The Sorrows of Parson Weems: His Life and Legacy

Minister and bookseller Mason Locke ("Parson") Weems (1759-1825) wrote bestselling biographies of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, William Penn, and Francis Marion, and several moral tracts in which he advocated matrimony, industry, education, and national unity, and condemned gambling, drinking, dueling, and other vices. In spite of his substantial contributions to our nation's mythology, he has been reduced to the stories he created about Washington and the cherry tree and Washington praying at Valley Forge, and his claim to have been Washington's pastor in order to sell books. A corrective biography is long overdue.

Weems had great success in selling his own and others' books, using innovative techniques such as attaining celebrity endorsements, and confidently approaching crowds anywhere, from churches to racetracks to Congress. Yet he considered himself a failure next to his wealthy father and brothers and well-known publisher Mathew Carey. He sought to compensate by creating a sometimes deceptive self-image of a man who had freed his slaves and left family, riches, and comfort behind in order to tirelessly spread his gospel across the new nation, despite myriad obstacles put into his path by severe weather, primitive travel conditions, incompetent printers, and fickle customers. Weems thought he had the ingredients for success: genius, industry, and a noble cause. However, he never achieved the financial success he sought or received what he considered due appreciation for his sacrifices and his genius.

One can see changing emphases in his writings as Weems responded to problems in his own life and the experiences of his readers. Although methods changed, Weems consistently sought to create a national culture and to spread brotherly love, under the rubrics of republicanism and Christianity, concepts he equated, and warned against false religions of hypocrisy and persecution. His protagonists favored a simple Christianity focused on good works and a belief that "God is love." Weems's contributions to the American mythology of origins in which hard work, selfless republicanism, and pious nondenominational Christianity together founded the nation has resonance in our own time, including in interpretations of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.