Random Things Of George Washington's Teeth Weren't Wooden At All - They May Have Been Teeth of Slaves (13 items)

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  (#11) London's Poor Sold Their Teeth For Money

  When surgeons like John Hunter advertised, looking for human teeth to transplant into the mouths of wealthy Londoners, it was the poorest from London's slums who responded. Hunter recommended using young donors, and said that girls were the best because their teeth were generally smaller. He was also able to line up a row of eager donors willing to sell a tooth for a few pennies.

  Another 18th-century dentist named William Rae argued that it was immoral to take teeth from the poor to give to the rich: "In the first place, it is cruel to take the teeth of a poor creature, whose necessities may induce him to part with it as a means of procuring subsistence." He then added that poor people were often diseased, putting the wealthy at risk. 
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  (#3) Dentists Paid Money For Human Teeth

  In Washington's day, many dentures included human teeth - for people who could afford them. Dentists like John Greenwood, the president's dentist, paid good money for human teeth. Greenwood posted an advertisement for "Live teeth," offering "a guinea each."

  One of Washington's other dentists, Jean Pierre Le Moyer, also bought human teeth. In 1783 he advertised in the New York papers for "persons disposed to sell their front teeth, or any of them." Le Moyer was more generous, promising two guineas per tooth. The same year, Le Moyer began treating Washington, and he likely performed the tooth transplant the general had in 1784. 
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  (#2) Washington Probably Used His Slaves' Teeth For A Tooth Transplant

  Eighteenth-century wealthy people who lost a tooth had several options: they could purchase dentures to replace the tooth, or they could opt for the newer method of a tooth transplant. Washington, who only had one of his original teeth by the time he became America's first president, tried both options. 

  In May of 1784, Washington took nine teeth from several unnamed "negroes," who were most likely his own slaves. French dentist Jean Pierre Le Moyer, a specialist in tooth transplants, visited Mount Vernon several times between 1784 and 1788, and Washington's own letters hint that he underwent a tooth transplant in 1784, the same year he bought the teeth. That year, he told his former clerk Richard Varick: "I confess I have been staggered in my belief in the efficacy of transplantion." If the transplant didn't take, that might explain why Washington turned to dentures once he became president.
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  (#9) It Wasn't Just About Money; Rich People Were Rotting Their Teeth With Sugar

  Rich people didn't just use the teeth of poor people and slaves because they could afford to pay for teeth. In fact, in the 18th century, rich people often had worse teeth than the impoverished because of their sugar consumption. With the rise of tea, expensive candies, and other sugar-rich foods in the daily diet of the wealthy, their dental health grew worse and worse.

  When the wealthy had their rotten teeth extracted, they didn't want to appear in public with a gap in their smile. So dentists began to experiment with tooth implants, where a "donor tooth" would replace a decayed tooth. The poor couldn't afford sugary food and their desperate poverty meant they would sell their teeth to survive. Healthy human teeth became a prized commodity in the 18th century - and the horrific practice of enslaving humans only increased wealthy people's appetite for teeth.
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  (#4) Washington Owned 317 Slaves Who Lived In Misery

  Washington became a slave owner at the age of 11, when he inherited 10 slaves from his father; by the time he died, he owned 317 people.

  In 1798, a Polish poet named Julian Niemcewicz stayed at Mount Vernon for two weeks. He was horrified by the living conditions of Washington's slaves. Their living quarters could not be called houses, Niemcewicz began: "They are far more miserable than the poorest of the cottages of our peasants. The husband and his wife slept on a miserable bed, the children on the floor... a boy about 15 was lying on the floor with an attack of dreadful convulsions." The entire scene screamed of "misery" to the poet, who was shocked and appalled at the conditions he witnessed.
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  (#13) Washington May Have Paid For The Slave Teeth, But That Doesn't Make It Right

  This possible explanation behind Washington's smile complicates our view of the Founding Father. The fact that there are no primary sources to verify that the purchased teeth and the ones Washington wore in his dentures were one and the same make it a little more difficult to figure out. It should be noted, however, that Washington did pay his slaves for their teeth. Records show that the general paid 122 shillings for the nine teeth he took in 1784, presumably for a tooth transplant. However, this was only a fraction of the going rate for teeth at the time: it was less than a third of what Le Moyer paid for teeth.

  Washington was also the only slave-owning Founding Father who set all his slaves free in his will. In spite of this, the fact that the revered first president of the United States not only owned slaves but also personally used their teeth reminds us of America's complicated histories of race and power.

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