“He did for most of his life, both his own and those his wife was given or inherited.”
I knew Lee managed slaves from the estate of his wife, I was not aware that he acquired slaves of his own outright.
Lee’s father died a pauper; Lee lived on an officer’s salary most of his life. He may have inherited slaves from some other source.
Can you provide documentation of where Lee purposefully aquired slaves of his own?
Douglas Southall Freeman talks about Lee's slave ownership earlier in his life. He inherited some from his mother on her death in Lee's own letters talk about owning slaves going back to the 1840sThe Library of Congress has documentation of two Lee slaves, William and Rosabella Burke, who Lee freed in the early 1850s and whose passage to Liberia was paid by Lee. Burke later graduated from a Presbyterian seminary in Monrovia and was an minister. Mrs. Burke corresponded with Mrs. Lee for years prior to the rebellion. Here's a link to the site: Source