When you hear the phrase “10 facts usually associated with the first president of the United States”, you probably picture heroic battles and polished portraits. Yet the real George Washington was a far messier, more human character—full of family drama, questionable business moves, and even a few macabre medical schemes. Below, we peel back the mythic veneer to reveal the quirks and scandals that textbooks often skip.
10 Facts Usually: Uncovering Washington’s Hidden Past
10 His Mother Made His Life Hell
It’s easy to imagine the mother of America’s first commander‑in‑chief as a proud, doting figure, but Mary Ball Washington was anything but a warm‑hearted fan club. She was notoriously strict, offering criticism far more often than praise. One of George’s childhood companions once recalled, “Of the mother, I was ten times more afraid than I ever was of my own parents,” underscoring the chilling atmosphere of his upbringing.
As soon as George moved out, his mother turned into a relentless petitioner, bombarding him with letters begging for financial support—even while he was leading troops against the British. She even appealed directly to the Virginia legislature for a pension, a move that mortified Washington. He responded with a stern protest, writing, “All of us, I am certain, would feel much hurt, at having our mother a pensioner, while we had the means of supporting her.”
When Mary grew older and frail, George urged her to reside with one of his siblings for a more manageable arrangement—just not under his own roof. Even after her death, his estate paperwork contained a terse line that hinted at lingering resentment: “She has had a great deal of money from me at times.”
9 He Bought His First Elected Position With Alcohol
In mid‑18th‑century Virginia, elections were practically a public tavern. Voters expected a generous pour of spirits at the polls; refusing to provide libations was tantamount to political suicide. When Washington first threw his hat into the ring for the House of Burgesses in 1755, he took the high road and declined to supply alcohol. The result? A humiliating defeat—271 votes against him versus a mere 40 in his favor.
Learning from that bitter loss, Washington returned three years later with a vastly different strategy. He arranged for an impressive 545 liters (144 gallons) of assorted booze—beer, rum, and everything in between—to flow freely to the electorate. That equated to roughly two liters (half a gallon) per voter, a staggering amount that left no one thirsty. The gamble paid off handsomely; Washington swept the election with a decisive majority.
8 His False Teeth Were Pulled From Slaves
Forget the myth of wooden teeth—Washington’s dental saga is far more unsettling. A lifetime of poor diet and genetics left him with a painful, toothless grin. Wealth afforded him the luxury of a custom set of dentures, but the materials used were far from ordinary. His dentist crafted a base of hippopotamus ivory, reinforced with gold wire springs and brass screws, then populated it with real human teeth—extracted from enslaved individuals on his plantation.
Records from 1784 reveal Washington paid his slaves a paltry 122 shillings for nine teeth, a sum that was merely one‑third of the market rate for human dentition. The dentist then forced these harvested teeth into Washington’s mouth, creating a macabre composite that likely fueled the later legend of wooden prosthetics.
7 He Made A Fortune Off Whiskey And Slaves
Beyond his political résumé, Washington was a shrewd businessman. While his wife Martha inherited a sprawling 8,000‑acre estate populated by five farms and over 300 enslaved laborers, George leveraged his name to launch the nation’s largest whiskey distillery in 1797. By the time of his death in 1799, the operation was churning out an astonishing 42,000 liters (11,000 gallons) of spirit each year, making him one of the country’s earliest industrial magnates.
6 He Grew Marijuana
Washington’s agricultural pursuits extended into the realm of cannabis. While many associate early American hemp with rope‑making, his farm journals disclose a deliberate effort to cultivate marijuana for its psychoactive properties. He meticulously recorded attempts to separate male from female plants, noting on May 12, 1765, “Sowed hemp at muddy hole by swamp,” and later lamenting, “Began to separate the male from female plants—rather too late.” By the following year, he was “pulling up the male hemp.”
Given the absence of prohibitions, it is highly plausible that Washington smoked his own harvest. Unverified anecdotes suggest he and Thomas Jefferson exchanged personal gifts of homegrown marijuana, further hinting at a shared, clandestine pastime.
5 He Was Paid More Than Any Other President
When appointed commander of the Continental Army, Washington famously refused a salary, insisting only that Congress reimburse his expenses. The reality, however, turned out to be a staggering fiscal extravaganza. He booked actors for theatrical productions, spent $6,000 on liquor, and even indulged in lavish meals that added roughly 14 kilograms (30 lb) to his waist. In total, his expense claim ballooned to $449,261.51—a sum Congress was compelled to honor.
Later, as the nation’s first president, he attempted to secure a comparable arrangement, but lawmakers, wary of past excesses, mandated a modest salary. Still, Washington negotiated the highest presidential pay in U.S. history, amounting to about two percent of the national budget—a figure that outstripped all his successors.
4 He Thought Chinese People Were White
When the fledgling United States opened trade with China in 1785, Washington became an avid collector of Chinese curiosities—tea, silk, porcelain, and the like. Yet, despite his fascination, he was genuinely shocked upon first seeing a Chinese figure depicted on a porcelain pot. Until that moment, Washington had assumed the world’s peoples were uniformly “white,” a misconception he only corrected after confronting the reality of Chinese appearance.
3 He Illegally Transported Slaves
Washington’s presidency forced him to reside in Pennsylvania, the first state to enact a Gradual Abolition Act that limited a resident’s ability to hold slaves to six months. After that period, any enslaved person had to be emancipated. Undeterred, Washington exploited legal loopholes, rotating his enslaved workforce every six months to sidestep the law—a practice expressly outlawed by 1788.
Historical accounts suggest the federal government was fully aware of Washington’s maneuvers but chose to look the other way, likely out of deference to the nation’s inaugural leader. Consequently, his administration continued to profit from slave labor despite the state’s abolitionist statutes.
2 He Set The World Record For Library Fines
In 1789, the newly inaugurated president checked out two hefty tomes from the New York Society Library: Law of Nations and Volume 12 of Common Debates. The librarian, delighted to see “The President” in the ledger, set a return date of November 2 and left it at that. Washington never returned the books, and the overdue fines snowballed over the centuries.
The library didn’t discover the lingering debt until 1934, and it wasn’t until 2010 that Mount Vernon finally settled the matter by purchasing copies of the missing volumes and sending them to the institution. By then, Washington’s unpaid fees had amassed to a record‑breaking $300,000‑plus.
1 His Friend Wanted To Reanimate His Corpse
Washington harbored a lifelong dread of premature burial. He even instructed his secretary to delay interment for three days, allowing his body to decompose before the final plunge. When he finally passed in 1799, his remains were placed on ice as a precaution against the dreaded “being buried alive” scenario.
Enter William Thornton, a physician and friend, who fancied himself a pioneer of resurrection. Convinced that the blood of lambs possessed miraculous properties, Thornton proposed an elaborate revival plan: thaw Washington’s corpse by fire, rub it with blankets, inject it with lamb’s blood, perform a tracheotomy, and pump air into his lungs using a bellows. He was certain this procedure would coax the former president back to life.
Despite Thornton’s enthusiasm, Martha Washington declined the macabre experiment, opting instead for a dignified, final rest for her husband.