George Washington Born

February 22, 1732

On a tobacco farm beside Pope's Creek in Westmoreland County, Virginia, Augustine Washington's second wife Mary Ball bore a son named George. His father would die when George was eleven, leaving him to be raised by an elder half-brother, a surveyor's apprenticeship, and the colonial frontier. Before the century ended he would command an army, preside over a convention, and become the first president of a new republic.