“Wiencek [is] a masterful historian . . . [A] brilliantly written, richly researched book. Wiencek has combed all of the relevant archives, inspected and probed countless documents and records, and explored and sifted through many oral histories. His account of Washington's life-long involvement with slavery is riveting from beginning to end . . . At last we may be seeing the extent and depth of slavery in American history.”

 —William E. Cain, The Boston Globe

“[Wiencek] succeeds in laying bare the monstrous cruelty of the slave system, showing how it stained, corrupted and victimized free and unfree alike. . . . This book should be read by all who are interested in Washington. It must be read by all who wish to understand early America.”

 —John Ferling, The Washington Post Book World

“[An] honest and compelling study of Washington and slavery.”

 —Gordon S. Wood, The New York Times Book Review

“Wiencek does an admirable job of exploring how and why Washington's attitude toward slavery changed as it did . . . This gripping story of moral reform adds greatly to our understanding of this most remote of Founders.”

—Alan Pell Crawford, The Wall Street Journal

“The Washington who emerges in this first-rate biography is an all-too-human father of his country. But in the end he looks greater than ever . . . Wiencek’s biography, which never bogs down in politically correct nitpicking, shows how slavery stained almost every aspect of early American life, and we end up respecting Washington because while most Colonials were willing to ignore the evils of slavery, Washington wasn’t.”

 —Malcolm Jones, Newsweek

“With admirable dexterity, Wiencek weaves his exploration of Washington’s circuitous career as an emancipator into an account of his own path of discovery. He takes us to remote parts of Virginia, where he interviewed contemporary descendants of both Washington and his slaves. We follow him as he combs Southern archives and visits and revisits national monuments, commemorative parks and historical museums in search of the piece of evidence that might connect otherwise random facts. The world he opens up with this intrepid sleuthing is far greater than the sum of the details he harvested. And mercifully he leaves it to his readers to feel moral outrage without his guidance . . . Perhaps now we are ready to integrate these unpleasant truths into our self-understanding as a people. Books like An Imperfect God show us the way.”

—Joyce Appleby, Los Angeles Times Book Review

“Emotional and intimate . . . A fine example of another new approach to America's past . . . Creates a fuller picture of the Founding Fathers and, as important, a more immediate sense of the connection between their times and ours. Wiencek's down-to-earth techniques expand our range of feeling about the past and make it real.”

 —Laura Miller, Salon

“Fascinating . . . A compelling investigation into what brought about . . . [Washington’s] final act: the will that set his slaves free when he died . . . [Wiencek] has crafted a portrait of Washington that moves and inspires.”

 —Charles Matthews, San Jose Mercury News

“Wiencek gives us a complex Washington, by turns heroic and vacillating, an heir to his time and place who moved toward transcending both . . . Essential reading for anyone interested in the origins of American thinking about political process, states’ rights and the ongoing dilemma of racism.”

 —Paul Evans, Book

“A fascinating and insightful work. It is the type of history and biography we need if we are to truly understand the world that gave birth to our country.”

 —M. Dion Thompson, The Baltimore Sun

“Thoroughly researched . . . For any reader interested in either George Washington or the issue of slavery, this is very enlightening work.”

 —Nola Theiss, Islander

“Engaging . . . A fascinating story of Washington’s evolving posititions on slavery . . . To help us deal constructively with slavery, it’s good to have our thinking disturbed by books like [this].”

 —Myron A. Marty, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

"This important work, sure to be of compelling interest to anyone concerned with the nation's origins, its founders and history of race slavery, is the first extended history of its subject . . . What will surely gain this book widest notice is Wiencek's careful evaluation of the evidence that Washington himself may have fathered the child of a slave . . . the book stands out for depicting Washington's deep moral struggle with slavery and his 'gradual moral transfiguration' after watching some young slaves raffled off . . . This work of stylish scholarship and genealogical investigation makes Washington an even greater and more human figure than he seemed before."

—Publishers Weekly, starred review

“The book's real achievement is to depict in grisly anecdotal detail the moral abomination that was plantation life while simultaneously imagining how such an admirable figure as Washington could have been for so long a cheerfully prosperous participant before his graduation to abolitionism . . . Highly recommended.”

 —Library Journal