Mount Vernon. Three months later he was present at the former president's deathbed. Dower slaves Sheels was the property of the estate of Daniel Parke Custis (1711–1757), Martha Washington's first husband. As widow, she was granted the lifetime use of one-third of the Custis Estate slaves, hence the term "dower" slaves. At the time of her January 1759 marriage to George Washington, the dower slaves numbered at least 85 persons. Under Virginia law, the legal status of a slave was traced through the woman, so all the children of an enslaved mother were also born slaves, n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
First Inauguration Of George Washington
The first inauguration of George Washington as the first president of the United States was held on Thursday, April 30, 1789, on the balcony of Federal Hall in New York City, New York. The inauguration was held nearly two months after the beginning of the first four-year term of George Washington as president. Chancellor of New York Robert Livingston administered the presidential oath of office. With this inauguration, the executive branch of the United States government officially began operations under the new frame of government established by the 1787 Constitution. The inauguration of John Adams as vice president was on April 21, 1789, when he assumed his duties as presiding officer of the United States Senate; this also remains the only scheduled inauguration to take place on a day that was neither January or March. Start of the first presidential term The first presidential term started on March 4, 1789, the date set by the Congress of the Confederation for the be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1789 United States Presidential Election
Events January–March * January – Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès publishes the pamphlet ''What Is the Third Estate?'' ('), influential on the French Revolution. * January 7 – The 1788-89 United States presidential election and House of Representatives elections are held. * January 9 – Treaty of Fort Harmar: The terms of the Treaty of Fort Stanwix (1784) and the Treaty of Fort McIntosh, between the United States Government and certain native American tribes, are reaffirmed, with some minor changes. * January 21 – The first American novel, ''The Power of Sympathy or the Triumph of Nature Founded in Truth'', is printed in Boston, Massachusetts. The anonymous author is William Hill Brown. * January 23 – Georgetown University is founded in Georgetown, Maryland (today part of Washington, D.C.), as the first Roman Catholic college in the United States. * January 29 – In Vietnam, Emperor Quang Trung crushes the Chinese Qing forces in Ng� ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alexandria, Virginia
Alexandria is an independent city in the northern region of the Commonwealth of Virginia, United States. It lies on the western bank of the Potomac River approximately south of downtown Washington, D.C. In 2020, the population was 159,467. The city's estimated population has grown by 1% annually since 2010 on average. Like the rest of Northern Virginia and Central Maryland, modern Alexandria has been influenced by its proximity to the U.S. capital. It is largely populated by professionals working in the federal civil service, in the U.S. military, or for one of the many private companies which contract to provide services to the federal government. One of Alexandria's largest employers is the U.S. Department of Defense. Another is the Institute for Defense Analyses. In 2005, the United States Patent and Trademark Office moved to Alexandria, and in 2017, so did the headquarters of the National Science Foundation. The historic center of Alexandria is known as Old Town ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Margaret Thomas (domestic Worker)
Margaret Thomas also known as Margaret Thomas Lee was a free Black woman and domestic worker who was employed by George Washington. Thomas first joined Washington at his Cambridge, Massachusetts headquarters in February of 1776. She traveled with Washington and was present at military encampments during the American Revolutionary War where she mended clothes and linens and worked as a laundress within Washington's household. Thomas worked for Washington at Valley Forge from 1777-1778. Thomas met William Lee (valet), William Lee, George Washington's enslaved valet, during her time with the General. The couple married in Philadelphia. After the war, Lee returned to Mount Vernon with Washington and Thomas remained in Philadelphia where she lived with Washington's former cooks, Hannah Archer Till, Hannah and Isaac Till. Virginia did not recognize marriages of enslaved people. Lee petitioned Washington to allow Thomas to join him and Washington agreed. It is unclear if Thomas ever mad ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
