Myth or Fact: George Washington cut down a cherry tree?

Question

The first person with the correct answer AND explain it correctly then I will give you the points. Good luck!

Answer 1

Well, it isn't fact. The story was an invention of "Parson Weems" (full name Mason Locke Weems), to whom we owe nearly all the half-truths associated with Washington. These were intended to be little moral lessons. (This particular one, incidentally, seems to have been more interested in focusing on the successful PARENTING techniques it exhibited more than on Washington himself.)

This story appears in Parson Weems' overwhelmingly popular book -- A History of the Life and Death, Virtues and Exploits, of General George Washington -- which was published in 1800, the year after Washington died.

On Weems:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parson_Weems

To see the passage in Weems's book where this story is related, go to:
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~CAP/gw/chap2.html

How these stories tell us what Americans valued at the time see "The Moral Washington: Construction of a Legend (1800-1920s)" -- http://xroads.virginia.edu/~cap/gw/gwmoral.html

Answer 2

At some point in his life, I'm sure he did. But the old story of "Father, I cannot tell a lie" is a myth created in a biography of his life. Very little is known about the daily comings and goings of his childhood.

While most people think of George Washington as a military general and a political leaders - He was actually a farmer! He was constantly documenting his plants and trees. He created new ways to tend to his crops and harvest. Who knows - a cherry tree might have been in his way at some point in his long life!

Answer 3

Possibly a fact. Definitely not a myth. This is a *legend.*

Possibly a fact: Washington may, indeed, at some point in his life, have cut down a cherry tree. He was relatively impecunious prior to his marriage to the rich Widow Custis and he was not a stranger to work. But you are probably referring to the popular story of his admitting to his father that he did it and could not tell a lie. That story is almost certainly apocryphal. Which leads me to...

Definitely not a myth: A myth is a cultural narrative which defines membership in a community. There are certainly many secular myths about the origins of the United States that define membership in the "cult of the Republic," that belief system that makes Memorial Day a big deal and builds a pharaonic obelisk monument to George Washington. Washington himself is a kind of myth figure (hence the mythic, quasi-religious phrase, "Father of Our Country") in his capacity as the "Cincinnatus of the West" or one of the mythically superhuman and wise "Founding Fathers" whose 200-some-year-old opinions theoretically are to guide us in dealing with problems like stem cell research and Internet privacy issues (and if that's not mythic inflation--the ascribing of superhuman powers to our mythic ancestors--I don't know what is...). But the Cherry Tree story is clearly not a myth, because belief in it does not engage core ideas about what it is to be an American; many people will get angry at you if you question an idea like "America is a beacon of democracy to the world," or "God blessed America with liberty," or some other patriotic-mythic platitude, but no one will get vexed if you suggest that the Great Founding Father George Washington never cut down that durn tree.

A Legend: A story that does not rise to the level of myth but does involve elements of the realistic and the fantastic, and embodies some cultural values or norms by way of illustration, is a legend. Washington as a boy, cutting down the cherry tree and then being unable to lie about it, is just such a legend.

Now the ironic historical twist:

George Washington not only could tell a lie, he was an expert at it. He founded the first intelligence agency in the US, during the Revolutionary War, when he created a spy network reporting to him to conduct espionage against the British. Some historians believe that among others in his intelligence network was the favorite prostitute frequented by General Cornwallis. He used very sophisticated disinformation and counterespionage strategies that included allowing faked military orders to be captured by the British, misleading them about his army's position during the difficult early years of the Revolutionary War. There is even an exhibit on Washington the spymaster at the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC.

Answer 4

It must be some kinda folklore that those folks said in the olden days.

Answer 5

myth that was brought on by Parson weems

Answer 6

apparently, this is just a myth

Answer 7

No - it's folklore