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Lee’s executorship of Arlington House brought his first brush with national attention.

Lee separated at least one child from nearly every enslaved family at Arlington. By 1860, the enslaved population at Arlington had fallen from 63 to 38. To reduce cost burdens and as a method of behavior control, Lee began to separate families, selling and “hiring out” numerous enslaved people. Lee’s revitalization of the plantations had a tremendous negative impact on the enslaved families. The estate included thousands of acres of land, three large plantations, and oversight of nearly 200 enslaved people previously owned by G.W.P. When Mary Lee’s father, George Washington Parke Custis, died in 1857, Robert E. In 1853, he admitted to his wife, “I unfortunately belong to a profession that debars all hope of domestic enjoyment.” Nonetheless, biographers and family memoirs portray a father figure who played with his children when at home and showed concern that they fulfill the social expectations as children of an elite Virginia family. Lee’s military career kept him away from Arlington for most of his adult life. At the time of his resignation in 1861, he was a Colonel. In 1859, he led US troops to subdue abolitionist John Brown’s raid at Harper’s Ferry. Though his career rarely included combat, Lee gained recognition as a scout in the Mexican-American War. Graduating second in his class from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1829, Lee served 31 years in the US Army, including three years as superintendent of West Point in the 1850s. Though he served three decades in the US Army, it was his three years as commander of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia and his post-war career that largely defined his public life. Moving to Alexandria, Virginia, he met and would eventually marry his distant cousin, Mary Custis, heiress of Arlington House, in 1831.

Soon after Robert’s birth, his father’s poor financial management forced the family to leave Stratford Hall. Robert Edward Lee was born in 1807, into a prominent family at Stratford Hall in Virginia.