The founding fathers were human beings, absolutely. I think that they get made to be almost larger than life sometimes, But we should never forget their human nature. That said, they were also the elite of their society. Most of them were career politicians, land owners with thousands of acres in their possession, Transcontinental business owners, Or were just generally wealthy as hell.
The last time I went to Mount Vernon they were talking about the wallpapers in Washington's house, and they made special mention that most of them were imported from London on custom order. I think that kind of gives you an idea of the quality of life that Washington had, and his position inside of his world.
So I wouldn't say that they were just like us, or at least the vast majority of us.
Well yes, I didn't think to mention that as it was pretty common amongst the entire upper and most of the middle class of America at the time to own slaves.
So that wasn't as unique/distinguishing as the other points I mentioned. Supposedly over half of slave owners around the time of the civil War owned only one slave. So it was a pretty common " asset" if I may speak so plainly.
Owning thousand of acres of land, being part of political Dynasty, owning entire ships and shipping companies, owning entire newspaper and print shops that printed an entire colony's worth of paper materials, these were all the enterprises of the founding fathers. Sadly, owning slaves were one thing that that elite class actually had in common with the middle class.
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u/TheSonOfDisaster 15h ago edited 12h ago
The founding fathers were human beings, absolutely. I think that they get made to be almost larger than life sometimes, But we should never forget their human nature. That said, they were also the elite of their society. Most of them were career politicians, land owners with thousands of acres in their possession, Transcontinental business owners, Or were just generally wealthy as hell.
The last time I went to Mount Vernon they were talking about the wallpapers in Washington's house, and they made special mention that most of them were imported from London on custom order. I think that kind of gives you an idea of the quality of life that Washington had, and his position inside of his world.
So I wouldn't say that they were just like us, or at least the vast majority of us.