In this history comic, I finally get to show you why George Washington is my historical role model. He was a great man who achieved great things with his life, despite being raised by a Cluster B mother. You won’t find this spoon fed in any biography or documentary, however. For one thing, historians are not psychologists. The other reason is the spin doctors, themselves.
Spin doctors are those who doctor a story by spinning the facts into an interpretation that meets their approval. They do this in a two-step process of emphasizing one or two provable facts, while ignoring the contradictions. Since 2019, there’s been an uptick in spin doctors where George Washington’s mother is concerned. Too many people act as apologists for all mothers, no matter how abusive they were to their children. What a shame it is, that even in our modern age, we’re still dealing with this.
How do I know what I’m talking about?
It’s a good question that deserves an immediate answer. Back in 2017, just one year prior to learning I had every single symptom of CPTSD, I got to know George Washington. (See my resources at the very end, because I’m not kidding when I say I have one extreme mental processing addiction – Trauma Glossary 2.) I read my first two biographies and was blown away. I knew the sort of mother he had because I was raised by the same type. But that couldn’t be right! Or so I thought. How could a man who accomplished so much with his life have possibly been raised by a Cluster B mother? Weren’t we all too traumatized to move up in the world like he had?
So, I got five more biographies on George Washington and read them at the same time, comparing what each source had to say about different parts of his life. Sure enough, I was forced to conclude that he was raised by the same type of mother I had. That summer of 2017 saved me when, one year later, I was devasted by the news I didn’t just have a few symptoms of CPTSD. I was CPTSD’s walking, talking poster child! I remembered the man I had gotten to know, and that was how I yanked myself up by the bootstraps and got proactive in my healing.
Articles and Glossaries Referenced in this History Comic
Think of this comic as a historical “case study” of my article, Covert Abuse: 7 Types You Need to Know, because you will see this in action, especially Financial, Emotional, and Social Abuse.
Also, the following terms are referenced from Trauma Glossary 1: Cluster B Personality Disorders; Cognitive Dissonance.
The following terms are referenced from Trauma Glossary 2: Armoring; Critic; Impostor Syndrome; Super-conscience; Toxic Shame.
As always in my history comics, I have captions for each image, so that those whose first language is not English can follow along with the translator. I made four exceptions, only because the images with bullet points would have blown out the flow of this comic. However, I have included the FULL translations for each here, in this separate mini-visual aid.
Debunking the Spin Doctors Part 1
Jaena: Hey Spirit Dad, there’s a quote I’d like to read you. George Washington: Alright…“My mother was the most beautiful woman I ever saw. All I am I owe to my mother. I attribute my success in life to the moral intellectual and physical education I received from her.”George Washington: Whose mother is this? Jaena: Yours!George Washington: I beg your pardon? Jaena: According to the internet, you’re the one who said this.What?? I never said any such thing! Who wrote this and dared to attribute my name to it? Was it Parson Weems? You know he made up a story about me and a cherry tree that also never happened.No, this time it wasn’t him. Apparently it was some 20th century nobody who wrote it and claimed it was you.Never have I heard such a collection of words so opposite from the truth. At the same time, it erases the significance of the one I really owe all that I am.Now is your chance. Please, tell them your story.
Daily Devotionals Brought to You by American History
My father, Augustine Washington, was part of the landed gentry class. By tradition, all Washington boys were supposed to attend Appleby Grammar School by age 11. This was a boarding school in England, where we were to be formally educated.Everything changed the year I turned 11, though. I lost my father. My mother, Mary Ball Washington, informed me that I would not be attending Appleby Grammar School and that local learning was good enough.Having his children well provided for and given every opportunity in life was important to Father. He left behind 8 surviving children, 3 of whom were my half-siblings from my father’s first marriage. All of us, including my sisters, stood to inherit land holdings.I was supposed to inherit Ferry Farm, but my mother claimed it as her own. She didn’t relinquish control of it until 1772, when I bought her a home in Fredericksburg. This was nearly 30 years later.We know this today as financial abuse. The financial abuser is extremely possessive and uses resources in such a way that keeps their victim bound to them.Shortly after my father died, however, someone returned to the colonies. A man who greatly influenced me. His name was Lawrence Washington, and he was my half-brother.
Big Brother Lawrence: The light in the darkness
Lawrence claimed his inheritance and had his home built there. He named his property Mount Vernon. If that name sounds familiar to you, it’s because it would one day be my home. Luck tended to be laced with tragedy where my life was concerned, but I’m getting ahead of my story.Lawrence was fourteen years my senior, but he put up with me chasing after him, always trying to emulate him. He served in the British Navy, moved up in colony politics, became a respectable man in the community.And yet he was never too busy for me. He was ambitious but always kind. He represented everything I wanted to be. Lawrence married into the Fairfax family, who was at the time the most affluent family in Virginia.He introduced me to them. The Fairfaxes had a son my age and he became my best friend. The father, William Fairfax, took a special interest in me. He claimed he saw my potential and he took me under his wing.Between Lawrence and the Fairfax family, I was given a much-needed escape from my home life. They knew my mother and therefore, they understood my situation.Lawrence had contracted tuberculosis from his time in the British Navy. I watched as each year took a little more from him, even as he did all that he could for me. He eventually died of it. His only child died next, and then his wife.Thus, how I became the sole property owner of Mount Vernon. I was free to rename it anything I wished, but as Lawrence named it in honor of his hero, Admiral Vernon, I kept the name in honor of mine.
Debunking the Spin Doctors Part 2
Tell me, when the historians talk about my growing up years, do they do my brother any justice?They do in your biographies. But in the articles and documentaries, they spend too much time making up excuses for your mother. They run out of space for Lawrence.What kind of excuses?I read one article that claimed your mother managed Ferry Farm for you until you came of age.She managed Ferry Farm for herself, not for me. She wanted it, she claimed it and she never relinquished control of anything once she got her hands on it.Other sources have overplayed the single mother card as a means of white washing everything she put you through.She looked independent to outsiders but make no mistake. She was determined to keep us bound to her and she wanted my life to revolve around her, to drop everything at a moment’s notice and attend her needs.Is that why she thwarted you at every turn?Every expedition I went on, even as a land surveyor, my mother found some excuse to delay me. Some emergency, last minute demand that was always strategically timed for the day I was set to leave.The spin doctors make up excuses for that one, too. They say that she was so worried about her son’s safety…She only worried about me being independent of her; as she saw it as being neglectful of her. She had a thirst for vengeance anytime she felt neglected, and it was often.
Daily Devotionals Brought to You by American History: 1755
Shortly after moving into Mount Vernon, a post came up for me under General Braddock. I needed someone to manage my spring crops before setting out.Jack was my closest brother, especially after losing Lawrence. He had agreed to look after Mount Vernon for me while I was away. Everything was set for my departure…until my mother showed up on my property. As usual, I was delayed.George and Jack, how dare you two look out for each other! Neither one of you thought about ME-ME-ME!!! I decided I need Jack to help ME-ME-ME instead of you, George! You’re both so selfish for not thinking about ME-ME-ME!Jack ended up looking after his own property, Mount Vernon, and Ferry Farm. But that was my mother, our value was measured entirely by what we could do for her.Oh George, while you’re in the WILDERNESS, pick me up some butter and a Dutch servant. (Mary Ball Washington actually said this.)Anyone else detecting EMOTION DYSREGULATION issues? I sure am.Later, I got my cousin, Lund Washington to look after Mount Vernon instead. Since my mother had no authority over him.
Debunking the Spin Doctors: Part 3
Anyone who takes the time to read your biographies will notice her patterns of trying to thwart you. The 1755 incident just happens to be her most histrionic temper tantrum.She was never proud of my successes. Each time I got ahead in life, she complained about it.First, I was abandoning her for the military.She even boycotted my wedding to Martha.When I resigned from the Virginia Regiment in the French and Indian War, she made that all about her, too.There has been no end to my trouble while George was in the army, but he has now given it up. (Mary Ball Washington actually said this, too.)While I was commanding the patriot army in the American Revolution, she complained about me so much. The whole country was convinced my mother was a Tory.Alexander Hamilton: That’s true, anyone who spent any time around her was convinced of this.She sure did, Alex. That’s because she complained the whole time to anyone who would listen that he was neglecting her.George Washington: Yes, thank you for that, Billy Lee. I was fighting for my country. Yet she never told anyone she was worried about my safety. No, she openly complained about my neglect of her.
18th Century Politics: What are Whigs and Tories?
The short answer is, Whigs were those in favor of American independence. They either supported the cause, or they fought for it, like me.The Tories were those who were loyal to the crown. They believed America should remain British subjects.The truth was, my mother was neither a Whig nor a Tory.She cared nothing about the war because it wasn’t about her. She saw the war in one light, and one light only: that her son was using the war as an excuse to neglect her.
Debunking the Spin Doctors Part 4
I would just like to add that in addition to financial abuse, there’s evidence of emotional abuse, as well as social.The emotional abuser is emotionally immature and too caught up in themselves to stop and consider the needs of those closest to them.The social abuser is on a specific mission: to isolate their target from others. They are extremely jealous. Anyone or anything that connects with their target poses a threat.The spin doctors use her childhood trauma as an excuse for her ABANDONMENT issues. Then they run with that to excuse every terrible thing she did.What about the trauma she inflicted on me?They don’t really care because in their minds, you should have taken the time to understand her more. Feel sorry for her while she was financially, emotionally, and socially abusing you.The spin doctors also claim that your mother was “strong”.Strong?? She was constantly complaining to us about how helpless she was.There’s a difference between a strong mother and a cruel one.
Golden Womb Entitlement Thinking: What They Just Don’t Get
A True Mother: (Click here for translation of the bullet points.)This shouldn’t be rocket science, and yet, apparently it is to the spin doctors. This is because they are Golden Womb Entitlement thinkers.Golden Womb Entitlement Thinkers Be Like: (Click here for translation of the bullet points.)Golden Womb Entitlement Beliefs: (Click here for translation of the bullet points.)They all see you as a man of good character. You had a bad mom, and it looks like you never resolved that conflict.But how could I?That’s the whole reason they’ve been spin doctoring your story. It’s the strangest, most backwards means of “protecting your image”.Protect my image? You mean these spin doctors you speak of like me? All this time, I thought they were my critics.Nope, quite the contrary. They like you a lot. They just need to make your story sound like it was the usual misunderstanding between parent and child.What they don’t get is that there’s a huge difference between the generational gap and Cluster B abuse.
Debunking the Spin Doctors Part 5
The spin doctors claim that your mother was so poor, it was the only reason she kept asking you for money. And you resented her because you didn’t want to give her anything.First, the whole country was poor, due to the poor decision-making of congress. Second, I gave her money on every visit. Yet nothing I did was ever good enough for her.In 1772, when I bought her that property in Fredericksburg, I also paid for the construction of her home and garden. I even had income set up for her. Again, out of my own pocket.The spin doctors are pushing their own agenda. That’s why they fail to mention any of these occurrences. I read another article that talked about how much you were worth as proof that you could have done better.Do they not teach economics in your time?They do. Anyone who understands economics 101 knows that there’s a difference between net worth and available funds. The spin doctors are all hoping that no one fact checks them.I was a very dutiful son and I visited her often, even as it was killing me on the inside. I gave her money, even as I spent my life worrying about money.The aftereffects of financial abuse. Interesting how, as she financially abused you your whole life, you spent your adult life using money to pacify her.Do you mean my lack of affection? I admit it. I simply didn’t have it in me to show affection for the very person who had none for me. So, I used money to make up for it.Going no contact was not an option in the 18th century.Social Customs of the 18th Century: (Click here for translation of the bullet points.)
Dental Problems as a Sign of Armoring
You certainly became the master of self-containment. Even for your time, many say that you over-mastered 18th century customs. So, for my time, the first impression of you is that you’re more marble statue than man.Good, that’s just the way I wanted it.You had major dental problems. As far back as age 28, your defective teeth were noticeable. By the time you became our first president, you only had one tooth.I’ve often wondered how much of that was linked to the way you kept your feelings bottled up. Did you cope with your mother by grinding your teeth?Grinding my teeth?? I most certainly did NOT!I set my jaw really, really hard. But I never ground my teeth.This is an example of armoring. When our bodies hold onto the tension for an extended period of time, there are ill effects.
George Washington: The Man Behind the Marble
Let’s talk about the way you kept yourself so aloof. You weren’t known as a man who was easy to approach. Even when you were approached, people had a hard time getting to know you.I was extremely ambitious. Being socially accepted was important to me. Yet, I was aware of my many shortcomings.How did you see yourself?Well for starters, my poor education. I didn’t want to risk looking like a bumpkin. My mother shunned polite society, while I craved their approval.I never knew when she would try to embarrass me, but I knew that inevitably, she would.I was living in an age when everyone adored their mothers, while I was Mary Ball Washington’s son. If a mother like her existed anywhere else, I never heard about it.Many of us grew up feeling similarly. It makes you feel like you’re an island unto yourself and that no one will understand. It’s part of what makes up our toxic shame.
A Great Legacy Out of Beautifully Damaged Parts
At the closing of the war, the patriot army tried to overthrow congress and set you up as our country’s first dictator. All you had to do was accept it, but you told everyone to go home. Where did that come from?My conscience. I never forgot why we were fighting the war in the first place. I was the leader of our cause. If I took that sort of power, it would mean seeing a hypocrite every time I looked in the mirror.Everyone since you who has been offered that kind of power happily accepted it without a thought.One of the major problems in the war was congress’s fear of me doing something exactly like that. I spent the entire war trying to prove to them that I would never commit such villainy.Had I accepted, I’d have to live with the consequences of proving them all right. John Adams, especially.John Adams was jealous of you on an extreme petty level, though you did nothing to him. But this comic isn’t titled Founding Fathers Behaving Badly, so I won’t divulge further.My point is criticism hurt you far more deeply than you ever let others see.The whole country put more trust in me than I ever had in myself.I know why. Your vicious inner critic, super-conscience, toxic shame, and impostor syndrome were what kept you humble.It was key to the integrity you were famous for. You had no words for what you endured, no known tools for managing your ongoing problems.Yet you used those ongoing problems in such a way as to become the best person you could be. Someone the whole CPTSD community can get inspired by if the spin doctors would just kindly SHUT UP.
King George III on George Washington
“The greatest character of his age.” (For giving up his military power and then retiring from presidency.)
Henry Lee at George Washington’s Eulogy
“First in war, first in peace, and first in the hearts of his countrymen.”
Jaena on George Washington’s Life
“The first person who taught me that children of Cluster B parents are NOT too traumatized to rise as warriors.”
My Resources:
Yes, I have read all of the following, and some of which, I read more than once. This covers my knowledge of the 18th century, American Revolution, the founding of the United States of America, and especially, George Washington himself. George Washington is proof that not all good people come from good mothers. As many in the CPTSD community were also not blessed with good mothers, it’s a shame how such golden womb entitlement thinking continues to this very day. That’s why debunking the spin doctors is so important. Washington’s story truly does have the power to inspire everyone else in their healing, as he was instrumental in my own.
Washington: A Life by Ron Chernow
His Excellency by Joseph J. Ellis
Valiant Ambition: George Washington, Benedict Arnold, and the Fate of the American Revolution by Nathaniel Philbrick
The Real George Washington by Jay A. Parry
George Washington and Benedict Arnold: A Tale of Two Patriots by Dave Richard Palmer
Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation by Joseph J. Ellis
Washington Writings
Killing England: The Brutal Struggle for American Independence by Bill O’Reilly
George Washington by Willard Sterne Randall
George Washington (4 volumes) by James Thomas Flexner
Historical Sketches of Statesmen Who Flourished in the Time of George III (3 volumes) by Henry Peter Brougham
Adopted Son: Washington, Lafayette, and the Friendship that Saved the Revolution by David A. Clary
American Creation: Triumphs and Tragedies at the Founding of the Republic by Joseph J. Ellis
1775: A Good Year for Revolution by Kevin Phillips
1776 by David McCullough
The Real History of the American Revolution: A New Look at the Past by Alan Axelrod
This is brilliant!