385 Did George Washington Have Heirs?

Ben Franklin's World

The United States Constitution of 1787 gave many Americans pause about the powers the new federal government could exercise and how the government's leadership would rest with one person, the president.

The fact that George Washington would likely serve as the new nation’s first president calmed many Americans’ fears that the new nation was creating an opportunity for a hereditary monarch. Washington had proven his commitment to a democratic form of government when he gave up his army command peacefully and voluntarily. He had proven he was someone Americans could trust. Plus, George Washington had no biological heirs–no sons–to whom he might pass on the presidency.

But while George Washington had no biological heirs, he did have heirs.

Cassandra A. Good, an Associate Professor of History at Marymount University and author of First Family: George Washington’s Heirs and the Making of America, joins us to explore Washington’s heirs and the lives they lived.

Show Notes: https://www.benfranklinsworld.com/385 Sponsor Links

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Complementary Episodes

• Episode 027: A History of Stepfamilies in Early America
• Episode 033: George Washington and His Library
• Episode 061: George Washinton in Retirement
• Episode 074: Martha Washington
• Episode 137: The Washingtons’ Runaway Slave
• Episode 183: George Washinton’s Mount Vernon
• Episode 222: The Early History of Washington, D.C.
• Episode 265: An Early History of the White House

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