He Disliked Slavery And Abhorred Secession

The 200 slaves at Arlington Plantation that had belonged to Lee's father-in-law, George Washington Parke Custis, were under his management for five years, despite the fact that he had never personally owned slaves. Lee was a strict taskmaster with regard to the Arlington slaves, who had grown accustomed to the lax standards of their late owner, and may have once whipped three escaped slaves. As Lee reportedly noted, "everywhere you see a negro, everything is going down around him, and wherever you find a white guy, you see everything around him improving." He undoubtedly thought that white people were superior to black people.

However, Lee acknowledged that slavery was "a moral and political evil in any society" in a letter from 1858, and after liberation, he embraced the new social realities, treating freed blacks with respect and urging other Southerners to do the same. A black man once dared to kneel before white worshipers at the communion rail in his Richmond Episcopal parish, and he was the first to join him.