I would meet George Washington. I have so many questions for him. How did you handle all the conflicting opinions and how hard was it for you to go against the British? Did you have any moral concerns about not respecting authority or did you feel it was justified because of taxes? I would ask him how he kept himself and his troops going in the dead of winter.
I would ask him a ton about how he balanced all of his interests with his responsibilities. We went to Mt Vernon while we were in DC in September and he did so much with his greenhouse that was very forward thinking for the time. He was a great host and put up people that visited for as long as they planned to stay. Apparently it was rude to not put up people since it took so long to travel anywhere back then. It was also rude to ask how long they planned to stay with you. So you fed these people as long as they stayed. I don’t know of many people today who could have company under these circumstances, myself included. I don’t like surprise guests to begin with, but hopefully it wasn’t often that he had to deal with long term surprise guests. And what happened if his house was already full? And could just anyone show up at his show and be given a room and food?
I would ask what was in the will he destroyed and why he didn’t have any children of his own. I want to know more about his teeth and where he got them all. But most of all, I want to understand his thoughts on slavery. His real thoughts, not the distilled version that we get from various historians now. What was in his head and what did he not say about it. Did he feel any guilt and did he really believe that the enslaved were less than human? I would ask him point blank if he had any regrets about how he treated his enslaved and would he speak out more against slavery if given the chance.
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