Table Of Content
They held hands and sang along as Arlington’s Mt. Zion Baptist Church led into “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” the anthem that has long been the galvanizing song of America’s Black civil rights movements. One hundred and sixty years after the last men, women and children enslaved on Robert E. Lee’s plantation were set free, their families returned from across the country to reunite with each other and their history. Selina Gray was the personal house servant to Robert E. Lee's wife, Mary Custis Lee, at Arlington House. To show how deep the roots are here — Mrs. Lee inherited the plantation home, surrounding land, and the enslaved African Americans working there from her father George Washington Parke Custis. ARLINGTON, Va. — There was a one-of-a-kind reunion over the weekend at Arlington House, the national memorial to Robert E. Lee that sits atop a hill in Arlington National Cemetery. Descendants of the Confederate general gathered with the descendants of the people the Lee family once enslaved on the property in Virginia.
History
You will also learn more about the history Arlington House Foundation and the work that we are doing to preserve this important part of our shared history which will help us better understand the past and guide us going forward as we confront the challenges of the 21st Century. Maria Syphax's 17 acres was likewise confiscated by the government as Maria Syphax did not have legal title to the property when the government acquired Arlington House and the surrounding lands in 1864. The bill was passed by both Houses and signed into law by President Andrew Johnson.
Arlington National Cemetery expansion
Two years after graduating from West Point, Lieutenant Lee married Mary Anna Custis at Arlington on June 30, 1831. They spent much of their married life traveling between United States Army duty stations and Arlington, where six of their seven children were born. After their deaths, Mary's parents were buried not far from the house on land that is now part of Arlington National Cemetery. This 1910 mansion was designed by architect Alfred F. Rosenheim of the American Horror Story house fame for prominent lawyer Eugene W. Britt. The house is now the offices of the LA84 Foundation, “endowed with surplus funds from the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games,” and is home of the world's largest library for sports research.
History & Culture
Following the Union's defeat at the Second Battle of Manassas in August, 1862, the army constructed Fort Whipple on the Arlington grounds presently occupied by Fort Meyer. The fort was said to be one of the strongest fortifications for the defense of Washington during the civil war. Before leaving Arlington House, Mrs. Lee had entrusted the safekeeping of the house and its possessions to an enslaved maid, Selina Gray, with whom she had left the household keys.
Her children were instrumental in the restoration of Arlington House in the 1920s and 1930s. Lee was sent by General Winfield Scott, Commander in Chief of the Army, to Harper's Ferry where he successfully suppressed the insurrection and captured Brown who was later sentenced to death and hanged. News of the John Brown raid and Lee's role in the storming of the arsenal and capturing Brown could have exacerbated the hard feelings of the enslaved towards Lee.
Members of the Enslaved Community at Arlington House
(It once hosted catering for the cast of Soul Train!) It was on and off the market for seven years before selling in 2015 for $1.4 million. The witchy, wonderful, Italian Gothic and Queen Anne manor that is the Fitzgerald House is arguably one of the most visually exciting structures on this list. The house is said to have “a cellar and attic, an octagonal sunken den with fireplace and vaulted ceilings,” and even an inglenook, the built-in nook with benches on either side of the fireplace.
"This is an incredibly important time in the history of our country. We are evaluating the long-term legacies of that time and this house." In 2014, philanthropist, David Rubenstein, donated $13.35 million for the restoration of Arlington House which was closed for renovation in 2018 and reopened in June, 2021. Along with material telling the stories of the Custises and Lees, there are new exhibits and information on those enslaved there, including the Norris, Gray and Syphax families. The rebirth of Arlington House with the generous contribution of David Rubenstein heralds a new commitment to opening the lens of its historical view, and ensuring, going forward, that all stories will be told and all voices will be heard. Custis Lee had never intended to live at Arlington which was now host to thousands of war-time graves. After strenuous negotiations, Custis sold the property to the government for $150,000, granting the government legal title to mansion and the surrounding land.
Police identify suspect in home that exploded near DC and are investigating ‘concerning social media posts’ he allegedly made - CNN
Police identify suspect in home that exploded near DC and are investigating ‘concerning social media posts’ he allegedly made.
Posted: Tue, 05 Dec 2023 08:00:00 GMT [source]
“The last thing we need to do is have memorials to people who were traitors to their country,” Beyer, whose district includes Arlington Cemetery and the Lee memorial, told the descendants on Saturday. Sitting side by side on white folding chairs behind the stately Greek Revival-style mansion, more than 100 descendants of all of the families listened to songs, read the names of their ancestors and heard about plans for a patchwork quilt that would include each of their handprints. "These families refuse to allow him to be a figure of division and instead take the opportunity to come together and grapple with hard history and find the family tie that exists," she says. The work is being guided by Susan Glisson, a Mississippi historian who has worked for years to help disparate groups reckon with the country's fraught racial history. Lee and his sister, Tracy Lee Crittenberger, say they were surprised at first that the descendants of the enslaved families wanted to get to know them, but they've found the conversations fruitful. He's been working with the National Park Service to honor the legacy of the families enslaved at Arlington House, because he says the house would not have existed without slave labor.
The descendants of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee and those of the people the Lee family enslaved came together for the first time at Arlington House on Saturday. "They built the plantation house. They took care of the fields. ... They took care of the livestock. And they took care of the people," he says. "So their stories are just as important as those stories of the people who enslaved them." Arlington House is located inside Arlington National Cemetery, and is a 10-minute walk from the Arlington Cemetery Visitor Center/parking area.
With the establishment of the National Cemetery, Arlington House was primarily used as the headquarters and administrative office of the Cemetery, as well as living quarters for the Superintendent and family. Robert E. Lee's reputation recovered in the years following the war and he was lauded for promoting reunion and reconciliation between the north and south. Political leaders and the Press viewed his taking the path of reconciliation, rather than rejectionism, as important in cementing the bonds of union between north and south.
Just because you can afford to buy a house in Arlington doesn’t make it any easier to buy there - WTOP
Just because you can afford to buy a house in Arlington doesn’t make it any easier to buy there.
Posted: Mon, 11 Mar 2024 07:00:00 GMT [source]
Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, returned the property to Custis Lee, stating that it had been confiscated without due process. On March 3, 1883, the Congress purchased the property from Lee for $150,000. Cecilia Torres' great-great-grandmother was the personal house servant to Robert E. Lee's wife at Arlington House. Torres is part of the group working to bring back memories of her ancestors, as well as reconcile with the family that enslaved them. Stephen Hammond is Charles Syphax's great-great-great-nephew and a family historian.
Board members said the increase will fund needs facing the community, including affordable housing, eviction prevention, investments in the environment and support for teenagers. Michael Robert Patterson was born in Arlington and is the son of a former officer of the US Army. So it was no wonder that sooner or later his interests drew him to American history and especially to American military history.
During the American Civil War, the house was seized by the Union Army who proceeded to turn the plantation into a military cemetery, Arlington National Cemetery. Today, the National Park Service serves as the steward of this important resource to ensure its preservation for future generations. The property is connected to many important figures, issues and events in United States history.Over the 60 years leading up to the Civil War, Arlington House was also home to nearly 100 enslaved African Americans who lived and labored on the estate.
The entablature and roof structure were built of wood and painted to resemble marble. Both wings were completed by 1804, but the signature center block was not completed until 1818. Custis's cousin, David Meade Randolph3, had developed a type of hard stucco which he called "hydraulic cement" and convinced Custis to cover the bricks with his stucco which was then etched and faux painted to resemble sandstone.
An early opponent of the institution of slavery, she started a school for the enslaved families at Arlington and began ministering to them in her Episcopalian faith. Many prominent Americans embraced the project as a solution to the nation's racial problems, including Bushrod Washington, Henry Clay and Abraham Lincoln who continued to support the plan to resettle free Blacks after he became president. The colonization project was opposed by abolitionists and most enslavers alike, and never came close to fulfilling the desires of its proponents. At most, only 12,000 former slaves were resettled in Africa, primarily in Liberia, and many died from disease, malnutrition and other causes after resettlement.
Custis's will provided that freedom for his enslaved could be delayed for up to five years so that their labor could be used to pay off the debts and bequests. Like a military taskmaster, Lee did not hesitate to put the enslaved to work to pay off the debts, separating them from their families and hiring them out to other plantations and employers. By 1860, all but one of the enslaved families had experienced some degree of separation from loved ones.
No comments:
Post a Comment