Gen. George Washington’s band of brigands were a rag-tag mix of men who did not look as continental as their grand name sounds today.
‘You have so much admiration for [Washington,] who was so important in the success of the Revolution ... And yet you wish he had freed the slaves’.
It’s as if people have suddenly ... realized that these remarkable citizens ... actually committed egregious crimes. Heroism has been canceled overnight.
While some envy what it means to be an American today, to be an American during the nation's infancy was no easy matter.