Founders as Fathers: The Private Lives and Politics of the American Revolutionaries

by Lorri Glover

As the bold fathers of the American Revolution left behind their private lives to become public nation-builders, what happened to their families?

Surprisingly, no previous book has ever explored how family life shaped the political careers of America’s great Founding Fathers—men like George Mason, Patrick Henry, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison. In this original and intimate portrait, historian Lorri Glover brings to life the vexing, joyful, arduous, and sometimes tragic experiences of the architects of the American Republic who, while building a nation, were also raising families.
 
The costs and consequences for the families of these Virginia leaders were great, Glover the Revolution remade family life no less than it reinvented political institutions. She describes the colonial households that nurtured future revolutionaries, follows the development of political and family values during the revolutionary years, and shines new light on the radically transformed world that was inherited by nineteenth-century descendants. Beautifully written and replete with fascinating detail, this groundbreaking book is the first to introduce us to the founders as fathers.

Genres: History, American History, Nonfiction, American Revolution

344 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2014

Reviews

[Breck Baumann · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this up thinking it would be a great undertaking after a long drought of reading due to the distractions that come with 9 months of pregnancy. With only weeks to go before the due date, I oddly thought there’s no better time then now to compare modern parenting with the fundamentally different practices and challenges that come with teaching, manners, disciplinary actions, habits, childhood experiences, and parental foundations of eighteenth-century North America. Unfortunately, the book reminded me exactly of my underwhelming experience with Myron Magnet’s Founders at Home, which set out to showcase the Founders’ pursuits as architects, plantation owners, and farmers “at home” in America—lacking not only these subjects, but with a deceiving title to boot. I’m never one to judge a book by its cover, but this is a cheap attempt to sway a curious reader (one looking for rather specific historic insight) into a disappointing broad and general history of the Founders’ lives, times, struggles, and accomplishments.

The book starts off strong, with lots of detail that connects the actual “Father” to the Founding Fathers. This is deceiving however, as after only a few chapters it loses focus on these (specifically Virginian) men’s roles as parents, and instead relies heavily on their status as politicians, slaveholders, and landed gentry. While Glover strays off topic time and again from both children and parents, there are certain tidbits throughout that switch the reader’s attention back to the subject at hand:

The life of Ellen Randolph, Thomas Jefferson’s granddaughter, offers some answers. Ellen was born in 1796 and spent much of her youth at Monticello, where she grew up knowing that her behavior would determine her place in her family and Virginia society. When she was only five, the president of the United States explained to her, along with her eleven-year-old sister and nine-year-old brother, how to earn love: “The more I perceive that you are all advancing in your learning and improving in good dispositions the more i shall love you, and the more every body will love you.” The way to obtain love, Jefferson explained, was “never to quarrel or be angry with any body and to tell a story. Do all the kind things you can to your companions, give them every thing rather than to yourself. Pity and help any thing you see in distress and learn your books and improve your minds.”

Even some substantial detail on their role as husbands wouldn’t take away from the reading experience and overall purpose of Glover’s undertaking, which I was expecting to find further along—yet never came to fruition. By the ending, I was left less-than-satisfied with what appeared to be a fascinating topic to delve into, having found myself instead the dull task of scouring the ending ‘Notes’ section of Founders as Fathers for prior-source material that would hopefully bring to light the Founders’ roles as actual parents.

[Smh624 · Rating 5 out of 5]

An exceptional book providing a fresh perspective on the story of five of the major founders who were Virginia plantation owners: Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Henry and Mason. This book very much reminds us that these were real people who were fathers of their families and the United States of America. The chapters on women and slavery are particularly insightful. This book made me think a lot.

[Liam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lorri Glover’s Founders as Fathers: The Private Lives and Politics of the American Revolutionaries seeks to connect the Private lives and politics of five of the Founding Fathers, all of them from Virginia.

Glover focuses on Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, George Washington, James Madison, and George Mason, and talks about how these Founding Fathers had both their private and public lives defined by a rigid form of patriarchy, which was characterized by family, a plantation, and maintaining their place in Societal Order, and these values formed the core of their identity, and as a result, she argues that these Founding Fathers, who took the meanings of Fatherhood to two levels, found themselves having to make a choice as first the Revolutionary War, and then the fledgling nation, required their services. Glover notes that, more often than not, the Nation won out over their own families, creating an interesting view of the Fathers as Fathers of the Nation, essentially choosing Nation to fail as Patriarch. Glover also states that some founders, like George Washington, created pseudo families within their various spheres. Glover also argues that it was this rigid view of patriarchy and paternalism that prevented the Founding Fathers from allowing the full potential of the Revolution to come to fruition, and instead it being limited to a “natural aristocracy” of white men based on merit, and this, of course, not extending to women or to anyone of any other race, who found themselves left out of the ideals of Freedom and of the Revolution.

Glover shifts the focus of the conversation in this book by mixing both political and social history, allowing us to see that certain societal norms of Virginia, specifically the owning of plantations, of family, and of social order, were the norms of the men who were largely responsible for creating the founding documents. As such, Glover makes a connection between the morals and values of these five founding fathers with the core of American culture. By doing so, Glover makes it clear that in some ways, choosing the Nation at the expense of their patriarchy was, in some ways , not only necessary, but carried over into ways that affected politics and politicians into the nineteenth century.

[Yolanda Guan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Could have been an interesting long article. Some points are repeated too many times to the point I almost gave up reading half-way. As a non-American, I wonder why the author has put so much emphasis on Virginia in a book titled Founders as Fathers. Shouldn't it include other revolutionaries from places like Massachusetts as well?

[Sally Monaghan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not what I expected. I expected more information on the men's interactions with their children and families. But, they were actually just background in the story. I also have a bone to pick with the author's premise that Virginia and Virginians were teh driving force behind the Revolution. She seems to have completely overlooked the critical role of the men of Massachusetts, where the first stirrings of Revolution really began. She could have focused her book on the Virginians without having made this argument, so I'm not sure why she focused so much on it. It was interesting to read more the background of Patrick Henry and George Mason than I ever had, but there was really nothing new on Washington and Jefferson. An interesting, but not outstanding book.

[Joann Glasser · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. To read how these great men were in their homes was interesting. To realize how they worried about their offspring not appreciating what all they had done for freedom reminded me of how we feel this younger generation does not appreciate the freedoms we have. Times just repeat themselves. To read in the end after their lives what became of their properties was interesting. Having visited these places made me really appreciate these individuals even more. Too bad freedom did not extend to the slaves even though they felt it was wrong. They were not willing to let their slaves go.

[Bill Glose · Rating 3 out of 5]

Historian Lorri Glover shows how the home lives of five Virginians—George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, James Madison and George Mason—influenced the politics and decisions that were instrumental in forming the United States of America. As patriarchs during the plantation era, their private concerns were of agricultural conditions, labor costs, the ability for extended family to work and thrive, and the management of a town-sized estate with a matching population. As architects of our nation, it was only natural these concerns would also find their way into the Constitution. Founders as Fathers is an intriguing read.

[Laurie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Here is an excerpt from my review: "I found it interesting that these revolutionary leaders seemed so reluctant to serve in the political sphere because they wanted to be able to spend time with their families. George Mason's contemporaries kept nominating him for stuff, and he kept turning them down because he just didn't want to be away from his wife and children. Thomas Jefferson was fined for not showing up to stuff because he wanted to stay home with his sick wife."

You can read my full review here: http://cookscrapcraft.blogspot.com/20...

[Mandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

An original and unusual examination of how the Founding Fathers of America were first and foremost fathers and patriarchs of their own families and domains, and how their family life influenced and shaped their attitudes to their roles as leaders of the new nation. Full of intimate detail and perceptive observations this is an extremely interesting and enlightening read that I very much enjoyed.

[Lynn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm sure this is an excellent source of family life for the founding fathers for readers who are into scholarly history, but I found it hard going. The individual stories of the founders children were interesting, but all the historical background read more like a thesis and to me was boring. True be told, I gave up about 3/4 of the way through the book.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really very interesting information on the Founders! Recommended.

[Tom · Rating 3 out of 5]

A unique perspective on the Virginia Founding Fathers.

[Liz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well researched, poorly organized.