his WIFE received a FEW slaves from her parents, who REL promptly & UNLAWFULLY freed. it caused him no end of marital problems, as his wife KNEW they NEEDED the money that the sale would have brought into the home.
IF REL hadn't been who he was, he would have gotten in serious trouble for doing it too, as the slaves were the SOLE property of a "femme sole". this was, at that time, a CRIME!
free dixie,sw
That was long thought to be the case.
The will recently discovered shed new light on that.
The other interesting thing you said was about how REL freed slaves promptly. His father in law's will granted the his slaves freedom, but gave him, as executor, 5 years to accomplish that. Rather than promptly free the slaves from an estate that was crushed in debt, REL delayed their freedom until after the 5 years time, and rented the slaves out. Where slaves differed in their judgement of when their freedom should be granted by REL, he took advantage of the Fugitive Slave Act to have them detained, brutally whipped, and tortured by having salt water played over their wounds.
The Antebellum south was a muddle of conflicting notions. REL was a very Southen man. He could direct the torture of a women with enthusiasm, if he thought he was within his rights. On the other hand, I am sure he was kind to puppies.