Talk:George Washington

Lede length

... regarding the length of the lede, I removed the tag because imo the lede for this article is comparable to other important/major subject articles with a word count that's not too long considering that it's the G.W. article with all the related history involved. We shouldn't always hold the same standard for 'all articles'. Lede and Page length guidelines should be observed, but with discretion, and exceptions allowed when warranted as in cases like this, imo. WC for the lede in this article is 823. Coincidentally, the Thomas Jefferson lede has a WC of 823 also. The FDR lede is 789, the American Revolution lede at 768, etc. All with larger than average ledes, all warranted. Will see if there's anyway we can trim things without making the prose read like a police report. -- Gwillhickers (talk) 04:18, 29 August 2014 (UTC)

Gwillhickers is quite right. Washington was an unusually important and busy man. Keep in mind that most people only read the lede and need a good overview in a nutshell. Rjensen (talk) 04:32, 29 August 2014 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 8 October 2014

Section: Presidency (1789–1797) Change: The 1st United States Congress voted to pay Washington a salary of $25,000 a year—a large sum in 1789. Washington, already wealthy, declined the salary, since he valued his image as a selfless public servant. To: The 1st United States Congress voted to pay Washington a salary of $25,000 a year—a large sum in 1789. Washington, although severely in debt, declined the salary, since he valued his image as a selfless public servant. Source: Chernow, Ron. "Washington, A Life." pp. 552-554

70.172.222.120 (talk) 03:02, 8 October 2014 (UTC)

Done per the already cited source. went with "facing financial trouble" instead to be closer to source. Cannolis (talk) 12:38, 8 October 2014 (UTC)

Erroneous reference to slavery being exclusive to Southern Colonies.

Exclusive reference to Southern Colonies having become slave societies is erroneous and misleading. The practice of slavery was widespread in the Northern Colonies as well, northern abolition haven taken place in 1840. Famed abolitionist and former slave Sojourner Truth was born in slavery in the Hudson Valley of New York. After having at least three separate owners ranging from kind to cruel, she was freed and became a prominent leader of the movement to abolish slavery in the South. The reality of Northern slavery is unfortunately swept under the rug and has lead to an incomplete and inaccurate understanding of a significant part of history. 65.190.54.112 (talk) 23:11, 30 November 2014 (UTC)

The sentence you apparently are referring to is, "At this time, Virginia and other southern colonies had become a slave society, in which slaveholders formed the ruling class and the economy was based on slave labor." While there certainly were slaves in northern colonies, no northern colonies met the criteria for a slave society as described in the bold-faced portion of the quote. Tom (North Shoreman) (talk) 00:10, 1 December 2014 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 3 December 2014

In the first para on Washington's early life, his date of birth under the Julian calendar (the first given) should be February 11, 1732 (i.e. not 1731) The gap between the Julian and Gregorian calendars was only 11 days, not a year and 11 days, and his Gregorian date of birth is correctly shown as February 22, 1732. The gap between the two calendars is adequately explained in the page on Calendar (New Style) Act 1750 referred to in the article itself. Carrick roads (talk) 19:14, 3 December 2014 (UTC)

Please see the following:

• article's Note 1
• article's Note 2
• The 1st paragraph in the Recurring Themes section on this talk page

Please keep in mind that the Old Style calendar's 1st day of the year/New Year's Day was March 25th *not* January 1. Also, Slate.com's article "What's Benjamin Franklin's birthday?" explains the confusion over the Julian/Gregorian calendar dates.

The article as it now stands is not incorrect. Thanks, Shearonink (talk) 19:58, 3 December 2014 (UTC)