Description: Lee Henry

Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee Requests All Virginia "condemnation of slaves" Cases for Clemency Review

1p printed document signed by Henry "Light Horse Harry" Lee III (1756-1818), then Governor of Virginia, as "Henry Lee" at lower right. Issued from Richmond, Virginia on January 25, 1794. Expected wear including light to moderate toning. Weak folds repaired verso with archival tape, else very good. 6.5" x 8".

Henry “Light Horse” Harry Lee was a Revolutionary War hero, Governor of Virginia, and father to famous Confederate commander General Robert E. Lee. Here, he requests that county clerks fill positions of “Escheator” (persons overseeing land reverting to the state if there are no heirs), and adds that he would like to be informed of any cases involving a slave condemned for crimes where the “person be considered as an object of mercy or not…”

In part:

"IT is essentially necessary that all vacancies in the office of Escheator, within this Commonwealth, be filled up. I request you will be so good as to recommend to me, without delay, a fit person within your county, to be commissioned as Escheator, in case there should be no such officer at present; but if there be one already commissioned, be pleased to direct your Clerk to certify his name, and the time of his qualifying, to me.

I have also to request that you will instruct your Clerk, in all future cases of the condemnation of slaves, to forward to the Executive, the proceedings of the court previous to the sentence being carried into effect, whether the condemned person be considered as an object of mercy or not; and to acknowledge the receipt of this letter, with the one inclosed [not present] to the Escheator of your county, which I recommend to your care…"

Lee had a conflicted attitude towards slavery in theory and in practice. In his memoirs, Lee called slavery a “dreadful evil, which the cruel policy of preceding times had introduced.” He privately lamented that the 1787 Constitution did not provide for a “gradual abolition of slavery.” Yet Lee himself had owned slaves until his bankruptcy in the late 1790s forced him to liquidate his property. As Governor, Lee did much to defend the legal status quo because he and many white Southerners feared a revolt.

Lee remembered well how the British had used the carrot of freedom to convince slaves to rise up against their owners. In fact, he considered slavery a threat to national security. In 1792, when he learned that slaves on the Eastern Shore had plotted a revolt, he ordered local officials “to crush the mad attempt.” In 1800, while serving in Congress, he opposed the body receiving a petition from free blacks, advocating “such measures as shall in due course emancipate the whole of their brethren from their present situation.” While he favored closing the slave trade as stipulated by the Constitution, he resisted any effort to interfere “with the property of any of the citizens.”

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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