5 Dark and Little-Known Facts About George Washington

George Washington is often presented as a flawless founding hero — a face on money, a name carved into mountains. But behind the polished portraits is a much more complicated and disturbing reality. These are five facts that reveal the darker side of America’s first president.

1. His Dentures Included Teeth Taken From Enslaved People

Washington’s teeth were not wooden — that part is a myth. The truth is worse. His dentures were made from human teeth, animal teeth, ivory, and metal, and records show he bought teeth from enslaved people. Those teeth were likely pulled from their mouths and used in his dental plates. While Washington later instructed that enslaved people should not be directly purchased for his dentures in his name, the system that supplied him was still built on human suffering — and he continued to benefit from it.

2. He Owned Hundreds of Enslaved People and Worked to Keep Them

Washington enslaved over 300 people during his lifetime at Mount Vernon. While serving as president in Philadelphia, where slavery was being gradually abolished, he rotated enslaved workers in and out of the state to avoid laws that would have legally freed them after six months. This was not passive participation in slavery — it was deliberate and strategic.

3. He Authorized Brutal Military Campaigns Against Native Nations

During the Revolutionary War, Washington ordered scorched-earth campaigns against Native American villages allied with the British. Entire communities were burned, crops destroyed, and families displaced. He described these operations as necessary to break resistance, but the result was mass starvation and forced migration for many Indigenous people.

4. He Carefully Crafted His Own Image

Washington understood the power of reputation. He approved idealized portraits, controlled how he was written about, and avoided public displays that might damage his authority. Even in his lifetime, he was becoming a symbol — and that symbol was carefully managed. The heroic image most people know today was not accidental; it was constructed.

5. He Freed His Enslaved People — But Only After His Death

Washington is sometimes praised for freeing enslaved people in his will, but this only applied to those he personally owned, not those owned by his wife’s family. And the freedom came after he died, not during his lifetime when he could have acted. Many elderly and vulnerable people were left without resources, and families remained divided. His final act did not undo decades of exploitation.

Why This History Matters

Learning these facts does not erase Washington’s role in founding the United States — but it does challenge the idea that national heroes are purely heroic. Understanding the full story forces us to confront how deeply slavery, violence, and power were woven into the birth of the country.

History is not just made by statues.

It is made by people — and people are complicated, flawed, and often cruel.