Working Class History Test

Tom Lehman TLEHMAN at lor.net
Thu Jul 22 18:38:07 PDT 1999


A fellow who is putting together a copyrighted Working Class History Test for the Labor Party sent me a copy of the test for my perusal.

Question #4 asks, "Who was the richest man in America at the time of the Revolution? Answer, George Washington.

I very seriously doubt that Washington was the richest man in America at the time of the Revolution---even exempting Tories from consideration. Everything that I have ever read indicates that Washington was "land poor" i.e. he owned frontier properties that produced little or no income. His main source of income was from farming, and, although large scale not any larger than any of his neighbors. Washington did marry into money, when he married Martha. Was her fortune any larger than any other colonial fortune? If anything Douglas Southall Freeman Washington's most thorough biographer indicates that Washington was broke at the end of the Revolution.

Any comments from the professionals on the list?

Tom Lehman



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