[Governor Dinwiddie]

“Lee's slaves” were a handful that were actually his wife's. His wife Mary Custis was the great granddaughter of Martha Washington. The so-called slaves lived in their own quarters within steps of Mary Custis’s house. They were educated household help, not field hands, similar to the Hispanics who today serve our high government officials and congressman.

[TBP]

IOW, they were dowry slaves. The same situation as George Washington. And you weren’t allowed to free dowry slaves — or to free slaves if you were in debt.

[Bull Snipe]

When G.W.P. Custis (Mary’s father) died in 1958, he owed about 75 slaves. The majority of those slaves worked in and around the estate at Arlington, but some of his slaves worked on other Custis properties as far South as West Point, VA. His will required all the slaves to be freed when the “legacies and debts of the estate were paid in full”, or within five years of his death. Lee was the administrator of the Custis estate. The last of the Custis slaves were freed by Lee in Dec 1862.