North Slave Quarters at Arlington House, the Robert E. Lee Memorial

The two slave quarters buildings still standing on the Arlington House property have been turned into museums. Both are located at the rear of Arlington House.

NORTH SLAVE QUARTERS

The North Slave Quarters is dedicated to the slaves who lived and worked at Arlington plantation. Some of the original slaves who came with George Washington Parke Custis also worked at Mount Vernon and knew George Washington personally. His wife, Mary Custis, did not believe in slavery but could not convince her husband to free them. However, she ensured that they were treated kindly and even provided them with an education. Many had their own private gardens and were allowed to sell the surplus and keep the money.

Once George Custis died and the estate passed to his daughter Mary, wife of Robert E. Lee, the lives of the slaves got a little harder. Custis’s will granted his slaves freedom within five years of his death, or sooner if the plantation was solvent. Unfortunately, it was not solvent, so Lee, who didn’t exactly support slavery, reaped its benefits anyway for five years. He loaned out slaves to pay bills, broke up families, and whipped a few who ran away—none ever ran away when Custis was in charge. However, he did fulfill Custis’s wish and freed everyone in 1862, though for all intents and purposes, the slaves were free the moment the Union army took over Arlington House in May 1861.

There are three doors to the building, and each holds a separate set of exhibits. One room focuses on the slaves who lived and worked at Arlington. There are also a few artifacts on display that were found during various archeological excavations of the property over the years.

Many Voices of Arlington Plantation exhibit in the North Slave Quarters at Arlington House, the Robert E. Lee Memorial

Items once used at Arlington Plantation on display in the North Slave Quarters at Arlington House, the Robert E. Lee Memorial

The other rooms are decorated as they might have been when occupied by George Clark (cook), Ephriam Derricks (valet), and Aunt Judy, a woman who was also a slave at Mount Vernon. None of the furniture is original since nobody back then would have ever thought of saving it for the future, but it is of the time period.

Room of Aunt Judy in the North Slave Quarters at Arlington House, the Robert E. Lee Memorial

The Arlington House kitchen was also housed within the North Slave Quarters building. Up to six cooks prepared meals in this kitchen for the Custis and Lee families.

Kitchen in the North Slave Quarters building at Arlington House, the Robert E. Lee Memorial

Along with Arlington House itself, all of the museums were updated during the 2018-2021 renovation of the park. Updates reflect the modern controversies of Confederate historic sites and monuments. One such exhibit asks visitors to rate their reactions to words and symbols that were once accepted but are now suspect.

Interactive exhibit in the North Slave Quarters tests visitors reactions to controversial words and symbols, Arlington House, the Robert E. Lee Memorial

SOUTH SLAVE QUARTERS

South Slave Quarters at Arlington House, the Robert E. Lee Memorial

As with the North Slave Quarters, there are three rooms to explore at the South Slave Quarters at Arlington House, the Robert E. Lee Memorial. One focuses on what happened to some of the former slaves after they were freed. During the war, some moved away, but others stayed on as employees of Union officers or gravediggers at the cemetery. As more and more slaves escaped over the Union lines to freedom, the government set up camps known as Freedman’s Villages. One such community was established at Arlington, about a half mile from the house. It is here that some of the former Custis slaves settled and lived until it was torn down around 1900 to make way for the expanding cemetery. Residents were paid for their houses and any improvements they made to the land.

A second room houses a video program featuring interviews with descendants of those enslaved at Arlington House, both during the tenure of George Washington Parke Custis and Robert E. Lee. Custis supposedly had a daughter, Maria Carter, with one of his female slaves. She married Charles Syphax, and some of the Syphax descendants are interviewed in the film. Other interviewees are descendants of James Parks, the only person born at Arlington and also buried at Arlington. During the war he worked for the Union Army building military fortifications. One day he was asked to dig the first two graves at Arlington, and that led to a 61-year career as an employee of Arlington National Cemetery. He died in 1929.

Video program on display in the South Slave Quarters at Arlington House, the Robert E. Lee Memorial

The third room is dedicated to the Gray Family (mom, dad, and eight kids). The South Slave Quarters building was their home. Thornton Gray took care of the horses and occasionally drove the Lees’ carriage. His wife, Selena, was the head housekeeper. The room is furnished per the time period, but nothing is original.

Room in the South Slave Quarters at Arlington House where the Gray Family lived

I found the Slave Museum to be very interesting, much more so than the Robert E. Lee Museum that is also on the Arlington House property. The buildings are not very big, and you can read through all of the information in both museums in about 30 minutes.

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