As Henry enters adolescence, he begins to notice the complications of life. The stereotypes of class distinction are less acceptable. A trip to Washington, D. C., alerts him to some of the realities of a slave culture. During a visit to George Washington’s home at Mount Vernon, in the slave state of Virginia, he becomes aware of the fact that great men can sometimes be associated with wicked practices. He is further disillusioned by a political deal struck by the Free Soilers but is relieved that his father has nothing to do with it. Despite all of these experiences, he writes that, at the age of sixteen, Henry has “had as yet no education at all.”
