They could not even call wife and children their own, for these might be sold at will.
It arouses a strange emotion now when we find Washington offering to exchange a negro for hogsheads of molasses and rum and writing that the man would bring a good price, "if kept clean and trim'd up a little when offered for sale." In early life Washington had had very little of formal education.

He knew no language but English.

When he became world famous and his friend La Fayette urged him to visit France he refused because he would seem uncouth if unable to speak the French tongue.

Like another great soldier, the Duke of Wellington, he was always careful about his dress.
There was in him a silent pride which would brook nothing derogatory to his dignity.

No one could be more methodical.