My daughter just got done with her AP Euro Class for the year, and she LOVED IT!
Next year she takes AP US History. She said she doesn't think it will be as interesting since our country isn't as old as Europe. I told her there are MANY interesting things to learn abour our country.
What is/was your favorite thing to study/read about in US History?
Well, I loved the painting of General George Washington's prayer at Valley Forge. His troops were cold, they were hungry, and had literally marched their shoes off. He so dearly loved his men for their sacrifices, he asked God to intervene at their lowest time, and I think his faith saved not only them, but this nation. Apparently, the Continental Congress thought so, too, and they made him their first President of the newly-formed Democratic Republic they created so that all men could have personal liberty and find happiness here in America for ever.
Painted by
Arnold Friberg in 1976, the Bicentennial year:
The Prayer at Valley Forge
"I was riding with Mr. Potts near to the Valley Forge where the army lay during the war of ye Revolution, when Mr. Potts said, 'Do you see that woods & that plain? There laid the army of Washington. It was a most distressing time of ye war, and all were for giving up the Ship but that great and good man. In that woods (pointing to a close in view) I heard a plaintive sound as of a man at prayer. I tied my horse to a sapling & went quietly into the woods. To my astonishment I saw the great George Washington on his knees alone, with his sword on one side and his cocked hat on the other. He was at Prayer to the God of the Armies, beseeching to interpose with his Divine aid, as it was ye Crisis & the cause of the country, of humanity & of the world. Such a prayer I never heard from the lips of man. I left him alone praying. I went home & told my wife. We never thought a man could be a soldier & a Christian, but if there is one in the world, it is Washington. We thought it was the cause of God & America could prevail."
Source: Eyewitness testimony of Isaac Potts, a Valley Forge resident who shared the following story with the Rev. Nathaniel Randolph Snowden (1770-1851), who then recorded it in his "Diary and Remembrances."
I absolutely love the story of George Washington, and I sought and got a cookbook of Martha Washington's on ebay, not to mention a little cup and saucer depicting their courtship. George Washington put everything he had on the line for the new Republic. What a wonderful person to be bestowed the title of "The Father of his Country."
I love this reading, also:
Why is George Washington considered the Father of this nation?
I'm just apes for George and Martha Washington. Totally love them.
