George Washington and the Cherry Tree

The PowerPoint below will not make much sense unless you know the legend of George Washington and the Cherry Tree. I include a link to the legend/myth here:

I use the Cherry Tree legend to point to how some possible levels of interpretation in biblical texts enrich those texts and enlarge their reach. It is not something we can do much to enhance in translation per se, but might encourage us to try to tell the biblical stories as well as we can, in the hope that the power of the narratives themselves will continue to carry an impact beyond the presentational level of the text in our translations, just as they have already done for millennia before us. This can be the case whether we take the texts (or some of them) as history or legend, or some kind of mix of both.

I am not sure I would call it intertextuality exactly, but it feels like something similar at the level of interpretation. The point is that the biblical stories fundamentally aim to transmit values (as does the Cherry Tree legend), and as such have a much wider reach than just the presentational and/or "historical" level.

Extracted text from http://www.mountvernon.org:

Buy Tickets MENU Mount Vernon

SUBJECT

TYPE A-Z INDEX Cherry Tree Myth EXPAND MENU INTERVIEW

Where the Cherry Tree Grew Author Philip Levy discusses his book,Where the Cherry Tree Grew.Levy explains the history, mythology, and archeology of Ferry Farm, Washington's boyhood home in Fredericksburg, Virginia. LEARN MORE LEGENDS

The Man and Myth The story of the cherry tree is not the only Washington-related myth! Mount Vernon invites you to separate fact from fiction and learn about the real George Washington. LEARN MORE DIGITAL ENCYCLOPEDIA

Social Education Washington grew up with little formal schooling. However, from the joint influence of role models and literature, Washington steadfastly preserved the importance of ideas ranging from honor to humanity to hospitality.

LEARN MORE

"Father, I Can Not Tell a Lie: I Cut the Tree," engraving by John C. McRae, 1867.

The cherry tree myth is the most well-known and longest enduring legend about George Washington. In the original story, when Washington was six years old he received a hatchet as a gift and damaged his fathers cherry tree. When his father discovered what he had done, he became angry and confronted him. Young George bravely said, I cannot tell a lieI did cut it with my hatchet. Washingtons father embraced him and rejoiced that his sons honesty was worth more than a thousand trees.1

Ironically, this iconic story about the value of honesty was invented by one of Washingtons first biographers, an itinerant minister and bookseller named Mason Locke Weems. After Washingtons death in 1799 people were anxious to learn about him, and Weems was ready to supply the demand. As he explained to a publisher in January 1800, Washington you know is gone! Millions are gaping to read something about himMy plan! I give his history, sufficiently minuteI then go on to show that his unparalleled rise and elevation were due to his Great Virtues.2 Weems biography, The Life of Washington, was first published in 1800 and was an instant bestseller. However the cherry tree myth did not appear until the books fifth edition was published in 1806.

Although there were other myths about Washington in Weemss book, the cherry tree myth became the most popular. Weems had several motives when he wrote The Life of Washington and the cherry tree myth. Profit was certainly one of them; he rightly assumed that if he wrote a popular history book about Washington it would sell. Weems was also able to counter the early tradition of deifying Washington by focusing on his private virtues, rather than his public accomplishments. A Federalist admirer of order and self-discipline, Weems wanted to present Washington as the perfect role model, especially for young Americans.

Cover page of the 1840 edition of Weem's Life of Washington. The book's subtitle shows how important Weems thought the anecdotes were to his book's central purpose to make Washington a role model for his "Young Countrymen."

The cherry tree myth and other stories showed readers that Washingtons public greatness was due to his private virtues. Washingtons achievements as a general and president were familiar to people in the early nineteenth century, but little was known about his relationship with his father, who died when Washington was only eleven years old. As one Pennsylvanian observed, The facts and anecdotes collected by the author are well calculated to exhibit the character of that illustrious man, and Christian hero.3 Weems knew what the public wanted to read, and as a result of his success he is considered one of the fathers of popular history.

Weems wrote his version of the cherry tree myth to appeal to a broad audience, but decades later William Holmes McGuffey composed a series of grammar school textbooks that recast the anecdote as a children's story. McGuffey was a

Mason Locke Weems, by an unidentified artist, c.1810. Number NPG.95.190, National Portrait Gallery.

Presbyterian minister and a college professor who was passionate about teaching morality and religion to children. His books, known as McGuffeys Readers, gave him the perfect opportunity. First published in 1836, the readers remained in print for nearly a hundred years and sold over 120 million copies.

McGuffey's version of the cherry tree myth appeared in his Eclectic Second Reader for almost twenty years, including the German-language edition from 1854. In McGuffey's version of the story, Washington's language was formalized, and he showed more deference to his fathers authority. For example, when Washingtons father explains the sin of lying, McGuffey has young George respond tearfully, "Father, do I ever tell lies?4

As ministers concerned with moral and religious reform, McGuffey and Weems had similar motives for writing. Both men also believed that the best way to improve the moral fiber of society was to educate children. Washington provided the perfect role model, and McGuffey turned the cherry tree myth into a story specifically aimed at children. Follow-up questions at the end of McGuffeys cherry tree story reinforce its message: How did his father feel toward him when he made his confession? What may we expect by confessing our faults?5

By the 1830s, the cherry tree myth was firmly entrenched in American culture, as the case of Joice Heth clearly shows. Heth was an elderly enslaved woman purchased by P.T. Barnum in 1835. He made her into a sideshow attraction, billing her as the slave who had raised George Washington. (If true, this would have made her 161 years old.) Heth had many physical characteristics of extreme old age, most likely due to her lifetime in slavery. The stories she told about Washington--including the cherry tree myth--were right out of Weems. Heth was credible because she was telling stories that people already knew.

The cherry tree myth has endured for more than two hundred years probably because we like the story, which has become an important part of Americans' cultural heritage. It has been featured in comic strips and cartoons, especially political cartoons. Americans like to use the myth as a standard for politicians; presidents from William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt to Richard Nixon, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama have been featured in cherry-tree themed cartoons. The longevity of the cherry tree myth says a lot about both American ideals and Washingtons legacy.

Jay Richardson George Mason University

Notes:

1 Mason Locke Weems, The Life of Washington the Great (Augusta, GA: George P. Randolph, 1806), 8-9.

2 Mason Locke Weems to Mathew Carey, January 12, 1800, in Paul Leicester Ford, Mason Locke Weems: His Works, His Ways: A Bibliography Left Unfinished, 3 vols. (New York: Plimpton Press, 1929), 2: 8-9.

3 Proposals of Mason L. Weems, Dumfries, for publishing by subscription, The Life of George Washington, with curious anecdotes, equally honourable to himself and exemplary to his young countrymen (Philadelphia: Carey, 1809).

4 William Holmes McGuffey, The Eclectic Second Reader (Cincinnati: Truman and Smith, 1836), 113-115.

5 Ibid.

Bibliography:

Harris, Christopher. "Mason Locke Weemss Life of Washington: The Making of a Bestseller." Southern Literary Journal, 19 (1987): 92-102.

Lengel, Edward G. Inventing George Washington: Americas Founder in Myth andMemory.New York: HarperCollins, 2010.

McGuffey, William H. The Eclectic Second Reader. Cincinnati: Truman and Smith, 1836.

Weems, Mason L. The Life of Washington the Great: Enriched with a Number of Very Curious Anecdotes, Perfectly in Character, and Equally Honorable to Himself, and Exemplary to his Young Countrymen. Augusta, GA: George P. Randolph, 1806.

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Extracted text from Levels_of_Interpretation.pptx:

LEVELS OF INTERPRETATIONGEORGE WASHINGTON THE LEGEND OF GEORGE... THE AXE... AND THE CHERRY TREETHE LEGEND

1. THE AXE
2. THE TREE
3. THE OPPORTUNITY
4. THE ACT
5. THE QUESTION
6. THE ANSWERBUT WHOM (OR WHAT) IS THE STORY ABOUT?LEVEL #1: GEORGE THE CHILD PRESENTATION LEVEL IS EASY TO UNDERSTAND AND APPLY: GEORGE THE CHILD IS IMPULSIVE, BUT HONEST AN TAKES PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY FOR HIS ACTIONSLEVEL #2: GEORGE THE ADULT GEORGE THE ADULT IS FAMOUS FAMOUS PERSONS ATTRACT LEGENDS TO THEMSELVES HE REPRESENTS THE VALUES OF HONESTY, TRANSPARENCY AND PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY EVEN WHEN MAKING MISTAKESLEVEL #3: THE NEW NATION THE NEW DEMOCRACY NEEDED SUPPORT A NEW DEMOCRACY SHOULD BE HONEST AND OPEN AND TAKE RESPONSIBILITY EVEN WHEN MAKING MISTAKESLEVEL #4: THE PEOPLE OF THE U.S.A. WE (AS AMERICANS) NEED TO BE HONEST AND TRANSPARENT AND TAKE PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY EVEN (ESPECIALLY) WHILE MAKING MISTAKES JUST LIKE THE CHILD GEORGE!LEVELS OF INTERPRETATION OF THE BIBLICAL TEXTS PRESENTATION LEVEL LEVEL OF THE CREATION OF THE TEXT LEVEL OF THE TRANSMISSION OF THE TEXT LEVEL OF THE APPLICATION OF THE TEXT IN CURRENT CONTEXTSLEVELS OF INTERPRETATION OF THE BIBLICAL TEXTS EXAMPLES: THE SACRIFICE OF ISAAC THE PARABLES OF JESUSHOMEWORK
7. CHOOSE A BIBLICAL FIGURE (ABRAHAM, JOSEPH, MOSES, DAVID, JESUS, ET. AL.)
8. CHOOSE A (SHORT) STORY FROM THEIR LIFE
9. APPLY THE ABOVE ANALYSIS TO UNCOVER MULTIPLE LAYERS OF INTERPRETATION IN THE TEXT
10. TRY TO FIND SOME BASIC VALUES IN THE TEXT AT EACH LEVEL