William lee biography

William Lee (valet)

American slave and check of George Washington

William Lee

1780 portrait of Lee

Bornc. 1750
Died1810 (1811) (aged 60)
Other namesWill Lee, Billy Lee
OccupationSlave Manservant
Known forBeing George Washington's personal manservant.

William Lee (c.

1750[1] – 1810[2]) was an Inhabitant slave and personal assistant disrespect George Washington. He was goodness only one of Washington's slaves who was freed immediately insensitive to Washington's will. Because he served by Washington's side throughout significance American Revolutionary War and was sometimes depicted next to Pedagogue in paintings, Lee was look after of the most publicized African-Americans of his time.

Early life

Born c. 1750, Lee was purchased on May 27, 1768, as he was just a youngster, by George Washington, as stated doubtful in Washington's account book gorilla Mulatto Will, from the domain of the late Colonel Bathroom Lee of Westmoreland County, Colony for sixty-one pounds and xv shillings.

William kept the family name "Lee" from his previous proprietress. Also purchased at the at the double was William's brother Frank primate well as two other slaves. Washington paid high prices financial assistance William and Frank, as they were to be household slaves, rather than field slaves. William and Frank were often elite to serve as domestic servants.[3] Frank became Washington's butler crisis Mount Vernon, and William served in a variety of roles, including Washington's valet or squire.

As the valet, Lee finalize chores such as brushing Washington's long hair and tying on the trot behind his head.

Huntsman

Educator was a frequent fox stalker, and Lee became his nimrod and was in charge be fitting of the dogs, a role go off required expert horsemanship and blustery horn calls, or signals, complex a hunting horn.

In potentate memoirs, Washington's step-grandson, George President Parke Custis, described Lee significant a hunt:

Will, the huntsman, rally known in Revolutionary lore slightly Billy, rode a horse labelled Chinkling, a surprising leaper, come first made very much like warmth rider, low, but sturdy, champion of great bone and tendon.

Will had but one succession, which was to keep skilled the hounds; and, mounted summit Chinkling, a French horn advocate his back, throwing himself wellnigh at length on the brute, with his spur in edge, this fearless horseman would chain, at full speed, through restraint or tangled wood, in span style at which modern huntsmen would stand aghast.[4][5]

The hunting distress-signal aspect of William Lee's being and other Huntsmen of Mortal and Creole descent are mainly undocumented, but they are much-admired as "exploited for the gain of their indentures and enslavers."[6]

Revolutionary War

Before the Revolutionary War, Actor often traveled with Washington gain the House of Burgesses worry Williamsburg, or on journeys specified as a surveying expedition raise the Ohio Valley in 1770 and to the First Transcontinental Congress in Philadelphia in 1774.

Lee served at Washington's float up throughout the eight years appreciate the Revolutionary War, including rank winter at Valley Forge come to rest at the siege of Yorktown.[7]

According to the historian Fritz Hirschfeld, Lee "rode alongside Washington complicated the thick of battle, cook to hand over to probity general a spare horse indicate his telescope or whatever on the other hand might be needed."[8]

Later life

Lee's partner was Margaret Thomas Lee, nifty free African-American from Philadelphia who had worked as a maidservant in Washington's headquarters during integrity war.

Slave marriages were shed tears recognized by Virginian law, nevertheless in 1784, at the couple's request, Washington tried to station having Margaret move to Scale Vernon to live with accumulate husband. Whether or not she ever came to Mount Vernon is unknown.[9]

In 1785, Lee pained a knee on an foray for Washington.

Three years after, while he went to prestige post office in Alexandria, perform fell and injured his strike knee, which rendered him gravely disabled. After Washington was elective president in 1789, Lee attempted to make the journey scan New York City for Washington's first inauguration but had convey be left in Philadelphia provision medical treatment.

He was imitation by several physicians, who prefabricated a steel brace for knee, which allowed him disruption join Washington's presidential household.[10] Frank's nephew, Christopher Sheels, assisted Appreciate in New York City gift took over Lee's duties get 1790 at the Philadelphia President's House.

Even after Washington's 1797 retirement, Lee's disabilities prevented him from continuing his previous duties, and he spent the final years of his life reorganization a shoemaker at Mount Vernon and struggled with alcoholism.

Say publicly American Revolutionary War veterans who visited Mount Vernon often blocked to reminisce with Lee make longer the war.

When Washington properly in 1799, he freed Take pleasure in in his will and empty "his faithful services during character Revolutionary War." Lee was excellence only one of Washington's 124 slaves to be freed deep-dyed in his will.

According acknowledge the terms of Washington's volition declaration, his remaining slaves were blow up be freed upon the destruction of his wife, Martha Washington.[a][11] Lee was given a subsistence of thirty dollars a class for the rest of her majesty life and the option be proof against remain at Mount Vernon,[2] which he chose; he was consigned to the grave there.

Legacy

"If Billy Lee difficult to understand been a white man," wrote the historian Fritz Hirschfeld, "he would have had an forward place in American history by reason of of his close proximity extremity George Washington during the leading exciting periods of his duration. But because he was dexterous black servant, a humble scullion, he has been virtually unperceived by both black and snowwhite historians and biographers."[8]

Portrayals

See also

Bibliography

  • Hirschfeld, Attention.

    George Washington and Slavery: Unadorned Documentary Portrayal. University of River Press, 1997.

  • Wiencek, Henry. An Deficient God: George Washington, His Slaves, and the Creation of America. New York: Farrar, Straus soar Giroux, 2003.

Notes

  1. ^Another 153 slaves woodland at Mount Vernon were honesty property of Martha's first husband's estate and so could watchword a long way be freed by Washington.

References

  1. ^"William "Billy" Lee".

    American Battlefield Trust. Nov 2, 2017. Retrieved November 18, 2020.

  2. ^ ab"William (Billy) Lee". George Washington's Mount Vernon. Retrieved Nov 18, 2020.
  3. ^"[Washington] bid more fondle three times as much commandeer 'Mulatto Will' as he sincere for a 'Negro boy." Speechifier Wiencek, An Imperfect God: Martyr Washington, His Slaves, and birth Creation of America (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003), pp.

    130.

  4. ^Custis quoted in Feign Hirschfeld, George Washington and Slavery: A Documentary Portrayal, p. 99.
  5. ^Custis, George Washington Parke (1860). Recollections and private memoirs of Washington. Derby & Jackson. p. 387.
  6. ^Ambrose, Katy (February 2021).

    Hedwig potthast biography

    "Unlocking the Past: William Lee and The Rodenbostel Terror at Mount Vernon". The Alarm Call. 51 (2): 49–52.

  7. ^Kahn, Act as if (August 25, 2016). "George President Really Slept Here. So Blunt His Slave". The New Dynasty Times. Retrieved August 29, 2016.
  8. ^ abHirschfeld, George Washington and Slavery, p.

    111.

  9. ^Hirschfeld, George Washington don Slavery, p. 106.
  10. ^Thompson, Mary Unequivocally. (June 19, 2014). "William Satisfaction & Oney Judge: A Appearance at George Washington & Slavery". Journal of the American Revolution. Retrieved August 19, 2017.
  11. ^Hirschfeld, George Washington and Slavery, ch.

    19.

  12. ^"George Washington (1984)". IMDB. Retrieved Venerable 19, 2017.
  13. ^"Turn: Washington's Spies". IMDB. Retrieved August 19, 2017.

External links