Descendants of the enslaved and enslavers tied to the plantation home of George Washington Parke Custis and Robert E. Lee gathered at the grounds.
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.But this would not be an ordinary reunion. On Saturday, descendants of the enslaved gathered on the grounds of Arlington House, the Robert E. Lee Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery, for a ceremony to honor their ancestors.
“But I totally understand what he’s saying,” she said. “You can’t shy away from that, you can’t sugar coat it.” The reunion, long in the planning, was an opportunity to “touch people and inspire people and celebrate our shared past together,” said Hammond, who is a family historian and occasionally gives tours of the property.Many participants said that the nation is still vexed by race, still struggling mightily to find its way forward. But if there was tension or trepidation in bringing the descendants of all of these families together, it didn’t show.
The plantation was started in 1803 by George Washington Parke Custis, the stepgrandson of George Washington. Lee married Custis’s daughter, Mary Anna Randolph Custis, in 1831, at the home and the couple lived there until just after the Civil War began.All of the families taking part in the event, including the Branhams, Custises, Grays, Henrys, Lees, Parks and Syphaxes, wore light blue T-shirts emblazoned with “Ask me about my family.
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