Balls, Cocks, and Coquettes: The Dissonance of Washington’s Youth
Author(s): Laura Galke
Year: 2018
Summary
Powerful messages concerning ideal gender roles are significant, yet latent features of presidential biographies. Most contemporary authors suggest that Washington succeeded despite the efforts of his mother, Mary Ball Washington. Biographers tend to be most offended by Mother Washington when she exercised agency. Archaeological investigations at Washington’s childhood home in Stafford County, Virginia underscore the dissonance between the material culture of his youth and popular narratives about his childhood. Archaeological data contrast with contrived narratives which are not only inaccurate but which promote naive a ‘self-made man’ ideology.
Cite this Record
Balls, Cocks, and Coquettes: The Dissonance of Washington’s Youth. Laura Galke. Presented at Society for Historical Archaeology, New Orleans, Louisiana. 2018 ( tDAR id: 441498)
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Keywords
General
Colonial
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Gender
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Washington
Geographic Keywords
North America
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United States of America
Temporal Keywords
1743-1789
Spatial Coverage
min long: -129.199; min lat: 24.495 ; max long: -66.973; max lat: 49.359 ;
Individual & Institutional Roles
Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology
Record Identifiers
PaperId(s): 430