An absolutely fabulous book on the subject is An Imperfect God - George Washington, His Slaves, and the Creation of America by Henry Wiencek.

It's been a few years since reading it, but it discusses in great length his life and actions and how they fit into the American narrative. I think the biggest notion that struck me when I read it was just how much of a wealthy gentleman Washington was. We're talking meetings with the House of Burgesses , banquets, balls, horse races, and slave auctions.

Also interesting was his participation in land speculation. Wealthy gentlemen (who also comprised the governments of the colonies) would arrange the purchase of massive swaths of land from natives, and then divide them up themselves for a very low cost. Ten to twenty years later, when settlers moved west and wanted to set up homes, they would be indebted to whomever had purchased the wilderness earlier. A lot of money was to be made here, and entire villages could be born into debt.

One of the major forces which pushed the upper class into splitting from Britain was the Proclamation of 1763, which banned the settling of any land west of the Appalachians. Settlers would encroach on Indian villages, conflict and massacres would occur, and the British army was sick of cleaning up afterwards, and so the proclamation was given. This meant that hundreds of thousands of square miles of land purchased by wealthy colonial gentlemen was now entirely worthless.

Another interesting bit I remember reading was about how Washington's views on slavery wrestled with his economic senses. By the end of the revolution, the continental army was roughly 25% black. Was it just to send them back into slavery after "liberty" had been obtained? Washington struggles with this issue in his journal, writing that he knows it's wrong to keep slaves, but that he wants to make sure he gets a good price for them and so cannot be too careful about choosing when to sell them. He eventually puts in his will that they will be freed upon his wife's death.

If you're interested in the founding fathers in general, a good topic of study is the paths of Washington and Jefferson on slavery. They follow very different arcs. Washington begins his life quite pro-slavery and slowly comes to realize how wrong it is. Jefferson on the other hand begins his law career at age 20 by defending 6 black men accused of murder. Yet he reverses his stance as he ages, and in his later years writes some absolutely horrible racist papers.