Lee posted his will in what is now West Virginia. Because of that, it was not known until recently that he was a slave owner. His will was not executed, and sat in the files.
Lee’s will from the 1840s is from Rockbridge County, Virginia (not West Virginia); Lee resided in Rockbridge County and served as the president of Washington College (now Washington & Lee University) after the war. Lee ownership of these slaves was known as he paid property taxes on them in the late 1840’s. He apparently inherited them from his mother as they were slaves at the New Kent county plantation.