Latest / Ridiculous History / The Weird Life of George Washington, Part 2

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The Weird Life of George Washington, Part 2 · Ridiculous History

0:23
Speaker 1: Don't call it a comeback. Friends and neighbors are actually
0:26
Speaker 1: go ahead and please do so, because this is part
0:29
Speaker 1: two of our continuing series of weird George Washington Facts.
0:34
Speaker 1: Welcome to the show. My name is Ben, my name
0:36
Speaker 1: is Noel. If we are joined with our super producer,
0:39
Speaker 1: Casey Pegram and our returning a special guest. It's an
0:44
Speaker 1: immense privilege to have you on the show. Anytime Christopher
0:48
Speaker 1: hascy otis what a delight to be here. Thank you,
0:50
Speaker 1: and Ben, you've got your groove back, my friend, you're glowing.
0:53
Speaker 1: You're absolutely glowing. Thank you, thank you, thank you. It's
0:56
Speaker 1: all the Hemp, very versatile crop, very first. Yes, is
1:00
Speaker 1: that shirt you're wearing woven from Hemp? Yes, yes it is,
1:04
Speaker 1: And as are my shoes and my coat undergarments. Is
1:10
Speaker 1: that what you're gonna say, undergarments? Yeah? Traded in the
1:14
Speaker 1: myth rill? That did I finally upgraded from myth rill
1:17
Speaker 1: to imp So this is, as you mentioned, part two
1:21
Speaker 1: of a two part series. If you have not checked
1:24
Speaker 1: out part one of our George Washington Facts, it's it's okay.
1:29
Speaker 1: Don't stress out. Just hit pause, you know, and and
1:32
Speaker 1: and shake your fists at the podcast gods that list
1:35
Speaker 1: the shows in reverse chronological order and just scroll back
1:39
Speaker 1: and listen to the show from two days ago. Yeah,
1:42
Speaker 1: that's such a bummer when they list them in that
1:44
Speaker 1: reverse order. You know, I believe that the I Heart
1:47
Speaker 1: Radio app you can swap things around and point them
1:49
Speaker 1: in the other direction and start from start from earlier,
1:52
Speaker 1: and go towards later. That's crazy talk. Who would ever
1:54
Speaker 1: do that? What a time to be alive. The industry
1:57
Speaker 1: is a morphing thing. So we it up the basic
2:01
Speaker 1: gist of George Washington's life in our earlier episode, And now,
2:06
Speaker 1: what do you say, gentlemen, should we dive straight into
2:08
Speaker 1: the weird stuff? Yeah, there's a whole bunch of strangeness
2:11
Speaker 1: to get into. I say, let's dive down that Washington hole.
2:16
Speaker 1: Was it the muddy hole? The muddy hole, Washington's money.
2:20
Speaker 1: Let's dive down Washington's muddy Hole. It sounds like the
2:23
Speaker 1: worst ride at the Presidential theme park of my dreams.
2:27
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, that's the one where there's never aligned. Yeah,
2:30
Speaker 1: Lincoln's spooky log Cabin. I think, um man, if I
2:34
Speaker 1: had a lot of extra time, we could just come
2:36
Speaker 1: up with theme rides and uh for for every single
2:39
Speaker 1: president that's out there, weird glitching robot, Lincoln's spewing sparks,
2:44
Speaker 1: the theater, the taft bathtub you've got to escape taft tub,
2:49
Speaker 1: taft tub that's full of old beans, of old beings. Yeah,
2:53
Speaker 1: and then we get we get weird because we would
2:56
Speaker 1: have the most fun I think with more obscure presidents,
2:59
Speaker 1: like years, do you think he's the most obscure? Uh?
3:03
Speaker 1: He You know that's a matter of personal opinion, isn't it.
3:06
Speaker 1: That's why I'm asking you maybsonally. Oh you're asking me personally.
3:11
Speaker 1: We're here, just you and me, and uh, we don't.
3:13
Speaker 1: I guess no one Casey and millions and millions of listeners.
3:16
Speaker 1: But yeah, I don't know. Yeah, who is the most
3:20
Speaker 1: obscure president? I have great fascination with those lists that
3:25
Speaker 1: come out every so often of ranking presidents from best
3:29
Speaker 1: the worst. And they usually don't do every single president.
3:33
Speaker 1: They usually do maybe the top five best ones in
3:35
Speaker 1: the bottom five worst ones. And I gotta say the
3:40
Speaker 1: bottom five are usually the same couple of dudes. Yeah,
3:43
Speaker 1: you've got the obscure ones. You've got your Pierce here,
3:45
Speaker 1: Millard Fillmore. Um, you know William McKinley, who was very
3:48
Speaker 1: popular at the time but just kind of was forgotten
3:51
Speaker 1: even though he was killed and was involved in a
3:53
Speaker 1: lot of different things. So one who's constantly at the
3:55
Speaker 1: bottom of list is Andrew Johnson. He's the one who
3:57
Speaker 1: kind of after Lincoln' assassination, he took over, but he
4:00
Speaker 1: didn't manage the situation well. He let the country fester.
4:04
Speaker 1: Things were not handled well. Reconstruction was not handled in
4:07
Speaker 1: a way that maybe look towards future generations. But I
4:10
Speaker 1: think a lot of Americans would be hard pressed to
4:13
Speaker 1: name Andrew Johnson. And I gotta tell you, I think
4:15
Speaker 1: it's because his name is a little generic. It is
4:18
Speaker 1: it is. It's a real uh, it's real John Doe. Yeah,
4:22
Speaker 1: it's just not as memorable if he had some sort
4:24
Speaker 1: of villainous name, or if he had some sort of name.
4:26
Speaker 1: But you know, I mean, maybe maybe it's better that
4:28
Speaker 1: his name is a little more kind of milk toast
4:31
Speaker 1: and banal, because honestly, that's how some of the things
4:34
Speaker 1: that fall apart in politics do. So it's just sort
4:37
Speaker 1: of through no specific malice, through no ill will, it
4:41
Speaker 1: just sort of the banality of things kind of things
4:45
Speaker 1: fall apart. All right, so we're talking about bad presence.
4:47
Speaker 1: Where's your boy g dub fall? That's true, this is
4:49
Speaker 1: an episode about George Washingtons. Oh, I do want to
4:51
Speaker 1: point out, did you know that Andrew Johnson never went
4:54
Speaker 1: to school? Is it sort of like I never learned
4:57
Speaker 1: to read and I somehow managed to become president. Turns
5:00
Speaker 1: out I was bad at it. I think the closest
5:03
Speaker 1: he got to a formal education was when his wife
5:06
Speaker 1: taught him the basics, uh, like basic mathematics and writing
5:10
Speaker 1: and so. So he is one of the worst regarded presidents.
5:14
Speaker 1: So maybe, uh, we can draw some conclusions that an
5:18
Speaker 1: intellectual curiosity and education, these are things that are important
5:21
Speaker 1: for a president. That the desire to learn, the admission
5:25
Speaker 1: that maybe other people have more information than you and
5:27
Speaker 1: that you should rely on them for information like that,
5:29
Speaker 1: that's the thing a president should espouse to aspire to. Yeah. Yeah,
5:34
Speaker 1: I think I think that's solid and I don't think
5:36
Speaker 1: that's a controversial point at all. We know that George
5:39
Speaker 1: Washington had no problem learning from other people, and he
5:44
Speaker 1: took advice pretty well well done, expertly played, my friends.
5:51
Speaker 1: I know that means you have to go first especially
5:54
Speaker 1: the part where you say, just so you guys, now,
5:57
Speaker 1: Ben's doing this really sweet move where he's drawing his
6:00
Speaker 1: ur finger and thumb together from them touching each other
6:02
Speaker 1: to apart in the same cadence as he's saying, sege,
6:05
Speaker 1: it's a slow parting of the Red Sea. We actually
6:09
Speaker 1: made this a two part episode because we we wanted
6:11
Speaker 1: to spend some time really focusing on that hand gesture
6:15
Speaker 1: and really trying to up our vamp game. And whenever
6:17
Speaker 1: Christopher Hassiotas joins us in the tank here, it's just magic.
6:20
Speaker 1: Sparks fly. Yeah, but well that's true. Sparks did fly earlier. No,
6:25
Speaker 1: you were electrocuted slightly by your headphones. That's true, saying that, um,
6:31
Speaker 1: you all, you all, you do have a bit of
6:32
Speaker 1: an electric person saying I'm not not saying that. Is
6:35
Speaker 1: this is this part of are you still a little
6:38
Speaker 1: weirded out by the mic situation? Is this part of
6:40
Speaker 1: a revenge scheme? No, what happens is I'm wearing wool
6:42
Speaker 1: socks and before you guys came in here, I was
6:44
Speaker 1: just running back and forth the class. We just called
6:47
Speaker 1: that a hassiotas at the office you got sapped so
6:52
Speaker 1: I will go first. This is a little bit stranger.
6:55
Speaker 1: This is not a social activity of George Washington, nor
6:59
Speaker 1: is it a political activity. This is a medical fact
7:04
Speaker 1: about the guy. He was one of the sickliest presidents
7:08
Speaker 1: in US history. Over the span of his life, he
7:11
Speaker 1: suffered from diphtheria, tuberculosis, smallpox, dysentery, malaria, quinsy which was tonsilitis, carbuncle, pneumonia,
7:21
Speaker 1: and epiiclytitis. In fact, he was so afflicted that people
7:28
Speaker 1: started speculating this may have played a role in his infertility,
7:33
Speaker 1: because Washington did not have issue, as they would say
7:35
Speaker 1: in the world of aristocracy, and it's well known that
7:38
Speaker 1: he had no children of his own. In two thousand seven,
7:42
Speaker 1: man named John k Amory at the University Washington School
7:46
Speaker 1: of Medicine proposed that it wasn't for lack of trying. Instead,
7:50
Speaker 1: he said Washington may quite possibly have been infertile, and
7:55
Speaker 1: Armory list a number of possible reasons for this infertility,
8:00
Speaker 1: including an infection caused by tuberculosis. We have a quote
8:04
Speaker 1: here wherein he says classic studies of soldiers with tuberculosis
8:08
Speaker 1: plur Z during World War Two demonstrated that two thirds
8:12
Speaker 1: developed chronic organ tuberculosis within five years of their initial infection.
8:16
Speaker 1: Infection of the epididymus or testes is seen in twenty
8:20
Speaker 1: percent of these individuals and frequently results in infertility. Dude,
8:24
Speaker 1: I just made a horrible mistake. I googled images of carbuncles.
8:29
Speaker 1: Not good. I'm guessing you are not seeing the The
8:32
Speaker 1: image of the cute little monster from the Final Fantasy
8:34
Speaker 1: Video Games was his name? There? There was one called
8:37
Speaker 1: a carbuncle. Interesting. Please please Ridiculous Historians correct me if
8:42
Speaker 1: I'm wrong. These are disgusting, pus filled boils that cover
8:45
Speaker 1: one's body who went and afflicted with them. It's not
8:47
Speaker 1: a carbohydrate loving uncle. Nope, this is something we will
8:51
Speaker 1: not be posting photos of on Ridiculous Stories. Well WHA
8:54
Speaker 1: will not be too hasty. I'm gonna I'm not even
8:58
Speaker 1: a regular host here, but can I put this to
8:59
Speaker 1: a vote? Do I get a full vote? I'm gonna
9:02
Speaker 1: take I'm taking a triple vote, and I'm voting no
9:05
Speaker 1: photos of carbuncles on Ridiculous Historians three against two. I
9:09
Speaker 1: support that. I see the gentleman to my left, I
9:14
Speaker 1: you know, but I'm just saying, if you you know
9:15
Speaker 1: if you want to gross yourself out, just google carbuncle.
9:18
Speaker 1: If you would have a really disturbing the more you
9:20
Speaker 1: know moment with the star flying over your head as
9:23
Speaker 1: you throw up a little bit in your mouth. Carbuncle.
9:26
Speaker 1: Do you think the fact that George Washington didn't have
9:28
Speaker 1: children kind of cemented his legacy? You know, that he
9:32
Speaker 1: didn't have kids who could kind of tarnish the Washington one. Yeah,
9:36
Speaker 1: he was. He was alone. He set things in motion,
9:38
Speaker 1: and he stepped back and that was it. Quite possibly.
9:41
Speaker 1: I mean, that's that's a very good point, I would say.
9:44
Speaker 1: And it's so rare for people to do that at
9:46
Speaker 1: that level because I mean, they have all these idiot
9:48
Speaker 1: sons that go and screw it all up for him.
9:50
Speaker 1: You're not talking about Ben Stiller, are you. I'm talking
9:54
Speaker 1: about that. One of the things that I know you
9:56
Speaker 1: hate is nepotism. The adams Is, they, the Bushes, the Roosevelts. Look,
10:04
Speaker 1: all those guys are like distant cousins. You can't. I
10:07
Speaker 1: mean they came from a big, big family, I know,
10:09
Speaker 1: but name recognition is still key now I will. I
10:13
Speaker 1: totally see your point there, Christopher. Just like a Justice
10:17
Speaker 1: Kennedy is not related to the former President Kennedy, Right,
10:22
Speaker 1: So there shouldn't be any law barring them from occupying
10:26
Speaker 1: positions of power. You know what I mean. I'm just
10:28
Speaker 1: saying that it's very strange to explain to someone from
10:32
Speaker 1: another country or another culture that this is purportedly a
10:37
Speaker 1: meritocracy and then say in the same breath that, despite
10:43
Speaker 1: being a meritocracy, through some amazing coincidence, the most qualified
10:46
Speaker 1: people for a job happened to be related to each
10:49
Speaker 1: other pretty often. But that just further underlines the point
10:55
Speaker 1: that you make with Washington. Prehaps he was a safe
10:58
Speaker 1: figure to mythologize. While he did not have children, one
11:08
Speaker 1: thing that he did have was a non consensual workforce,
11:12
Speaker 1: that's true. One of the things I wanted to talk
11:14
Speaker 1: about was Washington's slaveholding. It's not really a happy topic
11:19
Speaker 1: because we're talking about enslaved people, but it's a fact
11:23
Speaker 1: of life at the time, especially for landowners. Um that
11:26
Speaker 1: and and Washington had control over hundreds of slaves, more
11:30
Speaker 1: than three people. Washington gets a lot of credit for
11:34
Speaker 1: quote unquote freeing his slaves in his will. You know that,
11:37
Speaker 1: that's one thing that people who defend the practice of
11:40
Speaker 1: enslaving others when it comes to Washington, who is rightly
11:43
Speaker 1: revered as the father, as one of the fathers of
11:45
Speaker 1: our country, and who put a lot of great systems
11:48
Speaker 1: in motion, but that doesn't change the fact that he
11:50
Speaker 1: ran this giant plantation, and a plantation of that size
11:55
Speaker 1: in what's sort of the South at the time was
11:59
Speaker 1: run essentially on the on the free labor of enslaved Africans,
12:04
Speaker 1: and at the time of his death, Washington owned more
12:07
Speaker 1: than three hundred slaves. He inherited his first slave at eleven,
12:12
Speaker 1: when his father passed away. So you had this young man,
12:15
Speaker 1: George Washington, who was born into a life of maintaining
12:19
Speaker 1: control over other human beings. When he passed in he
12:24
Speaker 1: had a hundred and twenty three slaves who were legally his,
12:27
Speaker 1: and then there were a hundred and ninety three that
12:29
Speaker 1: he also controlled that were known as dower slaves. And
12:32
Speaker 1: what that means is they were technically legally owned by
12:36
Speaker 1: his wife, Martha. Now Martha married George when she was
12:39
Speaker 1: twenty five. She was a widow at the time, and
12:41
Speaker 1: she had taken on slaves both from her own family
12:44
Speaker 1: and from her ex husband who passed away. So it's
12:49
Speaker 1: it's really really interesting, and it can be kind of
12:52
Speaker 1: fascinating to look at the the legal structure of slavery
12:56
Speaker 1: until you remember that we're talking about actual human beings.
12:59
Speaker 1: But a way that slavery and the legality of who
13:02
Speaker 1: owns what was structured in the sevent hundreds is it's
13:06
Speaker 1: just to me, it's so odd that you can be
13:08
Speaker 1: talking about a human being in this way. So the
13:12
Speaker 1: hundred slaves that Washington himself had, they were matched with
13:15
Speaker 1: a hundred and nine which were legally Martha's but as
13:19
Speaker 1: a married couple, were legally controlled by George. And there's
13:23
Speaker 1: all this strange legally is that when George or Martha dies,
13:27
Speaker 1: certain segments of the Washingtonian slaves are passed to a
13:32
Speaker 1: grandchild or a cousin, and it all depends on this
13:35
Speaker 1: sort of weird patriarchal but then also matrilineal lineage of
13:39
Speaker 1: ownership of another person. But but there is one enslaved
13:42
Speaker 1: person that I want to talk about, and that's only Judge. Now,
13:46
Speaker 1: only Judge is one of the most well known enslaved
13:50
Speaker 1: people involved in in Washington, and that's because she escaped.
13:55
Speaker 1: She was able to tell her story two abolitionist newspapers
13:59
Speaker 1: at the time and got her account out there. Now,
14:01
Speaker 1: what makes this such a strange bit of history is
14:04
Speaker 1: that Only Judge was a slave that Washington pursued until
14:08
Speaker 1: the end of his life. She got away. And if
14:11
Speaker 1: you listen to the episode from last week, Noel talked
14:13
Speaker 1: about how Washington's thoughts on slavery were somewhat liberal and
14:17
Speaker 1: they evolved over time. And that's true. He did grow
14:21
Speaker 1: to oppose the idea of slavery, the idea of holding
14:25
Speaker 1: other people in bondage, but he never freed his own slaves.
14:28
Speaker 1: He still kept them enslaved, He used their free labor,
14:32
Speaker 1: and he built his fortune and his empire, whether it
14:35
Speaker 1: was a large fortune or not, on the labor of others.
14:38
Speaker 1: So let's talk about Only Judge. She was born in
14:40
Speaker 1: seventeen seventy three. She probably came into the Washington family
14:44
Speaker 1: when she was around ten or eleven and was purchased
14:46
Speaker 1: as a playmate. It's thought for one of the family
14:49
Speaker 1: members now only has her own interesting history. Her father
14:54
Speaker 1: was a British businessman. He was white, but he never
14:57
Speaker 1: acknowledged paternity, and so she was able to be sold
15:01
Speaker 1: into slavery and that's where where she comes in. Um Now,
15:05
Speaker 1: in seventeen nineties six only learned that she was going
15:09
Speaker 1: to be gifted to Washington's granddaughter. And when we talk
15:13
Speaker 1: about the granddaughters of Washington, basically we're talking about the
15:16
Speaker 1: children of Martha Washington and kind of her her folks,
15:20
Speaker 1: because as we just mentioned, George himself never had any kids.
15:23
Speaker 1: And so In only learns that she's going to be
15:26
Speaker 1: gifted at presented as a wedding present to these new newlyweds.
15:32
Speaker 1: So she escapes in May of seventeen ninety six. She
15:35
Speaker 1: she flies the coupe Um and for a couple of
15:37
Speaker 1: years she's she's free. But a couple of years later
15:40
Speaker 1: she's spotted in New Hampshire, and this whole time the
15:42
Speaker 1: Washington family is is after her. They've lost property. Despite
15:46
Speaker 1: the fact that Washington had mixed feelings about slavery, it
15:49
Speaker 1: seems like from the historical record that a lot of
15:52
Speaker 1: his family, including Martha, did not have mixed feelings, and
15:55
Speaker 1: they felt pretty strongly that enslaved Africans were their property
15:59
Speaker 1: and we're owned wholly by them. So they took out
16:02
Speaker 1: ads in local papers advertising a reward for the return
16:05
Speaker 1: of owning, and a couple of years later she spotted
16:08
Speaker 1: in New Hampshire, and Washington reaches out to a friend
16:10
Speaker 1: of his in New Hampshire and asks him to abduct
16:13
Speaker 1: only to return this person back to Mountain Vernon. And
16:17
Speaker 1: so you know, he's he's encouraging kidnapping. At the time,
16:21
Speaker 1: he probably saw it as a as a return of property.
16:24
Speaker 1: But the thing about Washington and and his slaveholding is
16:27
Speaker 1: it wasn't as straightforward. It wasn't wholly villainous as a
16:32
Speaker 1: as it's easy to paint, but it's also wasn't wholly
16:34
Speaker 1: by the books. Washington was pretty eager to to skirt
16:38
Speaker 1: some of the laws when it came to slavery. When
16:41
Speaker 1: he was president, he was living in Philadelphia, which at
16:44
Speaker 1: the time was the capital of the United States. In
16:47
Speaker 1: Pennsylvania had certain laws for slaveholders and uh and citizens
16:52
Speaker 1: of Pennsylvania because at the time different states had their
16:55
Speaker 1: own citizenship. Washington argued, though, that he was a citizen
16:58
Speaker 1: of Virginia so that he didn't have to bide by
17:00
Speaker 1: some of the slavery laws of Pennsylvania. He also would
17:04
Speaker 1: rotate his slaves between the home in Pennsylvania and Virginia
17:09
Speaker 1: for periods of time of less than six months, just
17:12
Speaker 1: moving them around like property so that they would not
17:16
Speaker 1: qualify or meet certain criteria under Pennsylvania law. So this
17:20
Speaker 1: is a man who saw financial assets, who pursued them
17:25
Speaker 1: as as they escaped, and until his death he he
17:27
Speaker 1: tried to get Ony back. Um. Thankfully, Oni was was
17:32
Speaker 1: never returned. She was captured at one point, and she
17:35
Speaker 1: tried to negotiate with Washington. She said she sent message saying, look,
17:41
Speaker 1: I will willingly be returned to enslavement with your family
17:46
Speaker 1: if you promised that upon your death and the death
17:49
Speaker 1: of Martha, I am free. And Washington didn't even negotiate.
17:52
Speaker 1: He said, I'm not even going to consider these demands
17:55
Speaker 1: because doing so would set a bad precedent. And this
17:58
Speaker 1: is not you don't negotiate with pretty essentially, Yeah, and um,
18:03
Speaker 1: I wish there were a happy ending to this story.
18:06
Speaker 1: There's also not a sad ending to the story. Only
18:08
Speaker 1: eventually she stayed in New Hampshire. She was not returned
18:11
Speaker 1: to the Washington family. She married a sailor named Jack Stains.
18:15
Speaker 1: Over their married life, they had three kids, who then
18:18
Speaker 1: had their own children. Um. But the fact of the
18:21
Speaker 1: matter is that throughout the rest of her life, even
18:24
Speaker 1: though she had escaped enslavement by the Washington family, she
18:29
Speaker 1: lived as a fugitive under the Fugitive Slave Act, which
18:31
Speaker 1: Washington signed into law, and until her dying day in
18:34
Speaker 1: eighteen forty eight, she lived as as a fugitive. There
18:38
Speaker 1: was always, always, always a chance that she could be
18:40
Speaker 1: taken back to Virginia. Terrifying way to live. I can't imagine.
18:45
Speaker 1: So no, not a happy ending at all. Huh no,
18:47
Speaker 1: And and and it's you know, I don't I don't
18:50
Speaker 1: want to tarnish the legacy of a great American, But
18:53
Speaker 1: we also don't need to look back and and over
18:56
Speaker 1: mythologize someone. I think it's more accurate to look at
18:59
Speaker 1: history as it was, to look at the man as
19:01
Speaker 1: he was, and to acknowledge that this was part of
19:04
Speaker 1: a complicated life and he had complicated feelings. And as
19:09
Speaker 1: America has evolved and continues to evolve, so too did Washington,
19:15
Speaker 1: just just not at the pace that um that it
19:18
Speaker 1: would be nice to acknowledge. You know again, people say
19:21
Speaker 1: that he freed all of his slaves in his will.
19:24
Speaker 1: The fact of the matter is that after he died
19:26
Speaker 1: of those more than three hundred slaves that he had
19:29
Speaker 1: control over, only one, a man named William Lee, was
19:32
Speaker 1: set free. Martha dragged things out for a lot of
19:36
Speaker 1: the other hundreds of slaves. They were still enslaved for decades.
19:41
Speaker 1: Eventually some of them gained their freedom. But again we're
19:44
Speaker 1: talking five, ten, fifteen years. So despite despite George Washington's
19:51
Speaker 1: will and his desire to set his slaves free, which
19:53
Speaker 1: I might add is after he's left this earth and
19:56
Speaker 1: after he has to deal with the ramifications of what
19:59
Speaker 1: that means, He's still throughout his life benefited from their
20:03
Speaker 1: free labor. It still took years and years and years
20:05
Speaker 1: for the people that he enslaved to find their freedom.
20:09
Speaker 1: And we would be remiss if we did not point
20:12
Speaker 1: out these facts. You know, I think it is it
20:17
Speaker 1: is an unpleasant and disturbing part of the story. But
20:22
Speaker 1: I believe that same disturbing aspect is what makes it
20:26
Speaker 1: crucial that we not just us on the show, not
20:29
Speaker 1: just us listening, but we as a country remember what happened.
20:39
Speaker 1: I've got to say, Christopher, I feel that I feel
20:43
Speaker 1: it would be weird for us to end on such
20:45
Speaker 1: a very serious somber note. Um what what do you
20:50
Speaker 1: think you're you're the guest today. What do you think
20:52
Speaker 1: about us exploring one more strange George Washington fact? Oh
20:57
Speaker 1: yeah absolutely. I mean again, it's a man contained smalltitudes,
21:00
Speaker 1: and there's a lot to George Washington, and he's one
21:03
Speaker 1: of the foundational characters of our country and there's so
21:05
Speaker 1: much to know about him. So um yeah, like let's
21:09
Speaker 1: turn to no, no, let's can you can you dig
21:12
Speaker 1: us out of this slavery hole? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, only
21:17
Speaker 1: our original idea of the muddy hole was much more whimsical. Yeah,
21:21
Speaker 1: I'm not so, you know now I'm not as on
21:24
Speaker 1: board as it was with finding this guy a cool
21:26
Speaker 1: middle name. No, no, So we all know the classic
21:32
Speaker 1: Washington I in look the profile, you know, with the
21:37
Speaker 1: what appears to be a powdered wig of some sort
21:39
Speaker 1: that's wore at the time. Peruke a peruke, well done, Chris,
21:44
Speaker 1: really step for Benjamin Franklin. That's right, Benjamin Franklin just
21:47
Speaker 1: had kind of a desperate top and a bit of
21:50
Speaker 1: a greasy ponytail on the back. The ponytail was the
21:53
Speaker 1: height of fashion at the time. Um. But here's the thing,
21:56
Speaker 1: and again, that profile you probably know it well from
21:59
Speaker 1: those dollar bill as you were lest saying, that's not
22:01
Speaker 1: a profile in dollar bill, it's a profile in the quarter.
22:03
Speaker 1: But on the dollar bill it's a it's a it's
22:05
Speaker 1: a three quarter kind of and then you know you've
22:08
Speaker 1: got your creepy pyramid eye. But that's a whole another thing.
22:11
Speaker 1: We did a whole episode on that on our other
22:12
Speaker 1: show Stuffy Don't Want you to Know, and actually took
22:14
Speaker 1: it on the road. So we know the creepy pyramid eye. Well,
22:17
Speaker 1: the eye of Horace, I believe. Right, then that's what interpretation.
22:20
Speaker 1: That's right, that's true. Listening to the show to to
22:22
Speaker 1: find out more. Um, But no, it turns out that
22:25
Speaker 1: that weird peruke looking do that Washington was supporting was not,
22:31
Speaker 1: in fact a wig. Those were his natural hairs, um,
22:35
Speaker 1: and he went to great lengths to quaff them as such. Well,
22:41
Speaker 1: now it didn't grow like that. He he had that
22:43
Speaker 1: would be nice in he had quite a regiment when
22:46
Speaker 1: it came to his um keeping up his appearances. So
22:50
Speaker 1: let me let me run through some of them real quick. Um.
22:53
Speaker 1: That his hair actually was more of kind of a
22:55
Speaker 1: reddish brown. Um. And here's the thing too, about that
22:59
Speaker 1: particular hair the time, it was a really big deal.
23:02
Speaker 1: People like to show as much forehead as possible. That
23:05
Speaker 1: was like a sign of strength or something intelligence that
23:09
Speaker 1: you had, like, you know, big, big, broad forehead. So
23:12
Speaker 1: in order to do that, the reason they bound their
23:14
Speaker 1: hair back in those ponytails was because it literally pulled
23:17
Speaker 1: you know, tightened it up and pulled the brow up
23:20
Speaker 1: so you'd have more brow on display. And thought exactly,
23:25
Speaker 1: those guys would have been a king or you know else.
23:27
Speaker 1: They would have loved facelifts. Can you imagine, yeah, founding
23:32
Speaker 1: father facelifts. That's a reality show waiting to happen right there,
23:35
Speaker 1: at least a spoof reality. Sounds like a weird website too.
23:38
Speaker 1: It's Founding Father's facelifts dot com and hard to say
23:41
Speaker 1: ten times fast. But his his hair was quite in fashion.
23:46
Speaker 1: It was kind of a tough hair to right very much. So. Yeah,
23:49
Speaker 1: and it wasn't a wig. But he powdered it as
23:52
Speaker 1: as in the same way that these perukes would be powdered.
23:55
Speaker 1: But here's the crazy part about it. In order to
23:58
Speaker 1: do this, you know this stuff, it would be a
24:00
Speaker 1: couple of different potential types of powder. Um could be
24:03
Speaker 1: anything from talcum powder to other kind of crushed up
24:07
Speaker 1: earth minerals that were a little more expensive, which is
24:10
Speaker 1: more likely what he would have used. You think shock
24:13
Speaker 1: is another possibility, the bones of the British that would
24:17
Speaker 1: be cool. I I have nothing to confirm or deny
24:20
Speaker 1: that possibly asbestos um. Yeah, But here's the thing. When
24:25
Speaker 1: he was doing it, in order to keep it from
24:28
Speaker 1: you know, going up his quite sizeable schnaz uh and
24:31
Speaker 1: you know, down his throat, he wore like a weird
24:34
Speaker 1: cone on his face, like a like a rolled up
24:37
Speaker 1: paper cone that he would hold over his face while
24:40
Speaker 1: applying this powder. Um. And he applied the plaster of
24:45
Speaker 1: Paris was another option. What happened if it rained? Oh man,
24:48
Speaker 1: there's so many questions. What we're going to get to that.
24:50
Speaker 1: So in order to apply this stuff, he would use
24:53
Speaker 1: almost like a makeup brush made of silk strips that
24:56
Speaker 1: were bound together in a bunch um. So he would
24:58
Speaker 1: dip this into to the powder and then just douse
25:02
Speaker 1: himself with it, you know, and when his face would
25:04
Speaker 1: be covered up, and he'd also be wearing something called
25:06
Speaker 1: a powder robe, and that would keep it off of
25:09
Speaker 1: his clothes. I feel like you need a whole powder room, huh,
25:13
Speaker 1: because I mean otherwise, Ate Christopher the powder everywhere, And
25:17
Speaker 1: I guess that is so you're thinking of the powder
25:19
Speaker 1: room more like Dexter's kill room. It's just covered in
25:24
Speaker 1: fred Oh man, we're on a we're on a roll here.
25:28
Speaker 1: But what a mess, right, an absolute mess. You know,
25:30
Speaker 1: you're totally right, my friend, because even though he was
25:32
Speaker 1: wearing his powder robe, what was to keep this powder
25:35
Speaker 1: from just dusting every surface, you know, in the vicinity
25:38
Speaker 1: And he's wearing this weird sort of it looks almost
25:41
Speaker 1: like a plague mask thing to cover his exactly. So
25:44
Speaker 1: it's a very odd situation to walk in on and
25:46
Speaker 1: he's doing it to himself. Presumably that's everything I've read
25:49
Speaker 1: says he would this was his morning routine. Um. So
25:52
Speaker 1: he would powder the hell out of his hair that
25:54
Speaker 1: was already uh, dolled up in this do um, and
25:58
Speaker 1: then he would curl the sides up into these kind
26:01
Speaker 1: of winglets, this a little like a little kind of
26:04
Speaker 1: they'd stick out, you know, like little ridges, a little
26:06
Speaker 1: shelves on the side. In order to do that, he'd
26:08
Speaker 1: use palmade, you know, get it all nice and greasy
26:11
Speaker 1: and it would hold its shape. Um. So yeah, he
26:14
Speaker 1: got his hair so saturated with this powder that it
26:17
Speaker 1: didn't look like it was just kind of dusted. I mean,
26:19
Speaker 1: it was just white as the driven snow. Here's the
26:23
Speaker 1: thing too, this is a question that was raised in
26:25
Speaker 1: this fantastic article that had really great company illustrations by
26:29
Speaker 1: Wendy McNaughton for National Geographic Um, that has these really
26:33
Speaker 1: great cartoons showing him what it must have looked like
26:36
Speaker 1: for him to be doing this. I cannot recommend this
26:38
Speaker 1: highly enough. It's not called George Washington's oh so mysterious hair. Um, No,
26:43
Speaker 1: will you? Will you post that on the ridiculous Historian space?
26:48
Speaker 1: That's all, and that is going to remain a carbuncle
26:54
Speaker 1: free zone if I have anything to do with it,
26:55
Speaker 1: ben um. But here's the thing. A question that she
26:58
Speaker 1: raises in this article is, well, how the hell did
27:01
Speaker 1: he keep this off his clothes? In all of these
27:03
Speaker 1: portraits of him, he looks so pristine, and you would
27:06
Speaker 1: think that this stuff would just be flaking off, every
27:08
Speaker 1: flaking off. I mean, you're you're wearing these tight clothes
27:11
Speaker 1: made of wool in with the American South, are you not?
27:15
Speaker 1: I would be sweating buckets and just have white powder
27:19
Speaker 1: dripping down. Wouldn't it just be dripping down? Yeah, it
27:21
Speaker 1: does seem like it would be very gross. And there
27:23
Speaker 1: is one portrait by Adolf Ulric wort Mueller who depicts
27:29
Speaker 1: him with some kind of a little dan draffee flakes
27:31
Speaker 1: on one show on one lapel of Touch of Humanity.
27:36
Speaker 1: So there you go. He had a weird hair routine. So,
27:39
Speaker 1: and the lesson is that that that portraits are not
27:41
Speaker 1: always accurate representation of what someone might really look like. Well,
27:44
Speaker 1: that's true. And at the end of the day, I mean,
27:46
Speaker 1: you're sort of beholden to the person that's paying you
27:50
Speaker 1: to paint their portrait. So listeners, please do not run
27:54
Speaker 1: into the National Portrait Gallery and throw a little flex
27:56
Speaker 1: of white paint on anything that you think would be
27:59
Speaker 1: more historic accurate. And there we have it. George Washington,
28:03
Speaker 1: first President of the United States, whiskey tycoon, dabbler in Hemp,
28:08
Speaker 1: a freemason extraordinaire, slave owner, and a man with very
28:15
Speaker 1: very strict priorities regarding his hair. It's very true. No
28:18
Speaker 1: middle name, no middle name name. What else were some
28:22
Speaker 1: of the little trivia bits from the top, Well, he's
28:24
Speaker 1: got his his uh you know, his terrific title in
28:27
Speaker 1: the military, that he will forever and always be Supreme
28:31
Speaker 1: Commander General of the Armies of the United States. Did
28:34
Speaker 1: you mention the carbuncles that he's crusted with, krusty sickly man.
28:39
Speaker 1: They're not clear on how how inundated he was with Carbuncles.
28:43
Speaker 1: We can only hope that it was if these Google
28:45
Speaker 1: images have anything to say about it, it was a
28:47
Speaker 1: real nightmare. I gotta say, Ben, you you mentioned him
28:50
Speaker 1: as one of the sickliest presidents and listed out a
28:53
Speaker 1: litany of maladies he'd been inflicted with. But if he
28:56
Speaker 1: survived all those things, I'd say he's pretty strong and
29:00
Speaker 1: and maybe we should wrap up by talking about these
29:02
Speaker 1: somewhat ridiculous way in which he died. He did have
29:05
Speaker 1: all these maladies, but Ina in December. What historians think
29:10
Speaker 1: really killed him is a doctor medical malpractice, a doctor
29:14
Speaker 1: who basically over bled him, drained him too much. Well,
29:18
Speaker 1: and we already know that blood letting was a very
29:20
Speaker 1: stupid remedy, and he was he was too blood let Yeah, yeah,
29:25
Speaker 1: that's right. We have the We have the specifics here too.
29:28
Speaker 1: It was a guy named All been Rawlins who all
29:32
Speaker 1: in all, after four rounds of blood letting, removed something
29:35
Speaker 1: like five pints of blood from the President that Dr
29:39
Speaker 1: Alban I know, I know. I'm glad that blood letting
29:44
Speaker 1: is not a common practice in medical centers today. Do
29:48
Speaker 1: you think he got in trouble? I don't know. It's
29:51
Speaker 1: a it's a it's a good question because I think
29:53
Speaker 1: there have been some other presidents who died as a
29:56
Speaker 1: result of well intentioned medical interven That's why they call
30:00
Speaker 1: it practicing medicine. That's why they call it practicing medicine. Indeed,
30:05
Speaker 1: and on that note, we hope you enjoyed our two
30:08
Speaker 1: part series, A Weird George Washington Facts, which does count
30:13
Speaker 1: technically until we do another one as our Washington episode
30:17
Speaker 1: in a Bizarre series of Circumstances. Christopher, thank you so
30:22
Speaker 1: much for dropping by. It is always an immense pleasure.
30:25
Speaker 1: I'm I'm happy to count myself among the two of you.
30:27
Speaker 1: As practicing podcasters. We do our best to keep our
30:30
Speaker 1: podcasting chops sharp well practiced. Thank you, sir, and thank
30:34
Speaker 1: you to our super producer, Casey Pegram. Thank you to
30:36
Speaker 1: Alex Williams who composed our track. Thank you to Gabe,
30:39
Speaker 1: our delightful research associate, and of course thank you to
30:42
Speaker 1: our wonderful guest, Christopher Haciots and dear friend for as
30:45
Speaker 1: always lighting up the room, sparking up our lives, giving
30:49
Speaker 1: Ben his groove back after you took it away. Truly, truly, truly,
30:53
Speaker 1: this is something that sparks joy Boy. Well, if you
30:56
Speaker 1: want to continue the conversation, if you want to check
30:59
Speaker 1: out some of the things that we have mentioned other
31:02
Speaker 1: than carbuncles, you can visit us on the internet. We're
31:05
Speaker 1: on Instagram, We're on Facebook, We're on Twitter. That's the
31:08
Speaker 1: other one. You can find our favorite partners, show your
31:12
Speaker 1: fellow Ridiculous Historians on our Facebook community page Ridiculous Historians.
31:17
Speaker 1: If you want to see some pictures of very strange misadventures,
31:22
Speaker 1: I will be having shortly follow me on Instagram and
31:25
Speaker 1: at Ben Bullen and I am at Embryonic Insider. Find
31:29
Speaker 1: me over at hasciotes H A S S I O
31:31
Speaker 1: T I S. Christopher will be having some incredible adventures
31:34
Speaker 1: in podcasting coming down the pikes in the near future.
31:37
Speaker 1: I will keep you all super updated. Please do. We'll
31:41
Speaker 1: see you next time. Folix