“Unlocking History: George Washington’s Wartime Letter Hits the Auction Block for $150,000—What Secrets Does It Hold?”
Public DomainA painting of the Battle of Trenton, a small but significant victory for George Washington and his men.
In December 1776, Washington triumphed at the Battle of Trenton, and followed this victory with the Battle of Assunpink Creek and the Battle of Princeton. The tide seemed to be turning in his favor, which may have informed Washington’s confidence in his letter to Parsons. Even when he wrote to Congress about the raid, Washington stated that “the damage we sustained at Danbury was not so great . . . the chief loss [being tents].”
His confidence, captured in the letter, thus illuminates a crucial moment in early American history.
“The significance of this letter is [that] George Washington reveals that he was less concerned by the losses incurred during a British raid than he was buoyed by the fact that the colonists rose up to defend themselves,” Nathan Raab, the president of the Raab Collection, which is selling the letter, told All That’s Interesting. “He believed that the British had learned a lesson from this — that ‘the country will recur to arms’ when next attacked. That spirit embodies the American Revolution, which makes this letter quite special.”
Raab CollectionThe letter is a rare piece of American history.
Not only that, Raab continued, but the letter itself is a rare artifact.
“There’s only so many out there,” Raab explained to All That’s Interesting. “[T]he supply is decreasing as things enter major private collections and get sold to public ones. So they become rarer each year. A letter like this with this powerful, evocative statement reflecting on the essence of the American Revolution, they are very, very hard to find.”
The letter was posted for sale by the Raab Collection on President’s Day 2025, and is expected to fetch $150,000.
After reading about the 1777 letter written by George Washington that has gone up for sale, go inside the historical mystery of how exactly George Washington died. Then, discover the disturbing true history behind George Washington’s teeth.
