Family Background – Arrival in America, Wealth and Values
             George Washington was a fourth-generation Virginian, and his background was very typical for Americans of that time. George's great-grandfather John Washington, arrived was an immigrant and reached American shores in 1657. John Washington was better educated and sophisticated than the typical immigrant. His family continued its British connections well beyond most American families. John and his son Lawrence owned both land in Virginia and England for more than fifty years after coming to America. George Washington's father Augustine and his two older half-brothers were both sent to a school in England for their education. Georges eldest brother Lawrence Washington married a girl named Sally Fairfax. The Fairfax's were posher than any other family in the American colonies. They loved to keep in touch with the latest London fashions and styles. George spent much of his time with them and admired them and managed to copy their lifestyle in his later years.
             George Washington was born in the Westmoreland County, Virginia in February 1732. When George was three years old, his family moved to a large plantation called "Mount Vernon." George did not have any close neighbors and played with his brothers and sisters. His father died in 1743 when George was eleven and George was forced to go and live with his half brother Lawrence's plantation on the Potomac River. All George wanted to do in his childhood was going to the sea which was quickly discouraged by his mother. When George was sixteen, he decided to start a career as a surveyor and secured his first appointment to survey Lord Fairfax's lands in the Shenandoah Valley. George helped lay out the Virginia town of Alexandria in 1749. George first and only trip out of America was accompanying his brother to Barbados to cure Lawrence of tuberculosis. Unfortunately, Lawrence died in 1752, soon after t
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