The Widow Washington Library of Congress and a large number of

and a large number of cartographic materials in other formats

who rose to become the second president of the United States and saved the country from blundering into an unnecessary war

c1932 July 28

Front center pocket

civil rights leaders

The Widow Washington Library of Congress and a large number ofThe Widow Washington is the first life of Mary Ball Washington, George Washingtons mother, based on archival sources. Her sons biographers have, for the most part, painted her as self centered and crude, a trial and an obstacle to her oldest child. But the records tell a very different story. Mary Ball, the daughter of a wealthy planter and a formerly indentured servant, was orphaned young and grew up working hard, practicing frugality and piety.