in today's program we will hear from author, bruce ragsdale, whose new book, "washington at the plow", discusses these changes. explains how washington's passion for farming led him to question the reliance on slave labor. bruce ragsdale served for 20 years as director of the federal judiciary at the federal judicial center. the author of a planters republic with urge for independents in revolutionary virginia, he has been a fellow at the washington library, mount vernon, and the international center for jefferson studies. now let's hear from bruce ragsdale, thank you for joining us today. >> thank you, i am delighted to have this opportunity to speak to the audience at the national archives. i rely so heavily on founders online, it is a wonderful resource that has all of the published correspondence of washington and other founders. making it so accessible to make this research. the book is an attempt to write a full history of washington's life as a farmer. a farming biography as it were. his life as a former really still stands as the most important untold story about the most fami

now that's here from bruce ragsdale. thank you for joining us today. thank you. i'm delighted to have this opportunity to speak to audience the archives and as the archivist said i relied so heavily on founders online the wonderful resource that has all the published correspondence in washington and other founders that made it so accessible to do this research. um, the book is an attempt to write a full history of washington's life as a farmer of farming biography as it were and is his life as a farmer really still stands as the most important untold story about the most familiar of the founders and i started this project with a conviction that no one can fully understand washington without having some sense of why he preferred his life as a farmer so much and also what i hope to achieve for the new nation as a farmer in the way, he saw it. is it an additional kind of leadership in establishing the united states a british visitor to mount vernon 1785 reported that estrogen's greatest ambition following the american revolution was to be considered the first farmer