WASHINGTON IN THE CLASSROOM
Named in honor of Henry Laurens, then president of the Continental Congress, Fort Laurens was built in 1778 in an ill-fated campaign to attack the British at Detroit. The fort was abandoned in 1779. Courtesy of the Ohio History Connection
Primary Sources
A teacher at a Catholic high school engages students in historical research and interpretation
George Washington was so much more than the commanding general of the Continental Army and the first president of the United States. His foresight and innovation led to great advancements in the military, in farming techniques, and in many entrepreneurial activities. In the field of religion, too, Washington blazed a trail by personal example and directives to others that would establish the foundation of the religious liberty and freedom Americans enjoy today.
Thanks in part to the research work done by Mount Vernon’s research historian Mary V. Thompson, students in my Museum Studies class at Archbishop Hoban, a Catholic high school in Akron, Ohio, spent several days reading and analyzing selections of Washington’s writings. These included military field orders and personal diary entries focused on his relationship with Roman Catholics in the new country, as well as Catholics serving in the army during the American Revolution.
The Museum Studies class is a college-level course; students learn in-depth historical research and interpretation. They spent two and a half months poring through pension files, ancestry websites, and veterans’ files to research the biographies of Revolutionary War veterans buried in Summit County, Ohio, and ultimately learned the life stories of 23 veterans, including one who served as Washington’s personal wagon driver. As part of the course, students portrayed the veterans they researched at an annual Revolutionary War Living History Day program. The program teaches more than 1,000 local fourth and fifth graders about the establishment of Fort Laurens—Ohio’s only Revolutionary War fort—through an immersive living history encampment.
My students were particularly interested to read primary source excerpts from Washington on his views toward Catholics. They had been studying various texts, including the journal of Joseph Plumb Martin, for context on military life during the war, but they found Washington’s writings, especially during the war, to be insightful.
Students learn about Charles Carroll (above), the only Catholic to sign the Declaration of Independence. (New York Public Library)
Though Washington never wore his religion on his sleeve, he was on the forefront of ideas on freedom of conscience, especially in regard to groups who might be considered suspect in a predominantly Protestant country. One key field order to the American army in Canada, dated November 5, 1775, prohibited soldiers from engaging in the British (Protestant) tradition of burning effigies of Guy Fawkes, as this would be “insulting their [Catholic] religion….” Washington wrote several orders during the war addressing the need for sensitivity toward Roman Catholics, especially those in Canada, perhaps in the hope of wooing them to the American cause. Washington’s diary entries also show that the Washingtons hosted the Carrolls, a prominent Catholic family from Maryland, at Mount Vernon on numerous occasions. One key element throughout Washington’s writings on religion—to Protestant, Catholic, and Jewish congregations alike—was his promotion of religious freedom. In Alexandria, Virginia, George Washington donated money for the establishment of the Basilica of St. Mary, the first Catholic church in Virginia.
The research my students conducted helped them make broader connections between the historical documentation and their approach to historical interpretation. They learned about the American Revolution from not only a different perspective, but from one they could connect with personally.
Jason Anderson teaches at Archbishop Hoban High School in Akron, Ohio. He is a 2009 alumnus of the George Washington Teacher Institute (GWTI), and served as Mount Vernon’s Teacher Ambassador in Ohio, and as a GWTI Teacher Facilitator.