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Why George Washington is Huge in Barbados · Ridiculous History

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Speaker 1: Ridiculous Historians, fans not of us, but of presidential episodes
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Speaker 1: the attention. Uh dare I say the finesse that this
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Speaker 1: Is when I'm getting on speaking of a certain sense
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Speaker 1: of finesse. Where would we be without our super producer,
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Speaker 1: Casey Pegram. But no, you and I know what's different
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Speaker 1: about today's episode because we could actually see each other.
1:42
Speaker 1: We are not entering into this presidential rabbit hole alone,
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Speaker 1: are we? We are not. We are in fact joined
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Speaker 1: by a name you might be familiar with, because we've
1:52
Speaker 1: been sliding it in to our credits, a gentleman by
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Speaker 1: the name of Ryan Barrish. We've been crediting as a
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Speaker 1: research associate. Hello, Iran, alongside the likes of research associate
2:03
Speaker 1: luminaries like Christopher Haciotis, who has been on the show
2:06
Speaker 1: for in Gabe Louisier exactly. Ryan, thank you so much
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Speaker 1: for coming on the show. We it's a it's a
2:12
Speaker 1: big deal for us for people to be able to
2:14
Speaker 1: put a voice to the name. So you can, first
2:18
Speaker 1: things first, verify that you are indeed a real person. Correct, Okay,
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Speaker 1: we did not make you up. Okay, I think we're
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Speaker 1: set to go. They think we are now now Ryan?
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Speaker 1: You uh? You and Noel and Casey and I started
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Speaker 1: working together a few months ago because your research with
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Speaker 1: us ties into in some ways your academic pursuits. Is
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Speaker 1: that correct? Yeah? So UM, I'm a master's student in
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Speaker 1: the Heritage Preservation program at Georgia State and UM A
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Speaker 1: lot of the topics I've been researching have tied into
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Speaker 1: topics we have explored either on trips or in classes
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Speaker 1: I've taken. So it's been a good little crossover. And UM,
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Speaker 1: as you guys know, the deeper you get into these things,
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Speaker 1: the otto the history can get. So so we uh,
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Speaker 1: we had talked off air a number of times and
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Speaker 1: we we had this meeting of the minds where we said, well, Ryan,
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Speaker 1: in your studies or in your personal life, what are
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Speaker 1: some historical people, events or places that really speak to
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Speaker 1: you that really, uh like moved you or inspired you
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Speaker 1: to dig deeper and deeper and deeper. What are your
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Speaker 1: rabbit hole subjects and topics? And you immediately named one,
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Speaker 1: just like off the top of your head, right, yeah,
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Speaker 1: I had. UM, I had recently come back from UM Barbados,
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Speaker 1: where I learned quite a bit about George Washington. That's weird, right,
3:51
Speaker 1: that's weird. You wouldn't associate George Washington with Barbados, and
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Speaker 1: yet here we are talking about a trip to Barbados
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Speaker 1: and we're talking about George Washington. People might be like,
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Speaker 1: why right, Yeah, I think it's a little known fact
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Speaker 1: that he had spent some time there. He's still kind
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Speaker 1: of a prominent figure in their telling of modern history.
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Speaker 1: And that is a little bit odd because the time
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Speaker 1: that he spent there was actually very brief. But despite that,
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Speaker 1: he has a whole whole structure dedicated to him there um,
4:20
Speaker 1: which is actually the home that he stayed at while
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Speaker 1: visiting George Washington. Do we want to go ahead and
4:27
Speaker 1: jump into the background or yeah, yeah, let's let's start
4:31
Speaker 1: with Barbados itself. And as much as George Washington influenced Barbados,
4:37
Speaker 1: well we're also talking about today, is the way Barbados
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Speaker 1: influenced George Washington. Yeah, I think that might be, um
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Speaker 1: the bigger influence. It shows itself in in who Washington became,
4:50
Speaker 1: or if he was even able to become who he
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Speaker 1: was exactly. So before we get into that, let's get
4:55
Speaker 1: into some background of Barbados, just briefly. Starting with the
4:58
Speaker 1: formation of Barbados. It was formed when the Atlantic crustal
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Speaker 1: and Caribbean planes um collided about a million years ago,
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Speaker 1: along with the volcanic eruption. Coral kind of formed there
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Speaker 1: This unique feature of being a coral based island allows
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Speaker 1: the water to be pure um naturally as it as
5:16
Speaker 1: it rises through the earth. That's something that's different than
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Speaker 1: most islands in the Caribbean, but really any land in general,
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Speaker 1: and it is something that ties back into Rome, which
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Speaker 1: is again a big product in Barbados. Another odd detail
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Speaker 1: that differs from a lot of the American settlements is
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Speaker 1: that the indigenous population had died off prior to the
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Speaker 1: Europeans coming. They came from Venezuela. They were called the
5:42
Speaker 1: amer Indians, and there were two tribes, the shorter air
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Speaker 1: Walks and the taller Caribs, who ended up killing the
5:51
Speaker 1: air Walks but then traveling back to Venezuela and different
5:55
Speaker 1: islands in the Caribbeans, and it's not really known why,
5:58
Speaker 1: but by the time the Europeans came through, they did
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Speaker 1: not see them. And going to the naming of Barbados,
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Speaker 1: what is odd about it is that the Portuguese were
6:08
Speaker 1: traveling to Brazil, which many of you guys know is
6:11
Speaker 1: still a country that speaks Portuguese, was a was a
6:13
Speaker 1: colony of Portugal. But as they passed by, they noticed
6:17
Speaker 1: some fig trees um and these fig trees have these
6:21
Speaker 1: kind of viny downwards sloping I guess vines or branches
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Speaker 1: um that give it a beard like appearance. So Barbados
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Speaker 1: actually translates to bearded ones. And wasn't at Pedro di
6:31
Speaker 1: Compost that actually kind of coined that, right, Yeah, Yeah,
6:34
Speaker 1: he was the one leading the exploration to Brazil, but
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Speaker 1: he did not He did not settle the island, right,
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Speaker 1: He just he's the guy who said, look at these
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Speaker 1: weird trees. Yeah, he just it was kind of a
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Speaker 1: footnote in his trip, enough of a footnote to give
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Speaker 1: it a name and make it identifier as he passed it,
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Speaker 1: but not something that he really saw the value in.
6:55
Speaker 1: But then the English they came through in in six
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Speaker 1: five when Captain John Powell claim the island on behalf
7:02
Speaker 1: of King James the First, but he also didn't settle it.
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Speaker 1: That would happen two years later when his brother, along
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Speaker 1: with eighties settlers and tense slaves, brought a ship from
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Speaker 1: England down to Barbados, where they quickly cleared much of
7:15
Speaker 1: the land to make way for tobacco and cotton plantations.
7:18
Speaker 1: Why do you think some of the early folks who
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Speaker 1: discovered it didn't see the value in it. I mean,
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Speaker 1: it's obviously a beautiful place. It was lush and green.
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Speaker 1: If they know anything about planting and cultivation, you think
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Speaker 1: they would have been like, ah, this is a great
7:29
Speaker 1: place to to make up you know, civilization. Well, we
7:31
Speaker 1: have to remember that a lot of these explorers were
7:35
Speaker 1: either given some specific set of constraints or specific destination.
7:40
Speaker 1: It seems cartoonist to us now, but it was a
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Speaker 1: fairly common practice for various for for various sailing operations
7:49
Speaker 1: to see new land and essentially say okay, dibbs will
7:53
Speaker 1: come back to that to five ten years if they
7:55
Speaker 1: ever did right, right, right, Yeah. And I think with
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Speaker 1: Barbados specific thickly because it wasn't settled, there was no
8:02
Speaker 1: sign of people, it might have been regarded that that
8:05
Speaker 1: just wasn't an island that can sustained life properly. Not
8:08
Speaker 1: a good sign. Yeah, yeah, if there's nobody there beyond
8:10
Speaker 1: the excitement of conquering people, um, there was just no
8:14
Speaker 1: resources readily available. It's a really good point. Do we
8:18
Speaker 1: know anything about why those those native people disappeared? We
8:21
Speaker 1: know one tribe killed the other, The tall stout ones killed,
8:24
Speaker 1: the shrimpy short ones but was there anything in the
8:27
Speaker 1: record that indicates what happened to them, or are there
8:29
Speaker 1: any structures remaining behind that were like indigenous structures and
8:32
Speaker 1: things like that. You know, when I went to the
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Speaker 1: National History Museum of Bartados, they were mentioning that there
8:38
Speaker 1: really was almost no sign of the natives left behind.
8:42
Speaker 1: Tools and boats and things were found in the woods,
8:44
Speaker 1: but no permanent structures. So it's possible that they were
8:48
Speaker 1: kind of commuting or using it as a midway point
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Speaker 1: between Venezuela and the other islands. So that makes sense
8:54
Speaker 1: with the watercraft they were using to right, dugouts, Yeah, yeah, exactly,
8:58
Speaker 1: So dugout would be the kind of vessel that that
9:03
Speaker 1: would benefit from having a couple of midway points, right,
9:06
Speaker 1: so you're not just lost out in open seas. But
9:10
Speaker 1: I want to get back to I want to get
9:11
Speaker 1: back to what you were saying about the original agricultural
9:15
Speaker 1: efforts by the by the Europeans. They made tobacco and
9:19
Speaker 1: cotton plantations, but Barbados isn't very well known for these
9:25
Speaker 1: plantations historically, right, correct. Yeah, tobacco specifically, Um, A lot
9:30
Speaker 1: of people are familiar with the Cuban tobacco that's a
9:33
Speaker 1: highly prized crop, and the idea was that it's close
9:37
Speaker 1: enough to Cuba, so possibly tobacco would take on a
9:41
Speaker 1: similar flavor, but it actually was very low quality. The
9:44
Speaker 1: soil conditions weren't the right kind to to harvest tobacco. Cotton,
9:49
Speaker 1: on the other hand, still existed in a smaller form
9:51
Speaker 1: and they actually have a very soft cotton that they're
9:54
Speaker 1: proud of, but it just doesn't really make the island
9:56
Speaker 1: a lot of money. So you start to see a
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Speaker 1: transition in the sixteen thirties when sugar cane was introduced
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Speaker 1: from nearby islands. It was brought and planted, and it
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Speaker 1: turned out that the earth in Barbados was actually very
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Speaker 1: very ripe to to nurture the sugar cane plants, almost
10:13
Speaker 1: more so than the surrounding islands. Even like it just
10:16
Speaker 1: really took off like wildfire. Yeah. Yeah, Jamaica and Barbados
10:20
Speaker 1: with the two prominent islands that we're doing that, and um,
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Speaker 1: Barbados became one of the richest places in the world
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Speaker 1: at that point in the in the mid sixteen hundreds,
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Speaker 1: due to how quickly and how high quality the sugar
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Speaker 1: cane was and a little bit of a side note,
10:37
Speaker 1: because of the the connection with Brazil and it's it's
10:40
Speaker 1: proximity to Brazil, Barbados, there were actually Jewish Dutch people
10:46
Speaker 1: who were exiled from Brazil who came to Barbados and
10:49
Speaker 1: they brought with them plans for windmills. And it was
10:53
Speaker 1: those windmills that allowed the locals to crush the sugar
10:57
Speaker 1: cane effectively and efficiently, and that was something that didn't
11:00
Speaker 1: have also the means of production. So it creates an
11:04
Speaker 1: easier path to an economy of scale. Right. They were
11:06
Speaker 1: able to, you know, use the wind to literally just
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Speaker 1: just pump it out versus hand crushing stalks of sugarcane
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Speaker 1: and getting that quid. And so now we've got we've
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Speaker 1: got Barbados becoming the number one player right in this
11:23
Speaker 1: field as far as sugar is concerned, because of those windmills.
11:27
Speaker 1: I have a side question there before we lose that point.
11:30
Speaker 1: Were these Jewish Dutch individuals were they exiled like because
11:36
Speaker 1: of religious persecution? Yeah? Yeah, so originally they were. This
11:41
Speaker 1: actually ties into like Oliver Cromwell and the whole whole
11:44
Speaker 1: English religious persecution that was also happening there at at
11:48
Speaker 1: this time, and of Barbados was an English colony, and
11:53
Speaker 1: Cromwell used Barbados as a way to accept refugees from
11:59
Speaker 1: Brazil that were Jewish to appease the Dutch financiers as
12:04
Speaker 1: he was looking to finance war and in different parts
12:07
Speaker 1: of Yeah, so instead of accepting them into Great Britain,
12:12
Speaker 1: he kind of had a different place he could show
12:15
Speaker 1: goodwill towards the Dutch and the and the Jewish population
12:18
Speaker 1: that is in the Netherlands and allow them to settle
12:21
Speaker 1: in Barbados, which is a quick side note, home to
12:25
Speaker 1: the oldest synagogue in the Eastern Hemisphere, so a very
12:29
Speaker 1: religiously diverse place, just kind of from its even inception, right, Yeah,
12:33
Speaker 1: although the congregation is is quite small. I think um
12:37
Speaker 1: five families still practiced there. But it was the week
12:40
Speaker 1: we were there. Prince Charles and Camilla were also there.
12:44
Speaker 1: They towards the synagogue and though the various religious institutions
12:48
Speaker 1: there there tons of churches, one for each parish. They
12:50
Speaker 1: heard you guys are going to be there, right, Yeah,
12:53
Speaker 1: they came the week that came and we grew there,
12:54
Speaker 1: but we didn't get a church with them. Were the
12:56
Speaker 1: week beforehand. So at this point We've set up the context,
13:02
Speaker 1: the backdrop for Barbados, both its historical origins, and it's uh,
13:08
Speaker 1: it's contemporary with washington economic status. There's something fascinating here.
13:14
Speaker 1: There's a character in this story that I did not
13:16
Speaker 1: anticipate Ryan, because we always think of these luminaries, these
13:22
Speaker 1: uh men and women of great important history, we always
13:26
Speaker 1: think of them kind of in an isolated way. We
13:28
Speaker 1: tend to think of them as singular entities that have
13:31
Speaker 1: you know, historical footnotes, as parents blah blah blah, they
13:34
Speaker 1: might have had some kids blah blah blah, but let's
13:36
Speaker 1: focus on this person. It turns out that George Washington
13:40
Speaker 1: was by no means and only child, and uh, his
13:44
Speaker 1: sibling actually is the reason he ended up in Barbados, right. Yeah.
13:49
Speaker 1: From his youth he was almost a wouldn't say a
13:52
Speaker 1: black sheep of the family, but he was um associated
13:55
Speaker 1: with his father's second wife. But he was still providing
14:00
Speaker 1: like monetary gifts and leaving his inheritance to his elder brother, Lawrence.
14:05
Speaker 1: So George was Lawrence's half brother and they kind of
14:09
Speaker 1: coexisted in in Virginia. But George really didn't see himself
14:14
Speaker 1: getting out of kind of a second or third tier gentry,
14:19
Speaker 1: you know, probably would own land, but but wasn't going
14:22
Speaker 1: to be anything spectacular. Finished school at sixteen. He was
14:26
Speaker 1: actually obsessed with this Book of Manners, so he he
14:29
Speaker 1: kind of idolized Um the upper class, but he didn't
14:32
Speaker 1: actually know how to break into the upper class. And
14:36
Speaker 1: he didn't even leave Virginia, like, he had a very
14:38
Speaker 1: myopic worldview up until this this adventure that we're about
14:42
Speaker 1: to talk about. And he didn't even meet his older
14:46
Speaker 1: brother Lawrence until seventeen thirty eight, when he was six
14:49
Speaker 1: years old. I think, Yeah, they lived very separate lives,
14:52
Speaker 1: very different lives, and he looked up to his brother,
14:56
Speaker 1: but didn't quite have the same resources to really be
14:59
Speaker 1: on the same aim with his brother and running the
15:01
Speaker 1: same circles. But yeah, once they've kind of got to
15:04
Speaker 1: know each other a little bit better. His his brother,
15:07
Speaker 1: Lawrence Um contracted a pulmonary disease that is often believed
15:11
Speaker 1: to be tuberculosis. All signs point that it was, but
15:14
Speaker 1: he asked him, well, Lawd's wife actually asked George if
15:18
Speaker 1: he'd accompany him on a trip to get some fresher air,
15:22
Speaker 1: clean air. You hear that a lot with people with
15:24
Speaker 1: TV and they say, oh, you gotta move to where
15:26
Speaker 1: it's a little dryer, like where the climate will suit
15:29
Speaker 1: you a little bit better and you can convalesce. Right. Yeah,
15:32
Speaker 1: something you guys talk about a lot is um and
15:34
Speaker 1: at this point in history, there isn't a lot to
15:37
Speaker 1: do to get better, Right, It's a change of scenery.
15:40
Speaker 1: It's a wait and see approach kind of. Yeah, it's
15:42
Speaker 1: like the world is your hospice. Yeah. So also, wasn't
15:47
Speaker 1: there an issue where his wife could not accompany him
15:50
Speaker 1: because they had already lost several children and they couldn't
15:54
Speaker 1: risk the surviving child to you know, die on a
15:57
Speaker 1: treacherous sea voyage, which happened plenty. Yeah. I think that
16:01
Speaker 1: is a really great point. And old you look to
16:03
Speaker 1: kind of have protect the kids that you do have,
16:06
Speaker 1: and if that means sending the parent away the other
16:09
Speaker 1: parents for a while, that's something that you have to
16:10
Speaker 1: do because you're trying to protect those that are healthy
16:14
Speaker 1: and the chance of recovery with tuberculous is is very low,
16:19
Speaker 1: but the chance of infecting others is very high. Yeah.
16:22
Speaker 1: And like I said, even if they did want to
16:24
Speaker 1: bring the family along, mom was like, no, no, no, no no,
16:27
Speaker 1: I don't know if this young, you know, kind of
16:29
Speaker 1: feeble child can survive this sea voyage, you know, even
16:32
Speaker 1: if they did want to live on the island in
16:34
Speaker 1: quarantine away from dad. You know. So it was very
16:37
Speaker 1: much probably a twofold thing, right. It's a very valid
16:40
Speaker 1: concern for sure, And we have to we can picture
16:43
Speaker 1: a little bit of how George may have regarded his
16:48
Speaker 1: older brother because he's been you know, largely relegated to Virginia, right, Uh,
16:54
Speaker 1: sort of fantasizing about an aristocratic life that he feels
16:57
Speaker 1: he will never lead. He sees his older brotherho would
17:01
Speaker 1: have ventured abroad in England, had been in a pretty
17:05
Speaker 1: well known school, Appleby Grammar School, getting a top notch education.
17:11
Speaker 1: It's it's kind of like this mysterious figure comes in
17:15
Speaker 1: and there's something aspirational about it for George. So how
17:19
Speaker 1: would you not jump at the chance right to to
17:22
Speaker 1: go on an adventure with this super cool dude. Yeah.
17:25
Speaker 1: I mean he's going to an island that's a British colony, um,
17:29
Speaker 1: just like the United States is at this point, and
17:32
Speaker 1: he's getting a chance to be in his brother's inner circle.
17:35
Speaker 1: I mean that's a chance that he might not have
17:37
Speaker 1: gotten had Lawrence not fallen ill and it's something that
17:42
Speaker 1: allows him to kind of, at least for for a
17:46
Speaker 1: temporary period, experience the life that he was wishing to obtain.
17:51
Speaker 1: And he's about nineteen at this point, correct, Yeah, he
17:54
Speaker 1: I mean he was about nineteen, so he was kind
17:57
Speaker 1: of in the the early adulthood period of his life.
18:00
Speaker 1: And really this was this is a very pivotal time.
18:03
Speaker 1: I mean, if we think about this in in modern days,
18:06
Speaker 1: taking trips in your late teens early twenties can really
18:10
Speaker 1: change your worldview and specifically pre really any transmission of
18:15
Speaker 1: data short of um, books, newspapers, um. That was kind
18:20
Speaker 1: of missing from from sure maybe letters, right, that took
18:24
Speaker 1: months to arrive. We also had his diaries, though, which
18:26
Speaker 1: is an important part of what we know about this journey. Yeah,
18:29
Speaker 1: he was a known, known taker of diaries. I like
18:36
Speaker 1: how that sounds vaguely accusatory and scatological. User are a
18:41
Speaker 1: known diarist, So he he kept this diary during this trip,
18:50
Speaker 1: which obviously to this point would be his biggest adventure.
18:53
Speaker 1: Keeping a diary makes perfect sense, and this is our
18:56
Speaker 1: primary source to write. Correct. Yeah, there's still um the
18:59
Speaker 1: diaries and fairly good condition for its age. Um. There
19:02
Speaker 1: are missing missing pages, but that's to be expected. But
19:06
Speaker 1: what is in there um gives a pretty good idea
19:09
Speaker 1: of his time on the island and what he thought
19:10
Speaker 1: about it. How how long did he end up on
19:13
Speaker 1: the island. So what's what's odd about this because of
19:16
Speaker 1: the impact it has and how Barbados still recognizes George
19:20
Speaker 1: Washington as an important figure in its history. Is he
19:23
Speaker 1: only spent seven weeks, which is about the same length
19:27
Speaker 1: of the trip there um and back, So it was
19:30
Speaker 1: kind of a fourteen week trip and only half of
19:34
Speaker 1: it was actually spent in Barbados. But he credited this
19:37
Speaker 1: trip to giving him a larger perspective on the British
19:40
Speaker 1: Empire and fresh insights on the plantation management, agricultural productivity, slavery,
19:47
Speaker 1: wealth and poverty, which is something he wrote in his
19:50
Speaker 1: journal when leaving Bridgetown, Barbados the capital. Now let's explore
19:54
Speaker 1: that a little bit further, because you had a note
19:56
Speaker 1: about Bridgetown where you mentioned that this would have been
20:01
Speaker 1: Would this have been the largest city that George Washington
20:03
Speaker 1: had seen at this point in his young life. Yeah,
20:06
Speaker 1: he mostly spent time in and medium sized cities in Virginia. UM,
20:11
Speaker 1: Barbados at this point, because of its wealth from the
20:15
Speaker 1: sugar industry, was actually a pretty pretty bustling metropolis comparatively
20:21
Speaker 1: to the kind of semi rural area that he'd come
20:24
Speaker 1: from in Virginia. So imagine growing up in some part
20:29
Speaker 1: of Georgia that's not Atlanta and coming to Atlanta for
20:31
Speaker 1: the first time. The size of the buildings as you
20:34
Speaker 1: travel through downtown can can kind of give a similar
20:37
Speaker 1: effect of a of a different world. So I think
20:39
Speaker 1: you do. You mentioned that this this sea voyage would
20:42
Speaker 1: have taken about six weeks. It's funny in context because
20:44
Speaker 1: apparently a flight from Washington, d C. To Barbados now
20:48
Speaker 1: is only about six hours, So it would have been
20:50
Speaker 1: a real commitment to get to this place. And and
20:53
Speaker 1: and consequently, Um, it's really interesting they when he was
20:57
Speaker 1: on the ship, George Washington kind of earned a lot
21:00
Speaker 1: about navigation, and he also did a lot of fishing
21:03
Speaker 1: with his brother off the side of the boat. And
21:05
Speaker 1: they actually on November two, Um, they sighted land way
21:09
Speaker 1: earlier than they expected because I guess that the captain
21:12
Speaker 1: wasn't as crack a navigator as he thought he was,
21:15
Speaker 1: and they thought they were like a hundred and fifty
21:16
Speaker 1: leagues to the east of Barbados. But then they have
21:19
Speaker 1: this very early call of land. Ho and you'd mentioned
21:22
Speaker 1: those coral reefs and how what Barbados is kind of
21:25
Speaker 1: composed of, and so this side of the island that
21:27
Speaker 1: they were approaching was pretty treacherous. I mean, it would
21:30
Speaker 1: have had all of these rocks and corals and things
21:33
Speaker 1: that would have would have wanted to prepare for and expect.
21:36
Speaker 1: But luckily they did land without you know, crashing the ship.
21:40
Speaker 1: The Success right, the name of the of the ship,
21:44
Speaker 1: so luckily the Success was not uh not to be
21:47
Speaker 1: an ironic name, at least at that point. And they
21:50
Speaker 1: anchored in Carlisle Bay, and that is when he got
21:53
Speaker 1: his first look at this bustling economy, this absolutely you know,
21:59
Speaker 1: alien in world to him, right, And Carlisle Bay is
22:02
Speaker 1: um is now pretty resorted. But you can tell why
22:06
Speaker 1: it was chosen as a as a landing point because
22:09
Speaker 1: it's in a little concave area in the island and
22:13
Speaker 1: it's full of sand, but all around it are the
22:15
Speaker 1: rocks and the coral that and all described from the
22:17
Speaker 1: Atlantic side. The Atlantic side is a treacherous, rocky side,
22:20
Speaker 1: and the Caribbean sea waves those are softer and make
22:24
Speaker 1: for an easier landing. Um, they kind of split the
22:26
Speaker 1: difference and went into Carlisle Bay, which is still a
22:29
Speaker 1: really prominent port for Bridgetown. Got it. So, speaking of
22:34
Speaker 1: easy landings here, one thing that's fascinating about this is
22:39
Speaker 1: that this mode of travel, or this kind of travel,
22:42
Speaker 1: has a lot in common with travel today in unfamiliar places.
22:46
Speaker 1: The number one rule of traveling to an unfamiliar place
22:49
Speaker 1: is that things tend to go easier if you have
22:52
Speaker 1: a local connection. You know, sometimes they call him a
22:55
Speaker 1: fixer depending on the country, but sometimes it's just a friend.
22:59
Speaker 1: And this is where George and Lawrence. But you know,
23:03
Speaker 1: George starts to actualize his dream of moving in these
23:08
Speaker 1: elite circles, right, Yes, So they were arranged to spend
23:12
Speaker 1: some time with the Clark family, Gedney or Jedney Clark.
23:15
Speaker 1: I'm not sure if you guys have input on that.
23:17
Speaker 1: That would go with the hard G and I just
23:19
Speaker 1: commit commit to the hard G. We're gonna go with
23:22
Speaker 1: Gedney Clark. And um, he was a prominent merchant in Bridgetown,
23:26
Speaker 1: he invited them to his house, but at that time
23:29
Speaker 1: his family though he was Lawrence Washington's wife's uncle, right yes,
23:33
Speaker 1: and Mrs Clark actually had smallpox, so George was a
23:36
Speaker 1: little bit uh skeptical about going there. He had not
23:40
Speaker 1: suffered from it, but Lawrence hadn't and so he was immune.
23:44
Speaker 1: But this illness was enough to keep the Washington's from
23:47
Speaker 1: lodging from them um as they originally in attended, which
23:50
Speaker 1: actually turns out to be a benefit because that particular
23:53
Speaker 1: house is further away from the city center of Bridgetown,
23:57
Speaker 1: and instead the brothers stayed with James Order, who was
24:00
Speaker 1: a relative of a of the Carter family that was
24:03
Speaker 1: pretty well known back in their hometown in Virginia, so
24:07
Speaker 1: they stayed with him for the first four days of
24:10
Speaker 1: this of this trip, and then Lawrence's doctor, Dr. William Hillary,
24:16
Speaker 1: whom he was recommended to go see while he was
24:18
Speaker 1: in Barbados, suggested that they go further up. As you
24:22
Speaker 1: go in the center of Barbados, it elevates and kind
24:24
Speaker 1: of the center of the island is mountainous and the
24:27
Speaker 1: air is dryer. Obviously it's away from the humidity of
24:30
Speaker 1: the sea. But fortunately for this story. They weren't able
24:34
Speaker 1: to find any lodging up there, and so they returned
24:37
Speaker 1: back to the city where George, who was not stuck
24:41
Speaker 1: staying in bed, was able to go out at night.
24:44
Speaker 1: He actually took in his first theater play at this time. Um.
24:47
Speaker 1: He went to dances and dinners with social elites like
24:51
Speaker 1: he'd always desired. He ate at the nicest homes in
24:54
Speaker 1: the country. He met with military leaders. This was kind
24:56
Speaker 1: of his first experience with military leader. And something that
25:01
Speaker 1: is really unique about Barbados is it's the only British
25:04
Speaker 1: colony that was never lost. Britain never lost it due
25:08
Speaker 1: to military conquests or anything. They've always been able to
25:11
Speaker 1: fend off um invaders, the French and others. He was
25:15
Speaker 1: heavily fortified. Right And this is also is one of
25:19
Speaker 1: my favorite details. This is also where George Washington finds
25:23
Speaker 1: one of his favorite foods, right Yeah, he um. He
25:26
Speaker 1: first tasted the pineapple during this trip, which is just
25:29
Speaker 1: a superior snack. I'm just gonna say, yeah, I mean
25:33
Speaker 1: it's it's a great fruit and it's one that he um.
25:36
Speaker 1: He carries with him throughout his life and is seen
25:38
Speaker 1: almost every dinner that he hosted in the White House. Um,
25:42
Speaker 1: he loved it as a as a post dinner cleanser
25:45
Speaker 1: kind of and you guys know that that's pretty refreshing,
25:49
Speaker 1: and it it becomes something that he kind of talks about.
25:53
Speaker 1: You know, when you take a trip and you try
25:55
Speaker 1: a new food for the next few months, that's all
25:57
Speaker 1: you talk about. Well, for George, that's uh, that's kind
26:01
Speaker 1: of becomes his life. He kind of has a has
26:03
Speaker 1: a pineapple antidote nearly all of his conversations. So, first off,
26:09
Speaker 1: I love that idea, and it's going to color the
26:11
Speaker 1: way I think about all his conversations for the rest
26:14
Speaker 1: of my life. At least, I want to go somewhere
26:17
Speaker 1: interesting with this in a bit of a secuitous fashion.
26:20
Speaker 1: So we know from his own writing that he was
26:25
Speaker 1: amazed by not just Barbados itself, but by Barbados in
26:30
Speaker 1: comparison to Virginia, right because Virginia was more rural, less
26:34
Speaker 1: intensely cultivated, and he talked about how there were just
26:39
Speaker 1: people everywhere. I think he said specifically everywhere was furnished
26:42
Speaker 1: with inhabitants. And while this was a good thing for him,
26:46
Speaker 1: it probably led to his medical concerns as well, right, yeah,
26:53
Speaker 1: you know, while he was there going to these parties. Um,
26:55
Speaker 1: he's in the early prime of his adulthood. Um, he's
26:59
Speaker 1: taking women to the theater. He's going on dates. Hold on,
27:03
Speaker 1: is that a euphemism taking someone into the theater? It
27:06
Speaker 1: could be um, but yeah, he's um, you know, he's
27:12
Speaker 1: doing what what most people do in their in their
27:14
Speaker 1: late teenagers. And uh. During this time, he contracts smallpox
27:19
Speaker 1: despite not staying at the Clarks, which is an important
27:24
Speaker 1: note in this story. For sure, smallpox as as he
27:27
Speaker 1: contracted it on the island where he was already in
27:30
Speaker 1: a home that had frequent doctors visits, he had servants
27:34
Speaker 1: to wait on him. He was also in a good
27:36
Speaker 1: climate to recover from it. There weren't wasn't anything taxing
27:41
Speaker 1: he was. Yeah, it was not for good. He was
27:42
Speaker 1: there in the first place, with someone who was suffering
27:45
Speaker 1: from a free, debilitating condition to help them convalesce. So
27:48
Speaker 1: this was sort of an optimal place for him to
27:50
Speaker 1: catch this and and probably whether it in a way
27:53
Speaker 1: that maybe wouldn't have been the case back home. Right. Yeah,
27:55
Speaker 1: So if we think about Washington, the Revolutionary War general,
28:00
Speaker 1: he is able to recover in a bed in warm,
28:04
Speaker 1: beautiful tropic Barbados as opposed to the battlefields UM where
28:08
Speaker 1: many of his soldiers died from smallpox. So, as I
28:12
Speaker 1: mentioned earlier with Lawrence, as you contract smallpox and recover,
28:16
Speaker 1: if you're successful, then you have an immunity to it
28:19
Speaker 1: um and this is actually credited as a reason for
28:24
Speaker 1: George Washington's success in that war, UM in the Revolutionary War,
28:28
Speaker 1: but also Barbados, like I mentioned before, is important because
28:33
Speaker 1: he gets he gets exposure to British military tactics while
28:36
Speaker 1: meeting there, which also plays plays a part in his
28:39
Speaker 1: war success. Would that have been through firsthand encounters with
28:42
Speaker 1: British military officers of some of these fancy dress parties,
28:45
Speaker 1: you know exactly? Yeah, he was able to The house
28:48
Speaker 1: is his house that he stayed at it and he's
28:50
Speaker 1: still there. Is right next to one of the largest
28:53
Speaker 1: forts on the island, and he would frequently go there
28:56
Speaker 1: for lunches and dinners and have conversations with high ob
28:59
Speaker 1: jet rules which in the American military or the colonial
29:03
Speaker 1: military at the time, he wouldn't really have access to
29:07
Speaker 1: that level of information. And it's information of what would
29:12
Speaker 1: later become the opposing I because it's easy to forget
29:16
Speaker 1: at the time, Washington is a subject of the British Empire.
29:21
Speaker 1: He's a you know, I mean, that's that's what's up.
29:23
Speaker 1: He is, Uh, he's definitely not a British citizen, but
29:27
Speaker 1: he's on their side. Technically. He has no idea at
29:30
Speaker 1: this point he's going to become such a figure in
29:34
Speaker 1: American history. Me that's the most fascinating part of this story.
29:37
Speaker 1: He has no idea just to continue. He has no
29:40
Speaker 1: idea that the United States will even be a thing.
29:43
Speaker 1: This is a very different look at this guy. And
29:46
Speaker 1: also while we're doing a very different look, I propose
29:50
Speaker 1: we do a very honest look because this is something
29:53
Speaker 1: whenever we talk about the Founding Fathers, this is something
29:56
Speaker 1: that often gets skirted around or circumvented. But this guy
30:02
Speaker 1: was not a saint, right. He has actually been dogged
30:05
Speaker 1: by some rumors or allegations that he left his mark
30:11
Speaker 1: on Barbados. In more than one way. He's been People
30:15
Speaker 1: have said that he actually may have fathered some children. Yeah,
30:18
Speaker 1: you know, when I was there. Um, several of the
30:20
Speaker 1: people we met with, including Dr Carl Watson, will come
30:23
Speaker 1: up later in this in this podcast, would often make
30:27
Speaker 1: jokes with locals saying, is your last name Washington? Or
30:31
Speaker 1: you look like one of the Washington kids. Um, it's
30:33
Speaker 1: a it's kind of a joke that he's kind of
30:36
Speaker 1: the father of the island in that in his in
30:38
Speaker 1: his uh seven week period, he it's possible that he
30:42
Speaker 1: may have helped conceive at least a handful of children.
30:47
Speaker 1: And um, it's kind of a it's kind of an
30:49
Speaker 1: interesting idea because as many of you guys know, he
30:53
Speaker 1: didn't have children of his own that he claimed at
30:58
Speaker 1: least that that you know that or shown as um
31:01
Speaker 1: direct descendants of him done with Martha Washington, right, Yeah,
31:05
Speaker 1: And it's often thought that he was actually sterile due
31:09
Speaker 1: to a previous about that he had with malaria. But
31:13
Speaker 1: despite that, it's also rumored that he fathered his son
31:16
Speaker 1: with Venus, who was his half brother, Um John Augustine
31:20
Speaker 1: Washington slave, so a different half brother, and the son's
31:25
Speaker 1: name is west Ford and his great great great granddaughter
31:30
Speaker 1: at least Ford. Alan has stated that Washington kept Venus
31:33
Speaker 1: as a and she is a quote from a from
31:36
Speaker 1: an article in The New York Times from um as
31:40
Speaker 1: a personal sleep partner, and that when it was obvious
31:43
Speaker 1: she was pregnant, he no longer wanted to sleep with her.
31:48
Speaker 1: Yeah boy, yeah. So the story, oddly enough was well,
31:53
Speaker 1: I guess it makes sense, but was corroborated by a
31:55
Speaker 1: cousin that they only knew of each other for five
31:58
Speaker 1: years when the story came out. So they've grown up
32:01
Speaker 1: completely separate lives knowing the same story that they were
32:05
Speaker 1: descendants of George Washington through Venus, who was again one
32:09
Speaker 1: of the enslaved people that John Augustine Washington kept. So
32:13
Speaker 1: it's an it's a fascinating story. In Nicholas Wade writes
32:16
Speaker 1: about it and the descendants of slaves. Son contended that
32:19
Speaker 1: his father was George Washington. It's a really good New
32:22
Speaker 1: York Times article. Um, if you want to do any
32:24
Speaker 1: further reading on that, I have to ask, personally, how
32:28
Speaker 1: much sand do you think there is to these claims?
32:31
Speaker 1: I think that there is um a good amount of
32:37
Speaker 1: of truth to these because, um, some of these have
32:39
Speaker 1: been backed up by by DNA tests, and there's at
32:42
Speaker 1: least enough DNA too to make the argument. I also
32:46
Speaker 1: think that this isn't an isolated incident for presidents, for
32:50
Speaker 1: men of this time, or for George Washington. Himself. So
32:54
Speaker 1: it's been often said that he and Martha had more
32:56
Speaker 1: of kind of a coexisting, co parenting relationship rather than
33:01
Speaker 1: a physical and outwardly affectionate relationship. So it is possible
33:06
Speaker 1: that he was receiving that um, that affection elsewhere, which
33:11
Speaker 1: kind of leads us to an interesting rumor about Alexander
33:16
Speaker 1: Hamilton's UM and I can't hear anybody even speak those
33:20
Speaker 1: words without singing it in my head. Yeah, he's famous
33:22
Speaker 1: for that musical, right, Yeah, yeah, he's um you know,
33:25
Speaker 1: and many of us know him because of the musical
33:27
Speaker 1: Now and uh, he's one of the founding fathers, and
33:30
Speaker 1: he was also the first Secretary of Treasury. But there's
33:34
Speaker 1: been theories UM linking Alexander Hamilton's to George Washington, and
33:41
Speaker 1: that link that is written about in Robert P. Watson's
33:44
Speaker 1: Affairs of the State, The Untold History of Presidential Love, Sex,
33:48
Speaker 1: and Scandal. It's a very interesting book that tries to
33:52
Speaker 1: make an argument um that during George Washington's time in Barbados,
33:57
Speaker 1: Alexander Hamilton's mother, who had never been to the United
34:01
Speaker 1: States at this point, was visiting various Caribbean islands and
34:06
Speaker 1: at some point they met up and may have had
34:08
Speaker 1: a relationship. Now it's pretty easy to to debunk because
34:13
Speaker 1: there's actually no record of her visiting Barbados specifically, and
34:16
Speaker 1: no record of George Washington going elsewhere. But George Washington's
34:19
Speaker 1: Barbados journals had like pages ripped out. I mean, this,
34:22
Speaker 1: this is not this is a fallible system of record keeping.
34:25
Speaker 1: I would I would Devil's advocate there. So I guess
34:27
Speaker 1: we have to look at the chronology then, right, yeah,
34:30
Speaker 1: So so with that, Washington left in December of seventeen
34:34
Speaker 1: fifty one, he left Barbados to go back to Virginia.
34:37
Speaker 1: But Hamilton's wasn't born until January seventeen fifty five. So
34:41
Speaker 1: unless there was a long period of uh, what is it,
34:45
Speaker 1: gestation stations, the um, then then it seems not plausible. Well,
34:51
Speaker 1: you can't let the facts get in the way of
34:53
Speaker 1: a good story. My mother always says, it's true. Yeah,
34:57
Speaker 1: and they you know, they ended up still having a
35:00
Speaker 1: relationship Hamilton's and Washington, just not a a paternal relationship.
35:05
Speaker 1: But isn't that sort of where what got the rumor
35:07
Speaker 1: mills started here is that they almost treated each other
35:10
Speaker 1: in almost like a father and son kind of way. Yeah.
35:14
Speaker 1: You know, many political rivals uh of Hamilton's would would argue,
35:19
Speaker 1: um that he was receiving unfair treatment from Washington and
35:22
Speaker 1: a positive unfair treatment. Um that was kind of putting
35:26
Speaker 1: in positions of power that they didn't feel he was
35:28
Speaker 1: qualified for. And so that could have been where the
35:31
Speaker 1: rumor really got its legs. How you can slander an opponent.
35:35
Speaker 1: We see that a lot and and say it's nothing new.
35:39
Speaker 1: Um by any means, it was just a different era
35:41
Speaker 1: political slander at that time. I mean, they they went
35:45
Speaker 1: for it. I'm impressed with the propagandists of old. Yeah.
35:55
Speaker 1: We have to say though that it is amazing only
35:59
Speaker 1: seven eeks could have such a profound impact on George Washington.
36:04
Speaker 1: I think you're right, Bryan. I think it had. The
36:07
Speaker 1: island had more of an impact upon him than he
36:10
Speaker 1: had upon the island. But you can still see, you
36:14
Speaker 1: can you can still see traces of George Washington's time
36:17
Speaker 1: there right like there, surely there's a George Washington house
36:20
Speaker 1: right or a complex you went to, Uh, tell us
36:24
Speaker 1: a little more about Dr Carl Watson. Yeah, So Dr
36:27
Speaker 1: Carl Watson was someone who met with a couple of times.
36:29
Speaker 1: He's a local historian of great importance. He's done, um
36:33
Speaker 1: many great things for the island, preserved historic buildings, but
36:37
Speaker 1: this one project that he started a couple of years back,
36:40
Speaker 1: it's something that is helping George's legacy live on in Barbados.
36:45
Speaker 1: What he's done is created a sort of dinner theater
36:48
Speaker 1: where he plays George Washington, which is which is odd
36:52
Speaker 1: because Carl Watson as um, definitely not nineteen, but he
36:56
Speaker 1: dresses as Washington. UM, and your your entertain with drinks.
37:01
Speaker 1: Then you get a multi course meal, um, which is
37:04
Speaker 1: accurate as you're able to get to a historic meal.
37:07
Speaker 1: You did this? Yes, what are we talking to? Um?
37:10
Speaker 1: They call it dolphin but it's some sort of swordfish fish.
37:13
Speaker 1: Dolphin fish. Yeahs like mahi mahi. I think. Yeah. Pineapple
37:17
Speaker 1: was obviously their red wine was was the drink, and
37:20
Speaker 1: a lot of rum drinks were offered. Some sort of
37:23
Speaker 1: a large kind of bean and rice dish that is
37:26
Speaker 1: still pretty calm and kind of looks like black eyed
37:28
Speaker 1: peas and rice. The food there is actually very similar
37:31
Speaker 1: to two food of the South. There's actually a lot
37:34
Speaker 1: of ties between Barbados and Charleston, South Carolina. Architecturally, culturally,
37:40
Speaker 1: and um, the gold Ghichi people as well. If you
37:43
Speaker 1: want to know what the the accent in Barbados sounds
37:46
Speaker 1: like a person of the gold Ghichi area of Georgia
37:49
Speaker 1: and South Carolina is going to give you a real
37:51
Speaker 1: idea of that. Wow, okay, fascinating. Yeah. So the meal there,
37:56
Speaker 1: you know, it was six or seven courses. His right
37:59
Speaker 1: hand man, his his enslaved person that he was appear
38:03
Speaker 1: to have a really good relationship with, Um was kind
38:05
Speaker 1: of running things and they were they were having conversations,
38:09
Speaker 1: having jokes. Um he was able to flirt with his
38:14
Speaker 1: his main choice. Sort Yeah, he picked out one of
38:17
Speaker 1: the one of the women and had her sit next
38:19
Speaker 1: to him and they had a nice little time potential
38:22
Speaker 1: sleeping partner. Yeah, and uh sait on old George's lap
38:26
Speaker 1: here and that it's a little creepy, you know, and
38:29
Speaker 1: then she just played into it. This is literally someone
38:30
Speaker 1: that was a tourist that was there for the dinner. Yeah. Yeah,
38:33
Speaker 1: he had his choice of of eight. He chose one
38:36
Speaker 1: and uh yeah, they did it. But the important thing
38:40
Speaker 1: about it is that it's a way to raise money
38:42
Speaker 1: for the property and to keep the property in good shape,
38:45
Speaker 1: something that many island nations have issues with his preserving
38:48
Speaker 1: buildings in the conditions, the humidity of the salt, all
38:51
Speaker 1: of that is really unforgiving and requires a lot of money. UM.
38:55
Speaker 1: So I think that's something really important that Dr Carl
38:58
Speaker 1: Watson is doing with that program to double back. That
39:00
Speaker 1: is your kind of primary focus in your in your
39:04
Speaker 1: studies is preservation of these kinds of spots. Yeah, this
39:07
Speaker 1: trip wasn't focused on the preservation aspect, but it is
39:12
Speaker 1: something that's always important when we're looking at history and
39:14
Speaker 1: how to tell accurate history is being able to preserve
39:18
Speaker 1: structures that can help understand what the what the past
39:22
Speaker 1: was like. They do a great job there with historical
39:25
Speaker 1: furniture in the building. They've raised the ceilings but they've
39:28
Speaker 1: marked how low the ceilings were um because they were
39:31
Speaker 1: like six and a half foot ceilings at the time.
39:34
Speaker 1: You know, there are many people who are around six
39:37
Speaker 1: five and collers, so they have accommodated um and it's
39:40
Speaker 1: something they've done a really good job in the past
39:42
Speaker 1: decade of in Barbados is making this historic structure is
39:45
Speaker 1: accessible to all people, including those who are disabled or
39:50
Speaker 1: need assistance with accessing different parts of these buildings because
39:54
Speaker 1: obviously a house built in the sixteen hundreds, it's not
39:58
Speaker 1: going to have an elevator or ray for people in wheelchairs.
40:02
Speaker 1: But Barbados is taking great pride in making their their
40:05
Speaker 1: buildings accessible, so I think it's really important in their
40:08
Speaker 1: preservation work. Ryan, thank you so much for showing us this.
40:16
Speaker 1: I'll say, this largely unknown episode of George Washington's life,
40:22
Speaker 1: and I'm fascinated with this. And I have to ask,
40:26
Speaker 1: I understand if you can't tell me due to some
40:28
Speaker 1: sort of proprietary in d A or something, But what
40:31
Speaker 1: what are you working on now? What are you what
40:33
Speaker 1: are your studies focusing on? I mean, right now, I'm
40:35
Speaker 1: I'm kind of wrapping up my last couple of classes
40:39
Speaker 1: in the program, actually working on archival work. Museum studies
40:43
Speaker 1: are kind of the two big places I'm doing. I'm
40:47
Speaker 1: I'm studying how visitor interactions work when you're in a museum,
40:51
Speaker 1: and ways to maximize content for all types of visitors,
40:56
Speaker 1: not just the highly educated or the older crowd. But
41:00
Speaker 1: we want to have the same exhibits um give information
41:03
Speaker 1: to both young and old, educated, uneducated, and just making
41:07
Speaker 1: history more accessible too to all sorts of people. And
41:11
Speaker 1: my primary focus in in history always has been underserved
41:15
Speaker 1: populations and making sure that they're credited with their part
41:18
Speaker 1: in history. And that's where I think. Um. While this
41:21
Speaker 1: story about George Washington and Barbados is extremely fascinating and important,
41:26
Speaker 1: I think there are many things in Barbados that warrant
41:30
Speaker 1: their own special consideration. It's an island full of history.
41:33
Speaker 1: It's not just the birthplace of Rihanna, although they do
41:35
Speaker 1: have a really great monument tour which is her grandma's
41:39
Speaker 1: house that they basically enshrined and it's not a house
41:42
Speaker 1: and there's a video board in front of it that
41:45
Speaker 1: just has pictures of of Rihanna. It's a it's a
41:47
Speaker 1: It's an interesting city, for sure. They're they're proud of
41:50
Speaker 1: of their God is there. They're proud of their God
41:53
Speaker 1: is there. Indeed also the home of grapefruit, right, Yeah,
41:58
Speaker 1: there is a Welshman whole Gully, which is a kind
42:02
Speaker 1: of now a nature preserve, but was once a plantation
42:05
Speaker 1: of of a prominent soldier there. He was really interested
42:07
Speaker 1: in diversifying the plant life in Barbados. He combined the
42:12
Speaker 1: sweet orange and shattuck plant um to create what at
42:16
Speaker 1: the time is called the forbidden fruit, um, but later
42:19
Speaker 1: the name was changed to the less uh interesting grapefruit.
42:24
Speaker 1: Grapefruit because of how it grows in clusters. But I
42:27
Speaker 1: kind of also don't really see that. I don't really
42:29
Speaker 1: see how they grow much different than than oranges. But
42:33
Speaker 1: apparently grapefruits grow closer together than oranges do. I will
42:37
Speaker 1: say this though, I did not know until um talking
42:39
Speaker 1: about this with you, what a shattuck was. And it's
42:42
Speaker 1: it looks like a pair, but it's a citrus fruit
42:45
Speaker 1: and it breaks open and it's got like segments. It
42:47
Speaker 1: looks look like a lime inside. So um, that's really
42:50
Speaker 1: interesting to hybridize those. And now you don't really hear
42:52
Speaker 1: about shattucks anymore. Yeah, also called a pomelo. And I
42:55
Speaker 1: think grapefruits are just terrible. I get harassment this littime.
42:59
Speaker 1: I can't stand pulp. I like orange juice. It has
43:03
Speaker 1: to be basically water. I can't do any type of pulp,
43:06
Speaker 1: So citrus fruits I can bite on them, but then
43:09
Speaker 1: I'm out. Grape Fruits a little too bitter for me.
43:11
Speaker 1: But the monkeys at Welshman Whole Goalie, they love them.
43:15
Speaker 1: There's why there's one type of monkey on the island
43:17
Speaker 1: and it sits in the Goalies, one of its prominent homes,
43:22
Speaker 1: and eats the grapefruits, throws the peels around, uh, cohabitates
43:25
Speaker 1: with chickens. It's a pretty interesting place of uh not
43:29
Speaker 1: necessarily historical significance short of the grapefruit, but the diversity
43:35
Speaker 1: of wildlife that is there is mind blowing. It's it's
43:38
Speaker 1: a really good example of a dense rainforest that's easily accessible.
43:42
Speaker 1: And we've hinted at this two already with Washington and
43:44
Speaker 1: his obsession with the stuff. But Barbados huge for rum distillation,
43:49
Speaker 1: which was a byproduct of all of that sugar cane
43:52
Speaker 1: that they were able to make and crush up so
43:54
Speaker 1: efficiently using those Dutch windmills. Right. And the oldest distillery
44:00
Speaker 1: um in the world I believe, was in Mount Gay
44:03
Speaker 1: and Bridgetown, Barbados. Right, the oldest rum distillery, that's what
44:07
Speaker 1: I meant, excuse me exactly, the oldest run distillery. Yeah. Um.
44:10
Speaker 1: And this this rum distillery dates back to seventeen or three,
44:13
Speaker 1: and that's based on some land deeds that are still
44:16
Speaker 1: kept by the by the city of Bridgetone. The interesting
44:20
Speaker 1: thing about sugarcane production and the formation of molasses is
44:24
Speaker 1: that a sugar cane has almost no no waste product,
44:29
Speaker 1: even to this day when they're when they're creating it
44:31
Speaker 1: in Barbados. Even the runoff of the molasses that's used
44:34
Speaker 1: to make the rum is then used for fertilizers. So
44:37
Speaker 1: it's almost a hundred percent used product, which is pretty
44:42
Speaker 1: rare and and does a lot for the island. It's
44:44
Speaker 1: still a part of its economy, obviously not as it
44:46
Speaker 1: once was, but the rum industries is huge, and Mount
44:50
Speaker 1: Gay is sold here in the States. It's a pretty
44:52
Speaker 1: nice rum and we got to tour the facility there.
44:56
Speaker 1: I had almost no experience with rum, and now I
44:59
Speaker 1: know the differences, and there are some really strong ones
45:02
Speaker 1: that that I can't imagine what you drink them with.
45:05
Speaker 1: But for whatever reason, they do exist. There are some
45:08
Speaker 1: RUMs so so potent there that they have to cut
45:11
Speaker 1: them because they're they're about a hundred and sixty proof
45:15
Speaker 1: um RUMs that they're having to cut down to get to.
45:17
Speaker 1: Like ad, that's a little more reasonable. So if you
45:21
Speaker 1: find yourself hurdled backward in time and you are speaking
45:25
Speaker 1: with George Washington, and you really want to get on
45:28
Speaker 1: his good side. You show up with a pineapple and
45:31
Speaker 1: a handle of rum from Mount Gay. Yeah. In fact,
45:36
Speaker 1: just like the pineapple, he would often reject Jamaican room
45:40
Speaker 1: at his home if it showed up and and asked
45:42
Speaker 1: that they go get him some Mount Gay or other
45:46
Speaker 1: Beijian rooms. And invasion is just a kind of short
45:50
Speaker 1: local word for Barbadian, but Beijian is what they say
45:53
Speaker 1: more commonly, so he preferred the Beijian rum too, the
45:57
Speaker 1: Jamaican rum every time until his athlete was always well
46:01
Speaker 1: stocked at his homes. So there you have it, folks,
46:05
Speaker 1: Ryan Barrish, thank you so much for helping us a
46:08
Speaker 1: prove your real person and be teaching us so much
46:12
Speaker 1: about not just George Washington, but Barbados, grapefruits, historic preservation,
46:18
Speaker 1: all of this stuff. The amazing program at Georgia State
46:20
Speaker 1: University right here in Atlanta, that's you're a part of. Yeah.
46:24
Speaker 1: Side note, by the way, I don't know if we
46:26
Speaker 1: can say this, Ryan, your professor has been in the
46:29
Speaker 1: studio evaluating this the whole time. Uh what do you
46:33
Speaker 1: what do you think? Doc? Thumbs up, thumbs down. The
46:36
Speaker 1: thumbs up kind of solid thumbs up. There we go.
46:38
Speaker 1: He he knows I'm a real person now too, So Ryan.
46:42
Speaker 1: If people want to learn more about you and your work,
46:45
Speaker 1: where can they follow you? Um? You can follow me
46:48
Speaker 1: on Twitter at UM. The handle is just Barrish b
46:51
Speaker 1: R E s c H, which is my last name. UM.
46:54
Speaker 1: Pretty easy, but that's probably gonna be the best place,
46:58
Speaker 1: UM to keep up with me. You can also follow
47:01
Speaker 1: Georgia State University's Heritage Preservation program on Instagram at g
47:06
Speaker 1: s U Underscore MHP. Alright, so that is Bearish on Twitter.
47:11
Speaker 1: Thank you so much for tuning in ridiculous historians. As always,
47:16
Speaker 1: thanks to Casey Pegram, our super producer, Thanks to Gabe
47:20
Speaker 1: Lousier and Hey, Ryan, We've said it multiple times now,
47:23
Speaker 1: but you're part of the show, so we always say
47:26
Speaker 1: thank you to you at the end. It's not weird
47:28
Speaker 1: that we're saying it while you're here. Okay, So thanks
47:31
Speaker 1: big thanks to uh super producer Casey Pagram, Alex Williams,
47:34
Speaker 1: who composed our theme Christopher hasciotis. Um. There's always a
47:38
Speaker 1: Christopher shaped hole in my heart that I think is
47:40
Speaker 1: gonna get filled. Maybe not in my hartbor, but in yours.
47:43
Speaker 1: Next week when he joins you for a couple of episodes. Right,
47:45
Speaker 1: that's true. Spoiler alert, Yes, we have some surprises in store. Thanks,
47:52
Speaker 1: of course to you, folks for listening. The conversation doesn't
47:56
Speaker 1: stop just when the recording ends. You can find us
47:59
Speaker 1: on faceboo Look, you can find us on Twitter. You
48:01
Speaker 1: can find us on Instagram. Hang out with our favorite
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48:11
Speaker 1: over the Internet. We also have personal instagrams that you
48:15
Speaker 1: can find us on if you want to follow our own,
48:18
Speaker 1: uh non ridiculous history adventures. Yeah, I am at how
48:21
Speaker 1: Now Noel Brown Instagram and I am at Ben Bowling
48:25
Speaker 1: on Instagram. I am at Ben Bowling h s W
48:28
Speaker 1: on Twitter. Let's see what else you want to go like,
48:31
Speaker 1: get some wrong big time. We'll see you next time, folks.
48:42
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