From: Seth Ditizio
Date: 2/7/00
Time: 10:29:40 AM
Remote Name: 155.247.244.33
George Washington's "The Excercise of a Schoolboy" gives ua a look into the social order and relationships in Virginia in the eighteenth century. Colonial Virginia was heavily divided by class. One would attain a certain class by having a relative amount of wealth, performing respectable deeds, being born into a descent family, etc. People of a higher rank, demanded and were shown high levels of respect from anyone that was in a lower class. Every form of social interaction was regulated by distinct rules of ettiqutte, from what kind of food you could serve to what type of conversation you could have with a person was all according to people's position in society. Washington had high regard for these social regulations. He believed in getting the respect he deserved, which was probably not much at the time when this was written, and always showing respect to people higher up than him. He also was very proper and tried not to show emotion in front of people other than close friends. It probably wasn't considered manly to display your emotions in colonial Virginia. He also took all the rules serious, no matter how much they demeaned him or others of lower classes. Washington comes across as a man very set in the social mores of his day. He also seems like he had aspirations to someday earn the repsect of a lot of people. At the age of 16 in colonial Virginia, Washington was already a man and was probably trying to start his ascent in the social classes of Virginia. Males adult life probably started around this time. He was basically laying foundation for his career and adulthood.