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Sinah Lee, born abt 1786
Home Up William Lee Story Nancy Primus Lee,  born abt 1774 Sinah Lee, born abt 1786 Rose Lee (Carter), born 1788 Thomas Lee, born abt 1790 Joanna Lee, born abt 1804 Kansas Lee, born abt 1805 George Lee, born abt.1805 Penny Lee, born abt. 1806

Mary Lee Brady, Ph.D.

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Lott Lee, abt 1799
Nancy Lee, born abt 1799

       

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sinah was apparently the first child of Aggy and William Lee. She was a dower slave and most likely one of the slaves illegally disposed of following the death of Martha Washington; .... sold to a free colored man, who apparently resold her as slave breeding stock. Assumptions are that she began giving birth to children around age 13 years. She lived at the time of Virginia's economic shift from a reliance on agricultural products to that of breeding slaves for export to the deep south and west in the face of demands driven by the ending of slave imports from Africa and the Caribbean.

Indeed, slave breeding had been such a large industry in the Caribbean that the British government in 1734-1735 period had issued a law ending the export of slaves from Caribbean places like Bermuda to places like Jamestown, ... because the practice reduced the profits available to merchants acquiring slaves in Africa for direct shipment and sale to English colonists in America.   The practice of breeding established in America included the use of male slaves as studs rewarded to perform and more often than not leased out to various plantation owners with fertile females.

First NameLast NameAgesRelationLocationOwner
      
AggyLeeEst. 35 years at time of GW 1799 will, & gave birth to 1st child Sinah by William est. 1786-1787, last child Joanna est. 1804.  Husband, William Lee sometime during or after 1786MansionMartha Washington Dower slave and freed after death of Martha in 1803; but not until 1824 per Fairfax Co. records
WilliamLeeEst. 49 years at time of GW 1799 will. The will of 1786 list him as a shoemaker and lame.Wife, Aggy Lee per GW 1799 will. The 1st will of 1786 list him as not having a wife.MansionGeorge Washington offered freedom to William upon death in 1799, but William apparently declined in order to remain in Virginia with Aggie who was a dower slave owned by Martha Washington
Joe  ? Wife, SallMansionGeorge Washington
MikeLee Son of Lucy LeeMansionGeorge Washington
SinahLee Daughter of Aggy Lee, est. age 13 years at time of GW 1799 willMansionMartha Washington Dower Slave as offspring of mother Aggy. Sold in 1802 to Charles Thomas, Sinah's free husband: apparently sold her to James Kenner who sold her to firm of Libby & Came who set her free on 10/8/1814

This record of Sinah being freed in 1814 does not indicate the disposition of her son Lott who would have been three years of age when his mother was sold to Charles Thomas and about 15 years when his mother was freed.

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