George Washingtons Cherry Tree Art Project for Grade Schoolers

The crimson tree myth is the virtually well-known and longest enduring fable about George Washington. In the original story, when Washington was six years old he received a hatchet as a gift and damaged his father's cherry tree. When his father discovered what he had done, he became angry and confronted him. Young George bravely said, "I cannot tell a lie…I did cut it with my hatchet." Washington's father embraced him and rejoiced that his son'southward honesty was worth more than than a 1000 trees.^ane

Ironically, this iconic story almost the value of honesty was invented past one of Washington's first biographers, an itinerant government minister and bookseller named Mason Locke Weems. Subsequently Washington's decease in 1799 people were anxious to acquire almost him, and Weems was ready to supply the need. As he explained to a publisher in Jan 1800, "Washington you know is gone! Millions are gaping to read something about him…My plan! I requite his history, sufficiently infinitesimal…I then go along to testify that his unparalleled rise and acme were due to his Great Virtues."² Weems' biography, The Life of Washington, was start published in 1800 and was an instant bestseller. Notwithstanding the cherry tree myth did not appear until the volume's fifth edition was published in 1806.

Although there were other myths about Washington in Weems'southward book, the red tree myth became the almost popular. Weems had several motives when he wrote The Life of Washington and the blood-red tree myth. Profit was certainly ane of them; he rightly assumed that if he wrote a popular history book about Washington information technology would sell. Weems was besides able to counter the early on tradition of deifying Washington past focusing on his private virtues, rather than his public accomplishments. A Federalist admirer of order and self-discipline, Weems wanted to present Washington every bit the perfect part model, especially for young Americans.

The blood-red tree myth and other stories showed readers that Washington'southward public greatness was due to his private virtues. Washington'southward achievements as a full general and president were familiar to people in the early nineteenth century, but little was known virtually his relationship with his male parent, who died when Washington was but eleven years one-time. As one Pennsylvanian observed, "The facts and anecdotes nerveless by the author are well calculated to exhibit the character of that illustrious man, and Christian hero."³ Weems knew what the public wanted to read, and as a result of his success he is considered 1 of the fathers of popular history.

Weems wrote his version of the reddish tree myth to appeal to a broad audience, simply decades later William Holmes McGuffey composed a series of grammer school textbooks that recast the anecdote as a children'south story. McGuffey was a Presbyterian minister and a college professor who was passionate about teaching morality and organized religion to children. His books, known as McGuffey's Readers, gave him the perfect opportunity. Outset published in 1836, the readers remained in print for nearly a hundred years and sold over 120 million copies.

McGuffey's version of the crimson tree myth appeared in his Eclectic 2nd Reader for almost 20 years, including the German-language edition from 1854. In McGuffey'southward version of the story, Washington'south linguistic communication was formalized, and he showed more deference to his male parent'due south authority. For example, when Washington's father explains the sin of lying, McGuffey has young George reply tearfully, "Male parent, exercise I ever tell lies?"^four

Equally ministers concerned with moral and religious reform, McGuffey and Weems had like motives for writing. Both men as well believed that the best way to improve the moral fiber of social club was to brainwash children. Washington provided the perfect function model, and McGuffey turned the cherry tree myth into a story specifically aimed at children. Follow-up questions at the end of McGuffey's cherry tree story reinforce its message: "How did his begetter experience toward him when he fabricated his confession? What may nosotros look by confessing our faults?"⁵

By the 1830s, the ruby-red tree myth was firmly entrenched in American civilization, as the case of Joice Heth clearly shows. Heth was an elderly enslaved woman purchased past P.T. Barnum in 1835. He made her into a sideshow attraction, billing her as an enslaved woman who had raised George Washington. (If true, this would have fabricated her 161 years old.) Heth had many physical characteristics of extreme former historic period. The stories she told about Washington--including the cherry tree myth--were correct out of Weems. Heth was seen as credible considering she was telling stories that people already knew.

The cherry-red tree myth has endured for more than 2 hundred years probably considering nosotros like the story, which has get an important part of Americans' cultural heritage. It has been featured in comic strips and cartoons, especially political cartoons. Americans like to use the myth every bit a standard for politicians; presidents from William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt to Richard Nixon, George Due west. Bush, and Barack Obama have been featured in cherry-tree themed cartoons. The longevity of the ruby tree myth is demonstrative of both American ethics and Washington's legacy.

Jay Richardson
George Bricklayer University

Notes:

1 Mason Locke Weems, The Life of Washington the Great (Augusta, GA: George P. Randolph, 1806), eight-ix.

two Mason Locke Weems to Mathew Carey, January 12, 1800, in Paul Leicester Ford, Mason Locke Weems: His Works, His Ways: A Bibliography Left Unfinished, 3 vols. (New York: Plimpton Press, 1929), 2: eight-9.

3 Proposals of Mason Fifty. Weems, Dumfries, for publishing by subscription, The Life of George Washington, with curious anecdotes, equally honourable to himself and exemplary to his young countrymen (Philadelphia: Carey, 1809).

4 William Holmes McGuffey, The Eclectic Second Reader (Cincinnati: Truman and Smith, 1836), 113-115.

5 Ibid.

Bibliography:

Harris, Christopher. "Mason Locke Weems's Life of Washington: The Making of a Bestseller." Southern Literary Periodical, nineteen (1987): 92-102.

Lengel, Edward Thousand. Inventing George Washington: America's Founder in Myth and Retentivity.New York: HarperCollins, 2010.

McGuffey, William H. The Eclectic Second Reader. Cincinnati: Truman and Smith, 1836.

Weems, Stonemason L. The Life of Washington the Great: Enriched with a Number of Very Curious Anecdotes, Perfectly in Character, and Equally Honorable to Himself, and Exemplary to his Young Countrymen. Augusta, GA: George P. Randolph, 1806.

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