In this episode of Gwinnett History: Back In The Day, we get into the mind of a man like Button Gwinnett. Everything in our story today is based on this one simple thought: No one becomes a founding father by accident.
Wikipedia is usually wrong. Let’s start there. When it comes to local history, you have to be careful. Button Gwinnett has been called a failure many times in recent years. Especially since the internet made up its mind that a string of career changes define someone as failure. Lazy writers around the world have called Button a failure only because they look no further than wikipedia. But, would anyone today call someone that changed careers a few times and became a congressman a failure? No way!
Here is what we do know: Button was a merchant, a store owner, a plantation owner, and a political figure. We know that his “failure” as a merchant was probably due to harsh taxes. We know he had political aspirations and took up with the Popular party, who represented mostly the lower class folks. We know that owning land was a big deal, and the more you owned the more attention you got. And finally, we know that people still have the same psychological motivations today that they had hundreds of years ago.
So, in part two of our series we take a deeper look at what history defines as “failure” and look at the “facts” from a different angle. What if Button’s “failures” were just moves on a chess board? What if Button, being as stubborn as historical documents DO lead us to believe, did everything he did on purpose? What if Button Gwinnett had more in common with J.R. Ewing or Frank Underwood than with George Washington?
If you need a bit of a refresher on your local history, then Guide To Gwinnett has you covered. DO YOU WANT TO KNOW MORE?
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ABOUT THE PODCAST:
GWINNETT HISTORY: BACK IN THE DAY is hosted by Nathan McGill. An award-winning filmmaker, writer and storyteller at The Guide to Gwinnett and Gwinnett Magazine. Subscribe and follow along as Nathan leads us through compelling stories about Gwinnett.
