George Washington's Barbados diary, 1751-52

George Washington's Barbados diary, 1751-52

Charlottesville : University of Virginia Press, 2018.

xlvii, 168 p. : ill. (some col.), maps ; 22 x 24 cm.

923.173 W318anpr 2018 M MB

(OCoLC)1011011967

"This edition has been prepared by the staff of The Washington Papers, sponsored by The Mount Vernon Ladies' Association of the Union and the University of Virginia."|Maps on lining papers.|Includes bibliographical references (p. [139]-147) and index.|Contents: Foreword / Douglas Bradburn -- A History of Published Editions of the Barbados Diary -- Introduction: Coming of Age and a Trip to Barbados -- The Barbados Diary, 1751-52: Sailing to Barbados, c. 25 September-2 November 1751 ; On the Island, 2 November-22 December 1751 ; The Return Voyage, 22 December 1751-30 January 1752 ; Back in Virginia, 30 January-c. 4 February 1752 -- Appendices: Glossary of Nautical Terms ; Comprehensive Chart of Navigational Data and Computations ; Lawrence Washington's Letters from Barbados and Bermuda ; Editorial Methodology -- Bibliographic Material: Essay on Sources ; Abbreviations ; References Cited -- Index.|In the autumn of 1751, at the age of nineteen, George Washington sailed with his older half-brother Lawrence from Virginia to the Caribbean island of Barbados--the only time that he ever left continental North America. Lawrence had long been in poor health and hoped, in vain, that the island climate would prove restorative. The brothers spent seven weeks on Barbados, with George recording his impressions of everything from the exotic landscapes and local culture, to the cultivation of sugarcane and the particulars of plantation slavery, before bidding his brother adieu and embarking on the return sail to Virginia. The two sea voyages provided plenty of adventure, at times harrowing, and framed an island interlude that exposed young George to new cultures--and also to smallpox. His exposure to the dread disease, and his resulting immunity, would prove fateful a quarter century later when the commander in chief of the ragtag American revolutionary forces blunted a threat more grave than British cannon by directing the immunization of his troops.|L2019M4

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