WHEN THE GENERALS FREED THEIR SLAVES

Confederate General Robert E. Lee freed all of his family's slaves in 1862 after the death of his father-in-law. Lee observed that, "There are few, I believe, in this enlightened age, who will not acknowledge that slavery as an institution is a moral and political evil."

Union General Ulysses S. Grant manumitted in 1859 a slave that he owned. However, the slaves belonging to his wife, a Missouri resident, did not receive their liberty until 1865, when Missouri legally abolished slavery in that state and the 13th Amendment was adopted. Mrs. Grant did not have to comply with the provisions of the Emancipation Proclamation and free her slaves in 1863, as the Proclamation applied only to those states officially in rebellion at that time--which did not include Missouri.

The foregoing is a widely-circulated narrative about the irony of the Confederate general's enlightened view of about slavery compared to the Yankee general who was involved in the ownership of slaves throughout the Civil War. However, as Paul Harvey oft said, "Now for the rest of the story."

The opening paragraph about Lee is technically true. What is omitted is the fact that Lee's father-in-law died in 1857 and stipulated in his will that all of the family's slaves be freed within five years. Lee fought to extend in state court the five-year period of the enslavement on two different occasions, but he lost both times. During the five years, Lee, according to contemporary reports, sought to get the maximum mileage of work out of each slave before the court-ordered manumission and was a harsh taskmaster who did not eschew using the whip.

What about Grant? He did own a slave which he freed in 1859. His wife in fact was from a slave-owning family and owned four slaves which served Grant, his wife, and their children while they lived in St. Louis from 1854 to 1859. However, the record is murky as to whether Mrs. Grant's father retained legal title to the slaves or if they instead had been officially conveyed to her. It is true, as stated above, that her slaves were not freed as a result of the Emancipation Proclamation. What is not so clear from the record is whether they were freed as a result of Missouri abolishing slavery within its borders in January of 1865, whether they were instead freed as a result of the adoption of the 13th Amendment in December of 1865, or whether the slaves simply ran off on their own.