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)

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

Keywords

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