George Washington: Leading a New Nation

A look inside

The opening of George Washington: Leading a New Nation, free to read.

1. 

   George Washington grew up in Virginia, a colony ruled by the faraway country of Great Britain. He was eleven when his father died. His older half-brother Lawrence looked out for him as he grew up.

2. 

   At sixteen, George joined a trip across the mountains to help survey land. Surveyors measure land and map its edges. In his journal, George wrote about rain and about swimming horses across a river. Soon he became an official surveyor and began getting land of his own. Then Lawrence became very ill and died. Beyond the mountains, Britain and France were both trying to control a region called the Ohio River Valley.

3. 

   Native nations lived in the Ohio River Valley, with their own communities, leaders, and goals. Some traded with the French, some with the British, and many chose whatever trade helped them most. When Britain and France fought over the valley, each nation had to decide whom to back. George’s next task would place him inside that struggle.